Connecticut's housing market in January had a split personality, with median single family home prices increasing by 3.4% even as the number of homes sold fell by 3.7%, according to data from the Boston-based Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record.
January's median single-family price of $235,000 is the highest level Connecticut has seen for the first month of the year since 2011, Timothy Warren, chief executive officer of the Warren Group, said in a statement. The median sales price represents a $8,000 increase over the median single family home price for January 2017.
"Even though single-family home sales declined slightly, prices continue to inch up," Warren said.
There were 2,088 homes sold in Connecticut during the first month of this year, compared to 2,165 sold in January 2017.
The number of condominium units sold in January this year was up by 3.9% over the same period in 2017, according to the Warren Group data. There were 610 condominium units sold during the first month of this year, compared to 586 sold in January 2017.
Connecticut's median sale price for condominium units in January was $150,000, unchanged from a year ago. This is the third consecutive January that the median sale price for condominium units have been at $150,000.
Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, said even with the gain made in median sale prices for single-family homes, "it's still 15% lower than peak levels."
The increase in January home sale prices represents a good start to 2018, he said. But Klepper-Smith cautioned that it is easy to overestimate both the strength of single family home prices as well as what the decline in the number of home sales might mean going forward.
"We're looking at a small sample size and there is always a lot of volatility until we're get into the spring selling season," Klepper-Smith said. "The real question we need to be asking is whether the growth in the median sale price is sustainable."
Interest rates are rising, he said, which could make home buyers less willing to spend more to get the house they want, he said.
"And the labor market remains tepid, which is another factor that could hold down home sale prices," Klepper-Smith said.
