Hartford County finished July with 1,272 single-family contracts signed, essentially the same level of activity as reported in June. The total was about 42% higher than the July 2019 total, putting the year-to-date contract total about 10% ahead of 2019.
Buyers and sellers behaved totally differently over the past three months. Buyers came out of the lockdown determined to find a new home. They were out in force, and created very strong demand for single-family properties. Sellers were more reserved after the lockdown ended. They collectively listed their homes at roughly the pace that they had in 2019, with no evidence of a backlog of listings caused by stay-at-home orders.
The net result is that through July contracts were about 10% ahead of the 2019 while listings were about 14% behind 2019. The imbalance between supply and demand pushed the inventory of available homes downward to very low levels.
We’ve watched to see if sellers would take advantage of this unique opportunity to sell their home. Pricing remains strong, and quality homes are selling at a premium over the strong baseline. The numbers clearly indicate that sellers are not reacting with the same enthusiasm as buyers.
In our conversations, one of the main concerns is that it is unclear where potential sellers would move to next – where would they live? This seems likely to be a common question among owners, and a main reason there have not been more listings since May. That said, there is an opportunity for owners who do have a place to live to sell their home in Greater Hartford and get a good price for it.
