Home sales in greater Hartford perked up in August, but prices paid dipped the most for any month so far this year, a new report shows, as potential buyers remained cautious about making purchases.
The median sale price of a single-family house — where half the sales are above, half below — slid 3.5%, to $231,700 from $240,000 for the same month a year ago, according to the monthly report from the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors, an industry group.
The association, which tracks a 57-town region stretching from Enfield south to Middletown, said sales rose 5.2% compared with the same month a year ago.
Inventory — the number of homes on the market — tightened again in August, dropping nearly 20%. The supply of homes coming on market — critical to giving would-be buyers a wide array of options — also was weak, rising less than 1% in August, the association said.
A tightening inventory typically leads to sustained price gains but, so far, significant overall increases have yet to take place.
Carl Lantz, the association's president and a real estate agent at Remax Premier in West Hartford, said houses that have the latest updates in kitchens and bathrooms and are in desirable locations are selling well, often with multiple offers.
The trouble is the "shadow inventory" of dated homes where sellers are often forced to reduce asking prices to lure in a buyer, Lantz said.
The uncertainty in the job market compounded by the state’s budget woes are causing buyers to be wary of buying a home that needs a lot of work, Lantz said.
The dilemma is whether the cost of renovations will be returned in a higher sale price in the years ahead, Lantz said.
"There's insecurity in the economy as a whole in Connecticut where buyers chose to buy homes that are renovated and homes that are not renovated suffer in price," Lantz said.
Connecticut is the only state in the nation without a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. The uncertainty also could dramatically affect how much state aid will come to some municipalities, particularly for schools, with the prospect looming for higher local taxes.
In 2016, home sale prices in greater Hartford rose for the first time in three years, a sign economists and Realtors took as a hopeful sign of upward momentum leading into this year. Over the last decade, Connecticut has struggled to recover from the last housing recession.
Greater Hartford could still squeeze out a price increase in 2017, although it would be a slim one, based on the association's August report.
Through the first seven months of this year, the median sale price rose less than 1%, to $224,000, from $223,000 for the same month last year, the association said.
The association said sales rose 3.2% in the same period.
The overall price and sales numbers do not mean that all towns and cities are experiencing the same conditions. The housing market can vary widely from town to town and even neighborhood to neighborhood.
But the overall sales figures and the median price are considered a good indicator of broader trends in the housing market.
