Sales Jump But Median Prices Decline In Tepid Housing Market

me sales across Connecticut surged in June — registering double-digit gains — but the flurry of springtime buying and selling wasn't enough to lift prices, a new report Tuesday shows.

Home sales of single-family houses statewide soared by nearly 20 percent, to 3,368, from 2,799 for the same month a year ago, according to a report from The Warren Group, which tracks real estate trends in New England.

It was the fifth straight month of year-over-year gains in sales and the most robust month this year, Warren said. But the median sale price — in which half the sales are above, half below — fell 4.4 percent, to $264,000 from $277,000 a year earlier.

Through the first six months of the year, sales climbed by 12 percent, to 12,254, from 10,993 for the same period a year ago. The median price slid 2 percent, to $245,000, compared with $250,000, Warren said.

The median price has fallen in every month this year, except January when it was flat and March when it gained 3 percent, according to Warren Group.

"The Connecticut housing market is relatively healthy, but it's not going gangbusters," said Donald L. Klepper-Smith, an economist at DataCore Partners Inc. in New Haven.

Klepper-Smith said sales are being driven by homeowners choosing to sell their homes for less, putting downward pressure on the median sale price.

Connecticut's soft labor market, compared with other states, the aging of the state's population and rising state and local taxes are having a longer-term affect on the housing market, Klepper-Smith said.


Klepper-Smith said he doesn't foresee any big gains in prices in the next year or so, but he also doesn't see any big dip downward, either.

"Prices are going to muddle along," Klepper-Smith said. "There is nothing to suggest that we are returning to the peak of 2005 anytime soon."

Connecticut is now in the fourth year of a housing recovery. ( Whoo Hoo!!!)


Timothy J. Warren Jr., Warren Group's chief executive, projects that sales will continue to rise through this year and into next. But significant increases in prices may not come until 2016, Warren said.
Sales of single-family houses in Connecticut logged double-digit, year-over-year increases in 2012 and 2013, with prices registering a gain in 2013. Sales were disappointingly flat in 2014 and prices again lost ground, compared with the previous year — a slow spring market and tepid job growth were largely to blame.

Real estate professionals — and home sellers — had pinned high hopes on this year's spring market, traditionally the strongest of the year.

This year's spring housing market was "much stronger spring than last year, and hopefully it continues through the next season," Warren Group said.

Single-family house sales in June rose in each of the state's counties, with the strongest gain in Tolland County. Median prices declined in all but Hartford and Windham counties.

In Hartford County, sales rose 19 percent, to 869, in June from 730 for the same month a year ago. The median price creeped up just under 1 percent, to $232,500, from $231,000 a year ago.