Home sale prices across Connecticut rose in September, compared with a year ago, reaching their highest level for the month since 2008.
But the price gains are defying the typical route of a housing recovery in which sales increases are followed by an uptick in prices. Sales of single-family houses in September were weak, tumbling more than , according to the monthly report from The Warren Group, which tracks real estate trends.
Real estate agents say this housing recovery — more than a decade old, with many towns and cities still below the prices of the most recent peak in 2007 — is clearly different.
Median sale prices — in which half the sales are above, half below — are being driven higher by buyers willing to pay for a limited number of homes in the best locations with the latest updates. They also have to be priced right.
There also are other indicators of weak demand for housing, including a sharp decline this year in permits for new housing units.
Economists blame the big picture of slow job growth in Connecticut, while politicians — including the gubernatorial candidates — point to high local property taxes.
Donald L. Klepper-Smith, an economist at DataCore Partners Inc., said Wednesday it is better to look at how the housing market has performed through the first nine months of the year.
The Warren Group reports that the median sale price of a single-family house through September rose for the same period a year ago, but sales were down.
Mortgage rates have risen and that could be making houses less affordable for borrowers, Klepper Smith said, but "job numbers suggest a tepid recovery in the housing market."
Connecticut has recovered 89% of the jobs it lost in the last recession, which played out between March 2008 and February 2010.
Klepper-Smith said he expects more of the same in 2019.
Here's a look at the numbers:
The median sale price of a single-family house in Connecticut was in September, compared with a year ago.
Some counties in September bucked the statewide trend of sales and prices going in opposite directions. In Hartford County sales declined on a year-over-year basis — the steepest of any county — but the median price was flat.
But through the first nine months of the year, Hartford County followed the larger trend, with the median price of a single-family house up and sales down.
In September, just one county — Windham County — saw an increase in both sales of single-family houses and the median price.
