Real estate a mixed bag

Single-family home sales in Connecticut declined by 4.4 percent in June compared to the same period in 2017, but the median sale price surged to a five-year high, according to data from the Boston-based Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record.

There were 3,753 singlefamily homes sold in the state during June, 174 fewer than during the same period a year earlier. A total of 15,523 single-family homes were sold during the first six months of this year, a 1.5 percent decrease from the first half of last year.

But even though fewer single-family homes were sold during both of those periods, the median singlefamily home sale price increased, both during June and for the first half of this year.

The June single-family median sale price was $280,000, a 2.9 percent increase compared to the same periond a year earlier.

The median sale price for Connecticut single-family homes sold in June hasn’t been this high since 2013, according to Timothy Warren, chief executive officer of The Warren Group.

“Hitting a five-year high is encouraging, but we need to keep in mind that the market has still not hit its pre-recession peaks,” Warren said in a statement Tuesday.

“In June 2007 the median price was $325,000, and back in June 2004 the number of homes sold was 5,200. Both are substantially higher than the numbers achieved this year.”

The median sale price for single-family homes in Connecticut for the first half of this year was $254,000, a 3.7 percent increase over the same period in 2017.

Condominium sales in the state were down 3.6 percent in June compared to the same period a year ago, and the median sale price for the units that sold fell 2.3 percent compared to a year ago to $171,000.

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, said the data released by The Warren Group shows “modest progress” in Connecticut’s real estate market.

“Supply and demand will continue to be the deciding factors for the balance of 2018,” Klepper-Smith said Tuesday. “My forecast at the start of the year called for a modest single-digit increase in both sales and median prices, and we’re not far off that mark.

“In the final analysis, you can’t have traction in the local housing markets without meaningful traction in the local labor markets, and we’re seeing some modest progress there despite having the lowest job recovery rate in New England.”

New Haven County’s real estate market saw a 2.9 percent decrease in the number of single-family homes sold in June compared to the same period a year ago.

But the median sale price for single-family homes sold in the county rose $10,000, or 4.2 percent, to $250,000.