Hartford County had an interesting month of March. Typically the beginning of the spring market, this March was characterized by a lot of buyers fighting over relatively few listings. It was more of the same – just another month in Greater Hartford real estate.
There were 549 single-family contracts signed, which was about 30% fewer than the 780 from March 2022, and about 46% fewer than the 1,035 deals from March 2021. On a year-to-date basis the County was 25% behind the Q1 2022 total.
If you read these updates regularly, then you already know the reason why deal counts are down – there were not enough listings for buyers to consider. Demand was dramatically higher than supply, which (presumably) continued to push prices higher. We’ll learn more about the pricing question when deals close, and once we can analyze overall data.
Inventory continued to hover in the 0.6 months level, which was overstated (in practical terms) by factors that we have discussed in the past.
We do not see signs that point to dramatically increasing inventory during this spring season. We think that the market will continue to be competitive. Buyers will continue to have to make very compelling offers in order to stand out to sellers. It looks like the future will bring more of the same. Great news for sellers, but frustrating news for buyers.
