Levels of Awesomeness

We’ve already taken a look back at how the real estate markets did in 2010, but there’s another review we can do that is just as exciting. How did the local agents do? And more importantly (to us), how did we do compared to everyone else? Before going any further, we have to define the ground rules. We like to keep it simple. We look at sold dollar volume in the Connecticut Multiple Listing Service

An Unexpected Surge

Local real estate markets have felt surprisingly busy over the past month. November is usually when things start to slow down for the holiday season, but this year has seemed different. After a slow fall, business actually seems to be picking up recently. Are the markets really busier than normal for this time of year? The best way to investigate this question is to look at the number of contracts written by month. Let’s compare

How Often Does the Listing Agent Bring the Buyer?

The other day we were wondering, how often does the listing agent for a home also represent the buyer? This situation is called Dual Agency, and is something we’ve explored in the past. However, we never looked to see how often it happens in our area. To attack the question we looked at all the single family home sales that have closed so far this year in Hartford County. The data came from the CTMLS,

Hartford County Takes a Breather

So it’s been a few weeks since the buyer credit expired on April 30th. How’s the market doing now? Crickets. Can you hear them? This graph shows the number of contracts written for residential properties in Hartford County. Data is grouped by week and comes from the Connecticut Multiple Listing Service, which is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. 2004 was selected as the comparison year for three reasons: 1. The days/dates match up with 2010

After the Home Buyer Tax Credit

As of the first of May, the Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit is no longer part of the American residential real estate landscape. The incentive took various forms since it first went into effect in April of 2008, offering cash to both first-time buyers and existing home owners. Looking back, two questions immediately come to mind. How did the credit impact the markets over the past few years? And how will the credit continue to