By Aroosa Masroor

www.ctmirror.org

A study released today finds signs of stabilizing housing prices in Connecticut after more than a year of declines.

Over the past year, prices have stabilized or increased throughout most of the state market, and areas with declines also showed improvement with smaller drops, according to a study by the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economic Studies at the University of Connecticut.

Strongest in the second quarter of 2012 were in the Enfield and Norwich-New London areas, where single-family house prices gained about 7 percent in the first quarter of 2012 and 15 percent in the second quarter.

The UConn analysis also found that prices in the Danbury area remained unchanged, while the Bridgeport-Stamford market had a relatively modest 2.8 percent decline compared with 2011 figures. In Greater Hartford, however, prices continued to decline by 5 percent, the research found.

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By Judy Szablak

Waterfront properties and homes close to the water continue to be some of the hottest properties in town.

This home at 5 Minard Drive is listed for $1,845,000. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Photo courtesy of Higgins Group/Westport

Almost 10 percent of the homes available in Westport have direct water frontage of some type, according to the local MLS. There are 37 homes listed for sale that feature direct waterfront, and 73 properties listed as having a view of the water. Just 16 homes presently available have dock or mooring rights.

The average list price for a home directly on the water, which could be either the sound, harbor, lake or lagoon is $3,557,970 and the entry level price for this category is $639,000.
Thirty two homes were sold in this group within the last year, and their average sale price was $2,284,453.

Finding a home with a water view can be more affordable, but not by as much as one would think. While the entry level price is just $405,000, the average list price is $2,298,955. Average sales price for homes with a view over the last year is $2,109,036.

By Judy Szablak

For the first time in more than a year, there was no activity whatsoever in the condominium segment of the market for the previous week.

This home at 59 Crescent Road is listed at $1,299,000. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Photo courtesy of William Raveis/ Westport

While the condo market seems to have been painfully slow this year, if we compare closed sales on a year-by-year basis, we are exactly where we were unit-wise last year at this time, with exactly 15 closings reported during the first half of the year in both 2012 and 2011. We saw a low point in activity with just nine sales in 2009.

While the unit sales seem to be somewhat stagnant, it does initially appear that prices have increased on average in this segment of the market. In 2012, the average sale price for the first six months was $657,733 and the average sales price for 2010 was $605,893. 

When you look at these numbers as raw statistics, it is important to remember that it is only an average, and should not be misconstrued to mean that condominium prices have increased town-wide. Rather, these figures more accurately show that the mid to higher priced condominium units have produced more buyers this year than their lower priced counterparts.