CT sees historically low number of real estate listings, but some towns stand out
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By Alexander Soule | Published on May 9, 2023
Connecticut continued to see historically low listings of houses for sale in April, helping prolong a sellers market that is keeping prices above pre-pandemic levels — but with too few people putting their homes on the block, creating a continuing pinch for those looking to buy.
Just over 3,800 houses and condos went on the market in April, according to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties, about 1,800 fewer than in April 2022 for a 32 percent plunge. The spring market is the busiest with parents looking to move and get kids settled ahead of the start of the next school year, with brokers saying buyers remain out in force this year.
"Inventory remains very low — it's 50 percent of what it was pre-pandemic," said Gregg Wagner, senior vice president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties which has its main office in Wallingford. "If it doesn't go under contract within a week, you probably didn't price it correctly."
Sales transactions fell by the same margin in April, with just over 2,400 Connecticut properties changing hands. With just over 90 transactions in April, Stamford extended its lead on Bridgeport as the busiest market in Connecticut to date in 2023, with 480 properties sold for a 34 percent drop from the start of 2022.
"There are buyers, but sales cannot improve until there are more properties to sell," stated Paul Breunich, CEO of William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty based in Stamford, in a preamble to a real estate analysis issued last month. "A glance at new listings taken during the quarter suggests the inventory situation is not yet turning around."
There have been isolated exceptions this year in small pockets of the state, notably the communities fronting Long Island Sound from Guilford to Old Saybrook and hooking up the west bank of the Connecticut River to Chester. In those eight towns, there were about 20 more new listings in the aggregate this year than in the first four months of 2022 for a 5 percent increase.
In Westbrook, 10 more houses have sold this year compared to 2022 for a 70 percent increase according to Berkshire Hathaway. Westbrook sellers are getting to contract in about three weeks this year, about 12 days quicker than a year ago. A small, inland bungalow that went on the market last Friday for about $250,000 had generated more than 1,800 views and 125 "saves" on Zillow after its first weekend.
"You look at where all of those 'dots' are located — they're throughout town, but there is a lot ... south of I-95," Wagner said. "It really is the shoreline influence."
In the first four months of this year, the price of the median home sold in Connecticut was $330,000 for a $10,000 boost from the equivalent property a year earlier. Many properties have taken price cuts dating back to last summer, but pricing remains elevated in many instances from what sellers could have expected to get prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
But many buyers are also facing the highest interest rates since the real estate bubble of 2007 and 2008, along with inflation that is making it more expensive to hire contractors for any needed work on a new purchase, and other costs like furnishings. And buyers need to find landing spots themselves, complicating any thought of putting their house on the market.