home prices continue to surge in connecticut, where real estate is already red-hot
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By Alexander Soule | Published on June 2, 2021
A year after New York City home buyers descended on Connecticut’s housing market amid the COVID-19 pandemic, sales continue to accelerate heading into the summer of 2021 — particularly in communities lining Long Island Sound or just inland from Milford to Stonington.
William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty reported an aggregate 14 percent increase in May sales of single-family houses compared to May 2020, across about half of Connecticut municipalities where it focuses its upscale real estate brokerage services.
Sale prices continue to surge — both the result of sellers’ agents prodding bidders for “best and final” offers after weekend open houses, as well as owners of expensive estates taking the opportunity to cash out in a hot market.
“The big question is whether that is going to continue,” said Paul Breunich, CEO of William Pitt Sotheby’s which has its main office in Stamford. “I personally think it will, because of the demand coming out of New York.”
On Wednesday, Updater reported New York City remained among the three metropolitan areas with the most people using its app to move to other metro areas, after topping that list in the final three months of last year.
With buyers pouncing in record numbers the past 12 months on properties in Fairfield County and Litchfield County, demand now appears to be extending east. William Pitt Sotheby’s reported a 31 percent boom in sales last month for “shoreline” communities, with sellers unloading their properties in five weeks on average.
Starting in Milford, William Pitt Sotheby’s lumps about 30 towns into its shoreline market territory running east along the coast and the Wilbur Cross Parkway, including a few Connecticut River towns like East Haddam. Homeowners there appear to be taking advantage, with new listings up 60 percent from May 2020.
Fairfield County sales continued to surge with an 18 percent gain in May. Some towns saw far bigger gains — like Greenwich where 84 homes sold according to William Pitt Sotheby’s preliminary data. That is just four off the total for April which set a single-month record according to Mark Pruner, a broker in the Greenwich office of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties.
Sales were flat in the aggregate for eight Hartford-area towns tracked by William Pitt Sotheby’s. Litchfield County sales dropped more than 5 percent from May 2020.
Breunich said the decline was likely the result of Litchfield County’s big May last year, as buyers hunted getaway options for weekends with the intent of keeping condos or apartments in New York City. Those looking to make a permanent move to the suburbs may have taken more time to investigate their options, with a focus on remaining within a commuting orbit making multiple trips weekly to New York City a possibility.
“Litchfield [County] got on the bandwagon last year real early — their May last year was big,” Breunich said. “That’s when the buyers started coming up from New York, and they apparently hit Litchfield first. ... It’s a lot of [people] who want to have a reclusive second home in the country.”
Summer is the prime moving season for families as they transition their children to new school systems. With COVID-19 vaccinations now being extended to kids as young as 12, the lingering question is whether city dwellers will feel confidence to stay put as some of their routines edge closer to normalcy.
Breunich said that Connecticut continues to see escalated numbers of homes under contract pending final closing documents, which should bolster summer sales numbers.
“Our bellwether months are going to be July, August and September,” Breunich said. “If we’re anywhere close to last year, [2021] is going to blow last year out of the water. ... Starting last June, every month was as big as the one before.”