Connecticut’s home market has proved to be no exception to the low inventory problem punishing buyers since the onset of the pandemic.
In Fairfield County, single-family listings have dropped to their lowest level on record, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman. Listing inventory in the quarter was 898 homes, a 46.4 percent drop from the third quarter and a 38.8 percent drop year-over-year, marking the fastest-moving market in 17 years.
It was the 11th straight month of inventory decline in the county. By the end of the quarter, the number of single-family homes available was only enough supply for a single month, significantly less than the past decade’s average of seven months.
Inventory dropped in the state’s hottest local market as well. Greenwich held a 2.8-month supply of homes and had 167 active listings at the end of the quarter, a 37.2 percent decline from the third quarter and down 47.3 percent year-over-year.
A lack of inventory typically reduces the number of sales and increases prices, but that wasn’t necessarily the case in Connecticut’s largest county last quarter.
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The median price of single-family homes sold in Fairfield County dropped 0.2 percent year-over-year, from $580,000 to $579,000. It was a more pronounced drop from the third quarter, down 12.3 percent. Single-family home sales, meanwhile, fell 27.8 percent year-over-year to slightly fewer than 2,600.
Meanwhile, the median price of a single-family home sale in Greenwich surged 9.8 percent year-over-year to $2.25 million as closed sales dropped 35.8 percent to 181 in total, the first annual drop in two years. There were 48 condo sales in the market in the fourth quarter, as the median price grew by 4.9 percent year-over-year to $889,500.
The pandemic-fueled desire for space seems to have abetted as prices have risen, as people settle for homes they can afford. The average square footage for a single-family home sale in Greenwich was 4,734 feet, a 0.1 percent drop year-over-year. For condos, the average sale square foot fell 0.8 percent year-over-year to 2,001 feet.