Home prices in Massachusetts fell for the 15th straight month

The median price for a single-family home has dropped 4.6 percent, to $323,000, since July 2006, Warren Group, a Boston real estate and publishing firm, said yesterday. July's sales volume increased 1.5 percent from a year ago, but analysts said it was a short-term rise brought on by a surge of parents buying homes prior to the new school year in September. The median price for a condominium rose less than 1 percent, to $280,000,"People who are ready, willing, and able to buy a house can't do it because they can't find a mortgage," said Timothy Warren Jr., Warren Group's chief executive. "That's got to be bad."