Connecticut Housing Endures Worst Year Since 1996

Connecticut’s housing market faltered in 2006, as the double-digit increases in median price that had characterized the previous four years came to a halt. The year-end median price for single-family homes rose just 0.7 percent over 2005’s prices, while sales volume suffered as well, with 37,227 single family homes sold. The sales number represented the first time fewer than 40,000 were sold in a year since 1996, according to Boston-based The Warren Group, a provider of real estate data for the New England region of the US. The median price of single-family homes fell steadily from August to November of 2006, the company reported, with a slight uptick in December. The median price for the year landed at $275,000, up slightly from a median price of $273,000 for 2005. “Overall, 2006 was the worst year for Connecticut real estate in a decade,â€? said Timothy Warren, Jr., CEO of The Warren Group. “We have to look back to 1996 to find a year in which fewer single-family homes were sold. Meanwhile, the median price gain in 2006 was the smallest since 1997. The fact that the median price rose by double digits in each of the previous four years is probably the primary reason for the slump in the market in 2006. When real estate prices are growing at a rate considerably higher than the rate of growth in personal income, the bull market can’t be sustained. “Nevertheless, the housing market in Connecticut in 2006 was better than those in neighboring states. The median price of a single family home fell last year by 5.8 percent in Massachusetts and fell by 0.4 percent in Rhode Island.â€? For more information, visit http://www.thewarrengroup.com.