December Contracts: Happy Holidays

December is traditionally the least active real estate month of the year, as folks take a step back to enjoy the holiday season. Although we saw the expected slowdown in number of deals, the month had respectable totals showing that many buyers and sellers had happy holidays. When looking at contracts, the month was nearly 15% ahead of last December for single-family homes in Hartford County. We finished the year with about 1.3% fewer contracts

A Well Maintained Building

The well maintained building at 39 Woodland Street in Hartford is identified by the Structures and Styles book as the Melancthon W. Jacobus, Sr. House. Its Tudor Revival architecture is in excellent condition 110 years after construction! Kudos to the State for the recent maintenance to keep the 29,571 square foot structure looking good. The building is currently the central office for the Connecticut Technical Education and Career Center.

Repairing Crumbling Foundations

Photo: CT Department of Housing Property owners in a portion of Connecticut have been struggling with foundation problems. The concrete mix used to build their homes included pyrrhotite, which is a mineral that causes foundations to deteriorate due to exposure to air and water. There is no way to repair a defective foundation. The only way to save a home with pyrrhotite is to replace the foundation, a very expensive project. Home insurers didn’t think

A Tiny House is Stolen (and Recovered)

Stealing an entire house is a new level of larceny. The tiny house movement has now made that possible, as a St. Louis woman recently learned. Thieves took the next step from taking packages, bikes, and cars when they hitched a trailer-based tiny house to their truck and sped off. The structure was not yet complete, so fortunately nobody was inside. The home was recovered after a social media-fueled search and returned to its owner.