Connecticut’s Distressed Home Sales Rise

The number of bank-owned property sales in Connecticut has jumped significantly, according to ""The Warren Group"":http://www.thewarrengroup.com, which provides real estate data for the entire New England region. The research firm said REOs represent nearly 6 percent of the state's single-family home sales so far in 2009, compared to just 1 percent last year.
Overall, The Warren Group reported 6,945 single-family homes were sold in Connecticut from January through May, down 24.2 percent from 9,157 during the same months last year. Of the single-family home sales recorded through May, the company said 397 involved a bank or other lending institution. During the same months last year, only 105 single-family home sales were of bank-owned properties.
Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, commented, ""The sale of foreclosed homes has become a larger share of the residential real estate market in Connecticut. Still, those sales haven’t helped to boost the state’s housing market because sales in May were anemic.""
Warren went on to explain, ""In the late 1990s and into the early part of this century, Connecticut was averaging over 3,500 single-family home sales during the month of May. Last month, we had fewer than 1,900 home sales, making it the slowest sales pace for the month of May since we started tracking changes in real estate sales in 1987.""
According to The Warren Group's market data, the year-to-date median price for single-family homes in Connecticut retreated 15.1 percent to $227,500, down from $268,000 a year earlier. Monthly home prices in the state have been declining by double-digit percentages year-over-year in 2009, but the 12.5 percent decline in May was the smallest so far this year.
The steepest declines in median home prices so far this year have been in Fairfield and Litchfield counties. In Fairfield County, the year-to-date median home price plummeted 22.2 percent to $397,000, down from $510,000. In Litchfield County, the median price for homes sold through May sank 20.6 percent to $206,500, compared to $260,000 in 2008.
The condominium market in Connecticut has taken an even harder hit. Year-to-date condo sales dropped 40.5 percent during the first five months of last year. The year-to-date median condo price has fallen 12.5 percent to $174,000.