Home Sales and Pendings Up in February in Hartford County
March 4th, 2009 categories: Central Connecticut News & Information, Real Estate Market
Single family home sales are up in February in Hartford County from January and February 2008. Not by much, though.
Despite an increase in activity, overall inventory remains steady. Furthermore, the median sales price dropped to $211,000.
Agents across the country are reporting an uptick in buyer activity immediately following the announcement of the $8,000 home buyer credit. Whether this translates into actual sales is yet to be seen.
Do you dig real estate news, tips and advice? Sniffing around for pet-related information in Connecticut?
Get Unleashed - the blog that’s helping to find homes for people and pets.
Are you saying that year to date 2009 closed sales are up from 2008? Wasn’t January 2009 down over 35% relative to January 2008 in Greater Hartford?
No, just that there were more sales in February of 2009 than there were in January 2009 and more than February 2008. Based on one month’s numbers, it’s hard to make a generalization about the market but there is an increase in buyer activity.
..But median sale price is down to 2004/2005 level- and roughly half the volume of that time. That’s a terrible figure. Think late 1990s- that’s the median price target to pass through before any correction occurs.
And in the bigger picture, home prices may never rebound at the rate we’ve seen in the last years. That appreciation rate may be very slow for a long, long time when this depreciation reverses.
Sure…it’s all down because prices were inflated due to lax lending standards. Take out the lax lending and you have “normal”. This market is more normal than we’ve seen in along time.
And in 2004/2005, we were all saying what a booming real estate market it was and we couldn’t believe how crazy the market was.
A typical cycle has transactions bottoming at some amazing “unthinkable” level (2009?) and then rising fairly rapidly as prices fall for 3-5 years, with prices falling lower than fundamental levels (based on price/rent and price/income). It is an unmistakable pattern reflected in the CT town data from 1988-1997. I would not be surprised to see fewer than 7,000 transactions in greater Hartford in 2009 (compare to 8,400 in 2008).