Towns with biggest jump in home prices
Connecticut’s home sale market is getting a welcome boost, after more than a decade trying to make up purchase price gains that took a hit in the last recession.
Some experts are even going so far as to call the sale market hot — a word not used since 2005 and 2006 — and a condition that’s likely to stretch through the fall and into next year.
July’s residential sale report from the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors showed that in the 27-town area it tracks, sales of single-family houses were up 8% in July compared with a year ago. And even more noteworthy, the sales drove up the median sale price — where half the sales are above, half below — 7.5% to $285,000 from $265,000 a year earlier.
The association tracks towns stretching from Suffield to Rocky Hill and Canton to Willington. But what towns and cities are seeing the strongest median price gains?
The association provided a town-by-town breakdown and, based on those statistics, The Courant drew up this top 10 list. To be included on the list, a municipality had to have at least 25 sales in July to lessen the chances that a couple of sales would influence price swings. This parameter knocked off towns such as East Granby, Suffield and Stafford that had sizable median price gains.
It is important to keep in mind that this is one month’s snapshot, but the association reports that pending sales in July soared more than 30 percent within its coverage area. This suggests that heightened sales activity will at least continue into the fall, as buyers vie for a limited number of properties for sale, often getting into bidding wars.
In all of the top 10 towns and cities on The Courant’s list, inventory of homes for sale were below where they were last July. The demographics were drawn from AdvanceCT’s town profiles and represent either the most recent data or forecast.
Here is the top 10 list:
1. Granby
Median sale price: $324,900, up 22.6% from $265,000
Sales: 29, up from 23
No. of homes for sale: 63, down from 102
Population: 10,951
Median household income: $111,220
One thing to know: Granby is easily found on a map because of its notch in the northern border with Massachusetts, the result of a 150-year boundary-dispute settlement.
2. Wethersfield
Median sale price: $284,500, up 21.6% from $233,900
Sales: 58, up from 39
No. of homes for sale: 111, down from 150
Population: 26,800
Median household income: $81,452
One thing to know: The town was a key exporter of red onions in the 18th and 19th centuries. The onion has remained a symbol of Wethersfield although onion fields have all but disappeared from town.
3. Enfield
Median sale price: $215,000, up 15.6% from $186,500
Sales: 54, down from 58
No. of homes for sale: 122, down from 176
Population: 43,120
Median household income: $73,494
One thing to know: In the 1989 film “Glory,” boxes of gunpowder can be seen with the words Enfield, Conn., printed on the sides. The production of gunpowder was once a major industry in Enfield.
4. Bloomfield
Median sale price: $240,000, up 15.1% from $208,500
Sales: 33, up from 21
No. of homes for sale: 70, down from 95
Population: 20,508
Median household income: $73,593
One thing to know: Drum making was a high profile industry in town until the mid-19th century. It has long been speculated that the Brown Drums — manufactured by a locally prominent family — may have been carried in the Revolutionary War.
5. Glastonbury
Median sale price: $445,000, up 11.5% from $399,000
Sales: 47, down from 60
No. of homes for sale: 149, down from 185
Population: 34,810
Median household income: $111,645
One thing to know: In the 1840s, the J.B. Williams Co. opened a commercial soap factory in town that later became known for 20th-century products such as as ‘Lectric Shave and Aqua Velva.
6. Hartford
Median sale price: $161,000, up 10.6% from $145,000
Sales: 35, up from 28
No. of homes for sale: 80, down from 97
Population: 126,443
Median household income: $33,841
One thing to know: The city’s Wadsworth Atheneum, founded in 1842, was the country’s first public museum of art.
7. South Windsor
Median sale price: $330,000, up 10.3% from $299,000
Sales: 35, down from 39
No. of homes for sale: 62, down from 104
Population: 24,871
Median household income: $105,986
One thing to know: South Windsor was the birthplace of Eli Terry, who secured the first U.S. clock-making patent in 1797. Terry is credited with showing how clock parts could be produced faster and cheaper by machine than by hand, contributing to Connecticut’s reputation as a leader in precision manufacturing.
8. East Hartford
Median sale price: $188,950, up 9.8% from $172,000
Sales: 50, up from 44
No. of homes for sale: 80, down from 130
Population: 53,241
Median household income: $52,049
One thing to know: Originally, jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney was located in Hartford, but in 1929, a massive plant was built on an 1,100-acre site in East Hartford to accommodate a rapidly expanding business. The development included an airfield for flight testing its engines. The airfield — Rentschler Field — is now the site of a 40,000-seat stadium.
9. Windsor
Median sale price: $245,000, up 9.1% from $224,500
Sales: 30, down from 33
No. of homes for sale: 89, down from 107
Population: 28,474
Median household income: $89,565
One thing to know: The town’s annual Shad Derby Festival dates back to 1955 and a fishing tournament to raise awareness of the growing pollution of the Connecticut River.
10. Vernon
Median sale price: $230,000, up 5.9%, from $217,000
Sales: 33, up from 25
No. of homes for sale: 41, down from 85
Population: 30,051
Median household income: $60,648
One thing to know: The “Rockville Spur,” a 4.2-mile, stone-dust trail, is part of Vernon’s Rails-toTrails and winds its way into the heart of historic Rockville. The trail is built along an abandoned railroad spur that was constructed in 1863 to serve Rockville’s once booming textile industry.