Nearly 200 homes sold in first quarter in town
The statistics for home sales in the first three months of 2021 show that the market is still hot across Connecticut. In Greenwich, sales spiked 92 percent to 198 transactions, including 25 sales in the backcountry.
Amid bidding wars that pushed prices up by more than 20 percent in many instances, some 10,465 homes sold in Connecticut in the first three months of 2021 — a 23 percent increase from the same period a year ago.
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties released the figures over the weekend on a preliminary basis. The number could increase, as contracts are logged from the back half of last week.
Waterbury led the state with 222 transactions, up 41 percent from the first quarter of 2020.
Stamford edged Fairfield and Greenwich for the most homes sold in southwestern Connecticut during the first three months of 2021; real estate agents reported that statewide buying continued into the early days of April.
In Stamford, 210 homes sold between January and March, two more than in Fairfield. The two municipalities recorded respective increases of 58 percent and 66 percent from the first quarter of 2020. In both markets, fewer new homes were listed for sale through March than for the same stretch of 2020, with the Stamford market treading water by a margin of only 40 more new listings than homes sold.
“I feel like sellers are waiting to see what’s happening,” said Roxanna Bajra, a Berkshire Hathaway agent who is president of the Stamford Board of Realtors. On the final day of March, she represented buyers in a $699,000 deal in Ridgefield. “Maybe they didn’t want to take the plunge . ... If you’re a seller, where do you go?”
It’s a key question for Connecticut, as the COVID-19 pandemic prompted New York City residents to move to the suburbs or purchase getaway weekend homes. That created a larger
ripple effect, as Connecticut homeowners cashed out and went home shopping themselves.
Gov. Ned Lamont has noted the New York influx frequently in public comments since last year, without speculating how many people are establishing residency in other states like Florida — where they have second homes — or buying outright elsewhere for permanent moves. Any departures of those sellers could offset the positive economic impact of people moving to Connecticut.
Buyers continue to bid up prices for higher-value homes
throughout the state; Berkshire Hathaway calculated a 30 percent increase in the price of the median house sold in Fairfield County from a year ago, to $585,000. Nearly 3,100 houses and condominiums sold in Fairfield County in the first quarter, up 42 percent from a year earlier, with 10,465 transactions statewide.
In Lamont’s hometown of Greenwich, sales spiked 92 percent to 198 transactions, including 25 in backcountry Greenwich north of the Merritt Parkway. In New Canaan, sales were double their volumes of a year ago.
Despite the year-over-year gains statewide from the first quarter of 2020, the pace of sales slowed from a frenetic fourth quarter of last year, when agents and attorneys got 16,223 sales across the finish line by the last day of December for a 48 percent increase.
And gains have not been across the board — in West Hartford, sales were down 8 percent in the first quarter, and new listings were off more than 25 percent. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties CEO Candace Adams
said there is nothing wrong with any particular Connecticut market — save for too few homes coming on the market to keep up with demand.
“We just are in shock at the number of buyers, and the lack of inventory, and the lining up at open houses around the block,” Adams said. “When you see a market right now not doing well, it’s because they don’t have any listings. Their sales are down because there’s zero inventory.”