June home sales in Greater Hartford lost the upward momentum of earlier this year, as purchases and prices paid slipped for the second month in a row, a new report shows.
The median sale price of a single-family house — in which half the sales are above, half below — dropped 6.3%, to $225,000 from $240,000 for the same month a year ago, according to the monthly report from the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors.
Sales fell 2.7% in June, compared with a year earlier, the association, an industry group that tracks a 57-town area from Enfield south to Middletown.
Greater Hartford's housing market — and much of the rest of Connecticut — is still struggling to recover from the last recession, with overall prices still being off about 15% from the peak in 2007.
Holly Callanan, chief executive of the association, said Monday, "It is possible potential buyers are stalling because of the low inventory that makes for limited choices."
In June, inventory slid 11%, to 5,414, from 6,086 for the same month a year earlier.
The spring home buying season is traditionally the strongest of the year and typically is an indicator of trends for the rest of the year. The season is said to stretch from when clocks are pushed forward through the end of June.
While the market this year showed some promise early on, the results in May and June did not build on those initial gains.
Even so, through the first six months of the year, the median sale price increased 4% to $227,000, from $219,000 for the same period a year ago. Sales fell 2.5%, the association reported.
In a typical housing recovery, tightening inventory pushes up prices buyers are willing to pay. But that is usually accompanied by a healthy flow of new, desirable properties for sale, a dynamic that has been absent in this recovery.
In June, new listings fell 1.3%, compared with the same month a year ago.
Multiple offers are not unknown in this market. But bidding wars are only for homes in the best locations with updated kitchens and baths or for homes that need work but are priced so buyers can afford to make those repairs.
Economists have consistently blamed the lack of significant growth in Connecticut's job market for the slow recovery of the housing market.
In June, the state got a dose of encouraging news on the employment front, adding 6,100 jobs, reversing declines in April and May. The state has now recovered 87.8% of the jobs it lost in the recession, with 14,500 net new jobs needed to move into expansion.
But there still is uncertainty in state finances and how that may affect local property taxes. Borrowing costs in the form of higher mortgage rates also could affect sales.
In the smaller condominium market, sales fell 4.7% in June, on a year-over-year basis. The median sale price rose 3.6%, to $155,250, from $149,900 a year earlier, according to the association.
Shifts in the median price do not mean all sales are following the same trend or that home values are generally rising or falling. The median also can be influenced by the mix of houses sold. Prices can vary widely from town to town and even neighborhood to neighborhood.
The median sale price, however, does provide a broad, overall indicator in price trends.
