Condominiums followed the same trajectory in October, with sales dipping 2.8 percent but reaching a median price of $315,000, a 1.6 percent increase over the same month last year.

Sales of single-family homes in October fell by 4.4 percent compared with the same month last year, while the median sale price increased by 3.7 percent to $340,000, according to data released Tuesday by the Warren Group.

Home sales in Massachusetts dipped slightly in October, but that is proving to be an outlier for 2016, which is poised to record another strong year of higher sales and ever-higher real estate prices.

But the market continues to be dominated by more demand than available properties, creating the type of frenzy that has pushed home prices up for most of the year, especially in Greater Boston.


Year-to-date sales of single-family homes in Greater Boston are up 1.5 percent, and the $541,000 median price is up 4.4 percent, according a separate report released Tuesday by the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.

Condominium sales in Greater Boston so far are up 4.8 percent over last year, while the median sale price is up 8.3 percent at $487,455.

And some experts are predicting the region’s housing market will be solid well into 2017.

Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at Realtor.com, estimated home prices here will climb 6.1 percent next year, while sales volume will grow 6.3 percent, making Boston one of the strongest markets in the country.

A large population of higher-income young professionals who are entering their prime home-buying years will power demand, Smoke said, while rising prices should inspire more would-be sellers to list their homes, adding inventory to a tight market.

“The fundamentals are all there,” Smoke said. “It’s predicated on continued population growth and job growth.”

One potential hiccup: interest rates. Smoke expects rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages could climb to 4.5 percent by the end of next year, higher than recent lows but still modest by historical standards.


But if rates rise at a faster pace, that could spook buyers, Smoke said. And if they reach 5 percent, that will start to take a bite out of how much house a buyer can pay for.

“There’s no question that eventually starts to impact affordability and qualifying for a mortgage,” he said. “And it becomes more complex in higher-cost markets like Boston.”

Tim Warren, chief executive of the Warren Group, offered a more tepid prediction for the local market, saying that with mortgage rates climbing and the Federal Reserve expected to finally raise interest rates before the end of the year, home sales this winter may be “steady, but not booming.”

“Higher interest rates mean that homes are more expensive to purchase, and they tend to put a bit of a brake on the housing market,” Warren said.

Sales would have been stronger this year had the market not been plagued by extremely low inventories, real estate specialists say.

A report released Tuesday by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors said the amount of homes on the market in October was the lowest in more than 11 years, as the inventory of available properties continued a long, steady decline.

Over the past 12 months, the single-family housing stock in Greater Boston has dipped by an average of 7 percent, and condos by an average of about 5 percent, Greater Boston Association of Realtors figures show.


In Boston itself, year-to-date sales increased a slight 0.9 percent, but median prices soared by 10.6 percent to $566,000.

“We have noticed that certain populations, such as first-time buyers, have been impacted the most by the steady prices gains,” Andrew Sarno, president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, said in a statement. “The limited amount of homes for sales is making for a very competitive market. We are experiencing a lot of multiple offer situations and bidding wars which are putting upward pressure on prices.”

Katheleen Conti can be reached at kconti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeKConti. Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @bytimlogan.