The spring home buying market got off to a disappointing start in April, as sales sputtered and the state marked the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year sale declines.
The median sale price of a single-family house was unchanged in April, at $250,000, on a 5% decline in sales, according to the monthly report from The Warren Group, which tracks real estate trends in New England.
Sales closed in April typically would have gone under contract 45-60 days earlier, right around the traditional start of the spring home buying season.
Through the first four months of this year, sales are down nearly 7%, compared with the same period in 2018. In the same period, the median sale price fell 1.2%, to $240,000, compared with $243,000 for the same four-month period last year.
Hartford County's home sale market did better than the state as a whole in April. Sales were flat, but the median sale price crept up 1.4% to $223,000 from $219,000 for the same month a year ago.
Across all the state's eight counties, all but Hartford, Litchfield and Middlesex counties saw year-over-year sale declines in April. The deepest decline was registered in New London County, down 16.6% compared with April of 2018.
The statewide median sale price was pulled down by declines in Fairfield, Tolland and Windham counties. Price gains in the other five counties — the highest being a 11% year-over-year rise in Middlesex County — were not strong enough to lift the overall median price to an increase.
So far in 2019, the four-month trend for sales and prices paid is disappointing for the state's housing market, which has struggled to recover from the last recession, which ended in March 2010. There were hopeful signs in 2018 when Connecticut registered its third consecutive annual gain in median sale price. The velocity of sales remain a concern, however, failing to show upward momentum.
The median sale price is a well-watched indicator of changes in sale prices and trends affecting property values. But it doesn't necessarily mean all home prices and values, for that matter, are moving in the same direction.
