The West Hartford real estate market continued its strong start with 66 closed single-family sales in March. On a year-to-date basis, the 156 closed sales in the first quarter were the most since the height of the real estate boom in 2004.
Growth in sales activity over the past 12 months has been broadly distributed through the Town’s many price points. Only two segments of the market showed a decrease in activity, but for very different reasons.
The decrease in the number sales below $200,000 is a positive for property owners, as it shows the strength of the market. Demand is much higher than supply, and competition between buyers has caused values to increase to the point where homes that used to be worth just less than $200,000 are now worth slightly more.
The top end of the West Hartford market has a different dynamic, with the supply of homes outpacing demand. The $1,000,000+ market is never very active in Town, but the pace of seven figure sales has fallen over the past 12 months. What we’re seeing anecdotally is that buyers are not particularly interested in taking on large historic homes that need updating.
Inventory data shows the supply and demand dynamics of all the price points quite clearly. West Hartford has too few available listings at price points below $500,000. There is a reasonable number of listings between $500,000 and $700,000. Above $700,000 the market strongly favors buyers.
At some point buyers will hopefully realize that there are good opportunities at the upper price points in West Hartford. The biggest opportunity continues to be for move-up buyers. They have the chance to sell their smaller home into a strong market, and buy their larger home in a weak market.
I’m always happy to talk about the local real estate markets, so feel free to reach out to me at any point.