Single-family home inventory remains low in eastern Connecticut while prices rise
Jul. 22—Inventory for single-family homes remains down and prices are way up — and the head of the local Realtors' association doesn't see that changing anytime soon.
The number of single-family home sales in New London and Windham counties decreased 11.27% in April through June of this year compared to the same period last year, from 1,304 to 1,157, according to stats from the Eastern Connecticut Association of Realtors.
Meanwhile, the median sale price increased 9.8% over last year, to $324,000.
ECAR CEO Susy Hurlbert said she's hearing from Realtors that there are still multiple bid situations, with buyers offering upward of $30,000 over the asking price. She said some buyers may anticipate bidding wars and be scared off by high prices, not realizing that sellers are anticipating bidding wars and setting prices higher, so she said it's important buyers trust their real estate professionals.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors, forecasts that home prices will be up 7% for 2022 and 4% for 2023.
"I don't know that we've plateaued yet, because there's still so many buyers, and Connecticut generally follows the national trends, so I don't expect a change for at least a year," Hurlbert said.
In New London County specifically, the number of single-family home sales decreased 16.6% to 794, the median sale price increased 8.2% to $330,000, and days on the market decreased from 33 days to 25.
The ECAR stats show that commercial sales across both counties were up 28.6% year-over-year and the median sale price increased 4.6%. What Hurlbert has heard is that there's a high demand for small manufacturing spaces that need loading docks and overhead doors.
The number of residential land sales decreased 39.7%, to 88.
"Land has struggled a little bit, and I think that's really correlated to the cost of building supplies and supply chains" during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hurlbert said, "because the cost of construction has increased so much."
The number of multifamily sales remained flat while the median sale price increased 14.3%. The highest median sale price increase was 46.3%, for the 47 mobile sales.
