Updated May 21. Unit sales and average prices of single-family homes sold in Stratford during the first four months of 2014 are flat compared to the same period of 2013.
There were 120 sales of single-family home sales in the January through April 2014 period compared to 121 sales last year.
The average price this year was $214,158, and last year it was $213,710.
Homes are selling in an average of 135 days this year, which is 10 days faster than last year.
The number of homes on the market is higher this year at the end of April. There were 318 single-family homes on the market on April 30; last year there were 266 on the market on April 30.
These results, reported by Greater Fairfield County Consolidated MLS Inc. for The Star, are in the wake of robust sales in 2013 when home sales increased 18% in units and 8% in average price.
Jerry Ward, of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty on Main Street, believes that the snow and “awful weather” during the early spring were factors in the lackluster sales results. In those conditions, Ward said it is not unusual for sellers to take a little less money in a sale.
He said also that some people whose mortgages are larger than the value of the home held off on marketing their homes as they waited to see if the U.S. Congress would tax any forgiven debt as income. Congress had not acted on that question as of mid-May.
Generally speaking, Ward said that Stratford’s market reflects what occurred in the surrounding towns of Milford, Monroe, Trumbull and Shelton during the first four months of 2014.
Ward said that unit sales and prices were up in the Greenwich, Darien, Norwalk areas, as that part of the county gets the first benefit from a very tight market in New York City. Increased sales from New York City work west to east, Ward said.
Condo sales up at low end
The CMLS report shows condominium sales in Stratford increasing 37% between January and April, from 35 to 48 units, but the average price of condos decreased 3.6%, to $151,000.
The price range with the biggest jump in unit sales is the low end, under $100,000. Seventeen units sold in this range during the first four months of this year compared to six units last year. This would be a factor in a declining average sale price.
Condos are selling in an average 141 days this year, which is 38 days faster than last year.
The inventory of condos is declining. In April 2014 there were 94 units for sale; at the end of April 2013 there were 102 units for sale.
