Expert Advice from Amy & Kyle Bergquist at Keller Williams Legacy Partners
The Hartford County Condo market has fallen out of sync with the traditional seasonality, creating a good opportunity for buyers with lots to choose from and a more favorable pricing environment to go along with very attractive mortgage rates. The data shows a 13% decrease in the total number of contracts from the second quarter of 2010. However, looking more closely at the individual months, we can see that 2011 showed very steady performance –
Through the first two months of the year, buyer interest in condos has been relatively mild. The February data on contracts in Hartford County show that 26% fewer deals came together this February versus last. Overall, there is 8.6 months of supply, which by definition makes it a buyer’s market (6 months of supply is the threshold). Despite the relatively high inventory levels, the supply is not always distributed in the same manner as the
Economists are divided as to the direction of the national housing market. Some believe that the environment is stabilizing and that prices will increase from here. Others see further price decreases once the government support fades away. Barry Ritholz is one economist we follow regularly, through his posts on The Big Picture blog. Right now, he has a strong negative view on the future of the US housing markets. One of yesterday’s posts broke down
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
For last month’s market statistics post, I made this statement…”It will be interesting to see the results of November, as I feel they will also show an increase over last year as people try to jam in their closing by the November 30 $8,000 first time buyer tax credit deadline.” This was of course before we knew that they would be extending the first time buyer credit beyond November. So how did the closing numbers