January Contracts: Strong, Very Strong

January contracts were up nearly 19% over the same month last year. The market appears poised for a strong spring season, and to extend the increase in activity that we saw in 2012. Can 2013 outperform 2012 in each and every month in the same way that 2012 outperformed 2011? That would be exciting for the market, and going back to a chart from January showing that the region is about 30% below market activity

Hartford County Real Estate Closings in 2012

Hartford County Single-Family Transaction 2012

Most of our ongoing analysis of the real estate market is focused on contract data. We like to track contract data because it represents an important milestone, it is more immediate than closings, and it is a strong predictor of closings. But at the end of the year it is also interesting to take a look at the closing numbers since those data points have a meaningful price associated with them. In 2012 the number

December Contracts: Strong Finish

Hartford County Single Family Contracts in December 2012

The 2012 Hartford County single-family real estate market finished the year strongly. Which really wasn’t a surprise since it had consistently shown an increase in activity throughout the year. The final count shows that the number of contracts for December was up about 10% over the previous December. This wasn’t as much market growth as we had seen in past months, but the strangeness that occurred at the end of 2011 makes the year-over-year comparisons

November Contracts: A Gradual Winter Slowdown

November contracts came in at 482 deals for the month, which shows a reasonable and normal decline as we head into the colder months and the holiday season. Comparing this November to last year is misleading. The data shows us more than 40% ahead of November 2011, which is much higher than the 25% year-over-year bump that we have been reporting in past months. But last year there was a disruption in the market than

August Contracts: The Unstoppable Market

August was another strong month for Greater Hartford real estate, with little decline in activity from July. The CTMLS shows 679 single-family deals coming together during the month, which is an increase of 27% over last year. Year-to-date the County is 24% ahead of 2011. The market is not really unstoppable, of course. It will slow down over the winter months following the traditional seasonal cycle. The question is more about when buyers and sellers