May Contracts: Heart of the Spring Market

2018-06-04 Hartford County Single Family Contracts in May 2018

2018’s monthly deal count increased in May. The 1,089 total was slightly less than the May 2017 total, but a solid increase over the April 2018 count. On a year-to-date basis there have been 1.3% fewer Hartford County single-family home contracts in 2018 than there were through the end of May 2017.

May is traditionally the single busiest month of the year. It is also far enough into the year that the town-by-town results have enough data to be interesting. Most of the towns in the County are within 10% of their 2017 performance on a year-to-date basis. Rocky Hill, Avon, Granby, and Burlington all outperformed last year by more than 20%, while only East Granby, Marlborough, and Manchester lagged last year by more than 20%.

Taking a more detailed look at Manchester, it appears that their 21% underperformance can be directly attributed to a lack of inventory. The Manchester market is busiest in the $100,000s, where 148 homes went under contract through the end of May 2018. That’s about 30% fewer than the 213 that had gone under contract by the end of May 2017. There is currently only a 2 month supply of listings in that price band, making it a strong seller’s market.

Inventory levels continue to be low throughout the County. There were only 3.2 months of homes available as of the end of May, which is barely above the level that is considered a seller’s market. June should continue to be active before the pace of deals begins to slow down in the second half of the year.

2018-06-04 Hartford County Single Family Contracts in May 2018 by Town