Connecticut home sale prices dipped in February to their lowest point for the month since 2012 amid sluggish winter sales, a new report Tuesday shows, leaving experts looking to the spring market for a boost.
The median sale price of a single-family house in Connecticut — where half the sales are above, half below — fell 2.2% to $220,000, compared with $225,000 in February of last year, according to the report from The Warren Group, which tracks real estate trends in New England and publishes The Commercial Record.
Statewide sales fell 4.1% compared with a year earlier, the report showed.
A decade ago, as the state's housing market tumbled into a prolonged downturn from which it is still recovering, the median sale price for February was $275,000. February's median price was 20% below that peak, at $220,000.
"Perhaps a strong spring market will get things back on track, but I don't see any signs of that yet," Timothy J. Warren Jr., chief executive of The Warren Group, said.'
Across Connecticut, the median sale price fell in six of eight counties in February and was flat in another. Litchfield County was the only area of the state that saw a year-over-year price increase.
In Hartford County, the median price fell 2.4% in February to $189,900 from $194,500 for the same month a year earlier. Sales fell 2%.
Sale prices in Hartford County rose for the first time in three years in 2016 with gains outpacing the normally strong Fairfield County.
In 2016, Connecticut home sales reached their highest level in nine years. But the median sale price statewide continued to struggle to gain ground, rising less than 1 percent, or remaining nearly flat. Monthly year-over-year gains in median price toward the end of 2016 were not enough to register much of a gain for the year.
However, there were bright spots in the state when it came to what buyers were willing to pay for homes. Hartford County, for instance, outpaced other parts of the state, including Fairfield County.
Swings in the median price do not necessarily mean all prices or home values are moving in the same direction. Home prices can vary widely from town to town and even neighborhood to neighborhood, and are influenced by property condition and updates to kitchens and bathrooms.
The median price also can be influenced by the mix of houses sold. Higher-priced homes — those at $750,000 or above — can lift the median, but have not been selling quickly in recent years.
In the smaller condominium market, the statewide median price fell by 3.7%, to $144,500, from $150,000 a year ago. Sales dropped 8.1%.
