Greater Hartford Real Estate Blog

I know a lot of you are thinking “Hey dummy, you should have written about this at the beginning of the summer.” I must admit that have been greedily enjoying heirloom tomatoes, organic fruit, and corn on the cob for weeks without writing about it. So sorry.

But in all seriousness, get out of your car and visit your local farmer’s market or farm stand. Almost every community has one on different days throughout the summer into the early fall. Go here to find one in your town in Hartford County. Happy, healthy eating!

Here’s a lengthy, but interesting, NYT article about Countrywide and how they profited during the past few years; resulting in many of the mortgage industry challenges we’re currently seeing.

Inside the Countrywide Lending Spree

There was an interesting article published in the Hartford Business Journal yesterday regarding local condo sales. For the first six months of this year, condo sales are off by more than 16% in Hartford County compared to 2006. However, the median price is up 1.5% over 2006. Huh? With more inventory sitting out there longer, why aren’t buyers paying less?

My guess is that we are talking median sales price vs. mean sales price. I ran a quick MLS search, and if you compare condo sales prices for the first half of 2006 to the first half of 2007 in Hartford County, the average (mean) sales price is down .5% in 2007. By using the median measurement (half the values below the middle point and half above the middle point), you are able to paint a positive picture.

Moral of this story: always question statistics because they can almost always be spun in a positive or negative light… And if you’re a condo buyer right now, you should have some leverage negotiating a better price. There’s a lot of inventory out there to choose from and sellers are sitting on their condos longer.