Fairfield County dominates the state's residential real estate market — but experts still see room for improvement.
Eight years after the end of the state's last recession, southwestern Connecticut's single-family sector is still rebounding. While the area leads the state in housing growth and has seen significant increases in prices and sales activity in recent years, Realtors think the market is still working to reach its predownturn peaks.
"The recovery is slow, but it's getting better every year," said Jackie Seawright, a Realtor with Fairfield-based Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.
In 2017, the state's single-family market saw, for the second straight year, an increase in sales and median prices.
Last year, single-family home sales statewide amounted to 34,259, a 5% increase from 2016, according to real estate data and analytics firm The Warren Group. The total is the state's highest annual tally in that category since 2006.
From the fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2017, home prices ticked up 3.7% in the state, compared with 6.7% nationwide, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index. The median sale total ran at about $250,000 last year.
In Danbury, the single-family market is recovering slowly from a 2005 peak when about 500 homes sold.
Last year, 437 houses sold, at an average price of about $434,000. So far this year, Danbury sellers are getting an average of about $361,000 for their homes.
But the number of sales lags last year's pace, with only 148 this year. Inventory remains low at key price points, dragging down the sales volume, according to David Vieira, owner-broker of Danbury-based Rebelo Realty.
"The value is coming back, but not to the level before the market crashed," Vieira said.
In Stamford, the number of homes sold in the first half of this year rose nearly 3% year over year, while the median sale price ticked down 3.5%, to $590,000, according to Halstead Real Estate.
"In general, I would say we still see homes purchased at the height of the market, between 2005 and 2006, that are below the value that was paid," said Tammy Felenstein, Halstead's Stamford-based executive director of sales. "Homes that are updated and in turnkey condition are turning over much faster. In fact, we are seeing multiple offers in some cases."
The luxury market, meanwhile, remains active. In Greenwich, the number of sales of homes for more than $3 million in the second quarter of this year increased 18% year-over-over, according to real estate firm Houlihan Lawrence.
In eastern Fairfield County, demand has held steady, with a strong inventory throughout the area, said Coldwell Banker's Seawright. Homes in those communities are frequently coming off the market in less than two months.
Since 2009, communities like Bridgeport, Trumbull, Shelton, and Fairfield have seen their annual single-family sales totals increase about 15%, while foreclosures and short sales have declined more than 30%, according to Multiple Listing Service data.
Sellers in the Bridgeport area — where homes are selling for an average of $340,000 — are collecting around 97 percent of their list prices.
Last year, cities and towns in Connecticut authorized 4,547 single and multifamily homes, worth a total of about $1.19 billion, according to data cited in a recent state Department of Labor report.
But the number of new home approvals represented an approximately 17% drop from the total in 2016 and a 25% decline from the 2015 level.
Fairfield County again accounted for the largest share of housing permits, with about 38% of the statewide total, followed by 21% for Hartford County and 16.5% for New Haven County.
Norwalk led all municipalities with 429 home approvals, followed by Greenwich with 250, Milford with 194, Windsor Locks with 173 and Westport with 159.
Realtors expect the local single-family market to continue to recover.
Seawright cited the arrival of new businesses, increasing job security and buyers' flipping of houses as drivers of the ongoing improvement.
"It was good to see that investors were willing to put their money into Bridgeport to do those types of projects and sort of rebuild those communities with houses that were looking really rough and are now shining with people who were willing to get in there," Seawright.
The Danbury market would remain steady, Vieira predicted.
"The schools are good and taxes are low, which is attracting a lot of buyers from Westchester County, N.Y., and the New York City suburbs," he said.
