New housing permits, sales down in July

Decline from last year’s numbers worth watching, professionals say

Two leading economic indicators of the condition of Connecticut’s economy — new housing permits and sales of existing homes and townhouses — were off significantly last month, according to data released Wednesday.

Sales of single-family homes in the state were down 8.2 percent last month compared to July 2015, the trade group Connecticut Realtors reported. And the state Department of Economic and Community Development said there were 222 housing permits issued by 104 Connecticut towns last month, a 64.9 percent decrease over the same period in 2015.

Michael Feldman, this year’s president of Connecticut Realtors, said July was the first time in a year that single-family home sales had declined.

“One month does not a trend make,” said Feldman, who is a realtor with William Raveis in Stamford. “We’ll keep an eye on future months to see if this is the start of a new trend.”

The median sale price for single-family homes in July was $265,000, which represents a 2,9 percent decrease compared to the same period a year ago.

Sales of townhouses and condominiums in Connecticut decreased 18.1 percent last month compared to July 2015, according to the trade group’s data. The median sale price of $167,500 for condominiums is a 1.8 percent increase year-overyear.

To put the housing permit data in perspective, it has been more than 12 years since that few permits were issued in July.

Milford and Fairfield had the largest amount of housing permit activity among the communities reporting data in July. Officials in both communities approved 13 housing units each, according to the DECD.