2013 Year End Data Review

2014-01-09 Hartford County Single-Family Transaction 2013

Most of the year we avoid looking at prices when we analyze market statistics. Considering only a month’s (or even quarter’s) worth of data is risky because the sample size is too small, while making a more sophisticated model to account for the small sample size is beyond our abilities. However we are comfortable looking at a full year of data, and now that the calendar has turned over to 2014 we can look back

November Contracts: Slowing for the Winter

2013-12-04 Hartford County Single Family Contracts in November 2013

Single-family contracts fell to 514 in Hartford County for the month of November. The month was about 6% higher than the total from November of 2012, and the year-to-date count remains about 7% ahead of the 2012 pace. Agents we know have commented that there were parts of November when the market seemed suspiciously quiet – like so quiet that they didn’t trust their email was working properly. Despite that, the month ended with a

A Home in Black and White

2013-11-23 Foyer - 600

Would it be effective to market a home using black and white photography? All of the homes currently on the market feature color pictures in their listings, both in the MLS and in the miriad of consumer real estate websites. A property without color photos would stand out from the others online. What’s not clear is if the impression it makes would be a positive one. My first experiment with black and white was a

Towers versus Turrets

2013-11-20 246-248 Sargeant - 600

The housing stock in Hartford has examples of both towers and turrets. People seem to use the term “turret” to describe small rooms that stick up from the rest of the building and have their own roof. Sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they’re wrong. I’ll admit to sometimes getting it wrong before I looked up the definitions. Most of the time people are talking about an architectural feature that should be called a “tower,” since

A Ride on Walnut and Homestead

09 Welcome

The first thing I learned about central Connecticut was that all roads lead to Hartford; literally. I was out at UConn Storrs for a summer program during college. When I looked at the map to try to figure out how to get somewhere, anywhere really, it appeared as though all the major roads radiated from the City of Hartford like the spokes of a wheel. The City itself is set up the same way –