The current real estate market reminds me of something we learned in business school. The corporate world was very focused on “Just in Time” supply chain logistics when we were earning our MBAs. The idea was that the most efficient way to run a business was to hold as little inventory as possible. Minimizing inventory had the benefit of minimizing expenses and minimizing space requirements, but it depended on regular inventory deliveries. Consider water as
The COVID-19 pandemic is serious, but people are still buying houses. In fact, the virus has made the pre-existing problem of too few homes available for sale even worse. It is not a bad time to sell, even with all the restrictions in place. Sellers able to accommodate showings actually have an advantage right now because inventory is so low in many price bands and sub-markets. Contract data from the first three months of 2020
Hartford County began 2017 with 636 single-family homes going under contract in January. The total represented a 4% increase over the total from January 2016. The market is currently imbalanced in favor of sellers in most price bands. Because most owners target listing their properties in the “spring market,” the number of available properties does not grow quickly in January. Buyers have been eager to start their home search this year, and are currently outnumbering
February 2016 strongly outperformed 2015 in terms of Hartford County single-family contracts. There was a 24% jump in activity versus the prior year, putting the year-to-date tally at nearly 22% ahead of 2015. Last month we noted that the mild January weather may have played a role in the real estate market’s strong start. Cold weather arrived almost immediately after we pushed published that story, yet the lower temperatures did not discourage buyers. Pleasant weather
It’s been a few months since we published an update on contract activity, and the local markets were rather active over that time. Hartford County finished September with 739 single-family contracts, an increase of about 17% over September of 2014. It was the fourth month in a row of strong outperformance. On a year-to-date basis the County is about 800 deals and 13% ahead of where it was at this point of last year. Year-over-year
