The magical 2012 cap on real estate contracts extended through June, with another month at virtually the same number as March, April and May. The consistency is an odd result, and forced me to rerun the analysis to make sure it’s right (which it seems to be).
732 Hartford County single-family contracts came together in the month of June, which was just over a 21% increase from June of 2011. The first half of 2012 was about 23% ahead of the first half of last year. We at about 18% ahead of 2010, and that gap should grow each month for the rest of the year.
Some quick thoughts
June was busy right through the end of the month, which was exciting. We actually saw an uptick in inquiries in the second half of the month.
We know there is a backlog of buyers looking for just the right home in just the right towns. Some are our clients, we see others at open houses, and we see the impact of still others in bidding wars that break out over new listings. There are sub-markets within the region in which demand far exceeds supply.
It’s really too bad that it is so difficult to borrow money to fix up a home when mortgage rates are this low. Cash poor buyers, who would otherwise be interested in a fixer, don’t have good options for borrowing for repairs. A lender could probably make a nice profit offering renovation money at “high” interest rates to highly qualified buyers.
