Connecticut home sales fall to 2-decade low

Connecticut single-family home sales fell for the sixth straight year in 2010, reaching their lowest annual level in nearly two decades, according to a new report by the Warren Group, released today.

A mostly-mediocre sales year in the state was dragged down by a dismal fourth quarter — the slowest fourth quarter for single-family home sales there since the 1990s, the report says. While home sales dropped only slightly, by 0.54 percent, for the year, the fourth quarter’s 5,306 single-family home sales were down 26 percent from the 7,190 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2009. That’s also down significantly from the third quarter of 2010, when there were 6,340 sales.

The sluggish sales numbers came even as median home prices ticked up to $250,000, an increase of 4 percent over the median home price in 2009.

It was a similar story for condominium sales, which capped out at 6,824 sales last year, their lowest annual level in over two decades and a 7.3 percent decline from the year prior. In the fourth quarter, condo sales were down 40 percent year-over-year, with 1,401 units sold. Median condo prices rose by 2.4 percent in 2010, to $182,250.

“I think we can expect at least another six months or so of year-over-year declines in home sales in Connecticut,” said Timothy Warren, CEO of the Warren Group. “Home sales in the first half of last year were buoyed by the second round of the homebuyer tax credit, and it would be incredibly difficult to exceed those numbers.” TRD