Home sales down 15.4% in November

Home sales in Massachusetts dropped in November at a double-digit rate for the third straight month, yet house prices fell only modestly in neighborhoods that have so far escaped the subprime mortgage crisis.

Sales of single-family houses plunged 15.4 percent last month compared with November of last year, Warren Group, a Boston real estate and publishing firm, reported yesterday. The sales total of 3,538 single-family homes last month was the lowest for November since the recession of 1991. Condo sales plunged 23.2 percent in November.