The Bay State’s average home-loan balance ranked as the sixth-highest in the United States in May, behind only California ($318,731); Hawaii ($296,857); Maryland ($241,279); New Jersey ($231,021); and Washington ($227,500). The data was included in the most-recent Credit Climate Report issued by Credit Karma Inc., a financial research and credit-services provider.

The state’s average mortgage balance was up slightly from the $219,051 and $220,631 balances posted in May 2010 and April of this year, respectively.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts residents ranked second nationally in outstanding student-loan debt, with an average loan balance of $33,310 among college borrowers. That was slightly back of Maryland, which posted an average student-loan balance of $33,602 as of May 31. The Bay State’s average student loan balance was $32,345 in May 2010.

Nonetheless, the state fared well in other debt-related categories, ranking third nationally with an average credit score of 682 per borrower. The state’s average credit score was 687 in the year-earlier period. The best credit score in the country was found in California, which posted an average of 685. The worst was Mississippi’s score of 634.

Among the report’s other findings:

Massachusetts had one of the lowest auto-loan balances ($13,310 per borrower, 46th overall) among the 50 states. Its average auto-loan balance was $12,868 in May 2010. The highest average auto-loan balance was recorded in Wyoming ($18,575), while the lowest was in Wisconsin ($12,464).
The average credit card balance among Massachusetts residents surveyed was $6,310, 34th overall. New Jersey had the highest credit-card balance in the Credit Karma survey, averaging $7,545 per card customer surveyed. Wisconsin had the lowest balance of $4,637.

Read more: Mass. mortgage balances among highest in U.S. | Boston Business Journal

“My gut feeling is we might see a continuation of the decline (in home prices),” Shiller said.

He added that a 10 percent to 25 percent slump in real home prices “wouldn’t surprise me at all,” though he cautioned that was not a forecast.

Speaking at the Standard & Poor’s housing summit, Shiller said recent data showing national home prices fell into a double dip in March could prove to be either a seasonal effect over the winter months or part of a downward trend.

Another uptick in the unemployment rate might also start to point to a double-dip recession, he said.

Shiller is the co-founder of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index and is known for warning about bubbles in the stock market and housing market.

Source: Banker and Tradesman

The median condo sale price rose for the first time this year. Prices climbed 8.6 percent to $276,000 in April from $254,138 during the same month in 2010. The year-to-date median condo price crept up 1.63 percent to $250,000 from $246,000.
Single-family home sales in Massachusetts dropped 28 percent in April compared to the same month a year ago. Median prices of homes statewide decreased for the fifth consecutive month, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

In April, there were 2,865 single-family home sales, down from 3,996 in April 2010. This marks the third consecutive month that sales volume decreased year-over-year. Sales volume reached the highest level so far this year; the number of sales has been as high as 2,624 in March and as low as 1,715 in February. Year-to-date sales are down almost 16 percent – a total of 9,509 home have sold so far this year, down from 11,308 during the same period last year.

Source: Banker and Tradesman

Sales of both condos and single-family homes in every county statewide decreased in March.

The median price for condos sold in March was $237,000, down almost 5 percent from $249,000 in March 2010. The first quarter median condo price also declined almost 2.5 percent to $237,000 from $243,000 during the prior year’s first quarter.

Source: Banker and Tradesman

The two buildings on Fan Pier total more than 1 million square feet. The earliest the company would move in would be late 2013 or early 2014.

Source: Boston Business Journal

The study, released by The Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, projected annual growth slowing throughout the year with spending up only 0.2 percent in 2011.

“Given all the economic uncertainty that we’re seeing nationally, the home improvement recovery is expected to be rocky,” said Eric S. Belsky, managing director of the Joint Center. “Spending patterns through the remainder of the year are expected to reflect recent volatility in the housing market.”

According to Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center, “Recent softness in the housing market and continued pessimism among remodeling contractors point to a slowdown in the remodeling market toward the end of the year.”

The LIRA is designed to estimate national homeowner spending on improvements for the current quarter and subsequent three quarters. The indicator, measured as an annual rate-of-change of its components, provides a short-term outlook of homeowner remodeling activity and is intended to help identify future turning points in the business cycle of the home improvement industry.

Lenders filed 1,048 petitions to foreclose in March, a 59.4 percent decrease from 2,581 in March 2010. A total of 2,535 petitions to foreclose have been filed in Massachusetts during the first quarter, a 61.5 percent decrease from 6,577 in the first quarter of last year. Petitions to foreclose represent the first step in the foreclosure process in Massachusetts.

Source: Banker and Tradesman

The average percentage discount for a home in Boston listed on Trulia.com during first reductions is just 5 percent. Other “stingy” cities include Austin, Texas; Raleigh, N.C.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and El Paso, Texas.

Detroit topped Trulia’s list of cities offering the deepest real estate discounts with an average of a 19 percent discount during the first reduction. Phoenix homes were found to be the most likely to have multiple price reductions (56 percent).

During the past year, the nation’s home sellers cut more than $24 billion in potential wealth from home listings on Trulia.com, according to a statement. On average, most sellers will reduce the list price after 79 days on the market, choosing to cut their original list price by 8 percent. Following a first reduction, 35 percent of these sellers will make a second reduction.

“Sellers who don’t cut their homes’ list prices deeply enough the first time face a long lag-time on the market and a high chance of needing to make a second cut, which can result in lowball offers from buyers,” said Tara-Nicholle Nelson, consumer educator for Trulia. “We also see a pattern of sellers making early, deep and multiple discounts in foreclosure hot spots such as Michigan, Florida, Maryland and California – a bad omen for the future of home values in these already depressed areas.”

The development recently closed on the 50th of 102 total condominium units. The 51st unit is expected to close Friday, according to the project’s sales team. In a market where other high-end condo projects have struggled to sell, The Clarendon‘s 50 sales should put them in a good place for future financing and gives prospective buyers more confidence in the property, said a local broker that focuses on the downtown Boston market.

Residences in the 33-story tower, which also contains rental units and a restaurant, have sold at an average of $1,150 a square-foot.

Traveling east on Stuart Street, the condos at the W Boston Hotel have experienced increased interest after the property’s developers filed for bankruptcy protection. Six units are under agreement and set to close this month, and currently nine in total are scheduled to close before summer. There have been 29 condos out of 123 sold so far at the W Residences Boston, not including those under agreement.

Downtown Crossing’s 45 Province has struggled to sell its condominium units, selling just 29 out of 137 residences.

Source: Banker and Tradesman.