CONNTACT.COM

Bottoming prices, tax credit fuel buying spree

BOSTON — Home sales soared in New Haven and Fairfield counties in October, buoying total statewide home sales more than 11 percent over October 2008.

The Warren Group reported that Connecticut experienced the same trend of rising sales and declining prices that the Federal Reserve's Beige Book has been tracking for all of New England.

In New Haven County, October sales hit 571, up 15.35 percent over the same period in 2008. Fairfield County saw an even greater increase — 510 single-family homes were sold in October 2009, an increase of 19.44 percent over the 427 homes sold 12 months earlier. There were 2,371 homes sold in the state last October.

One reason for the surge in sales: The Warren Group reported that home prices continued to fall in the state as the median sales price declined in seven of eight Connecticut counties.

New Haven County home prices declined from $235,000 in October 2008 to $215,000 in October of this year — an 8.5 percent skid. The median sale price in Fairfield County was $431,750, a decline of 9.39 percent over the same period a year earlier. Only Litchfield County, where the median sales price was $240,000 in October of this year, posted an increase in home-sale prices.
Warren Group Chief Executive Officer Timothy M. Warren Jr. also credited the first-time homebuyer's tax credit with stimulating much of the sales in Connecticut and beyond.

Statewide, the median sale price of a home in the state last month was $239,000, representing a decline of 9.10 percent from a year ago.

Condominiums in Connecticut followed a similar pattern, with higher sales volume and lower prices. But not everywhere. New Haven County actually posted a decline in sales but an increase in prices, as the 211 units sold in October posted a median price increase of 3.06 percent, to $177,000. In October 2008, there were 234 units sold at a median price of $171,750.

There were 176 condos sold in Fairfield County this October at a median price of $295,400. The median sales price for a condominium in the state was $180,000, down 5.26 percent from a year ago.