The Boston Globe reports on a new overall sales report. "The drop-off in Massachusetts home sales last year just got worse. The Warren Group reported yesterday that sales of single-family homes declined 7.6 percent last year. That is much larger than the 3.5 percent drop in 2005 sales reported recently by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors in its year-end report."

"'''I would say our numbers are probably more complete because they come from the public record data and not from realtors,' Tim Warren, chief executive of the family-owned Warren Group said. Warren Group's data are collected from registries of deeds in each Massachusetts county."

"John Dulczewski, spokesman for the MAR, confirmed that his organization's data are culled strictly from real estate agents' listings in five MLSs' operating across Massachusetts. The association's data do not include private transactions, such as a parent's sale to offspring, or sales by owners, or builders directly to buyers."

"Owners are typically more successful in selling their own properties in strong housing markets than they are in softening markets, that worse track record may be reflected in Warren's steeper drop. 'If the number of sales involving realtors didn't decline as much,' he said, 'then realtors are doing a better job of maintaining their business than builders and for-sale-by-owners are.'"