Home sales in greater Hartford slowed in May — in the thick of the spring home buying season — and prices paid slipped, after three straight months of encouraging gains, a new report shows.
The median sale price of a single-family house — in which half the sales are above, half below — fell nearly 2% in May, to $225,000 from $228,900 for the same month a year ago, according to the monthly report from the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors, an industry group.
Sales fell 2.3% in the same year-over-year period, the association, which tracks a 57-town area stretching from Enfield south to Middletown, reported.
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.
Holly Callahan, the association's chief executive, blamed the slowdown on a dwindling inventory of homes for sale. In May, inventory plummeted nearly 14%, to 5,344 from 6,147 for the same month a year ago, the association reported, adding to a string of monthly declines.
"Low inventory levels are making it difficult for housing sales to progress," Callahan said.
The area's pipeline of properties is not getting much of a boost from sellers. New listings in May fell 5% compared with a year earlier, the association said.
The Greater Hartford market — and much of the rest of Connecticut — is still struggling to recover from the last recession. Overall, in Connecticut, the median price for a single-family house is about 15% lower than the most recent peak in 2007.
The state's low inventory of houses for sale is more of a story of people waiting for sale prices to rise, rather than a hot market. And some homeowners that bought at or near the 2007 peak don't have enough equity to cover all the costs of selling a house.
The lengthy nature of the current recovery also has made both buyers and sellers more cautious. Buyers are more choosy, while some sellers are sitting on the sidelines hoping for an overall improvement in prices.
Real estate agents say homes are selling, however, and multiple bids are not uncommon. The most attractive properties are those in desirable locations with updated kitchens and bathrooms and are reasonably priced for a recovering market. Homes that need work also can attract buyers but they must be priced low enough to allow new owners to pay for needed updates and still have a cushion.
Closed sales in May represent properties that generally went under contract 45 to 60 days earlier.
Through the first five months of this year, sales of single-family houses in Greater Hartford are down 2.1%. The median sale price — reflecting gains in recent months — increased 4.8%, to $220,000 from $210,000 for the same period last year.
In May, the smaller condominium market saw sales fall 4.4%; the median sale price rose 3.8%, to $150,000, from $145,500 a year earlier.
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.
