PRESS RELEASE

Prices up, sales down
The first quarter of this year brought an increase in the median sales price of single-family homes in Greater New Haven, but a decrease in the number of sales:

(April, 2006) – Though they keep getting more expensive, Greater New Haven homes are spending more time on the market, and far fewer are selling, continuing the real estate market's slowdown, according to data from H. Pearce Real Estate Co.

The median sales price was $343,884 last quarter among the 29 area towns that H. Pearce tracks, up 9 percent from the $315,586 median price in the first quarter of 2005.

The most expensive homes were in Madison, where the median sales price was $680,000, up 42 percent from $480,000 a year prior.

But as prices climbed, unit sales fell 8 percent compared with a year ago.  During the first quarter of this year, 1,220 homes sold, compared with 1,328 during last year's first quarter.

"That was true for the second half of last year, too," said Barbara Pearce.  "We're seeing a continuing trend."

Unit sales likely will continue to decline as prices keep escalating, she said.

"The prices are high enough that people have to think twice," Pearce said.  "Buyers are more cautious, but sellers have not lowered their prices at all."

But Sam Ratner, owner/broker at Keller Williams Realty Central Connecticut in Cheshire, said some sellers are being forced to lower their asking price as homes stay on the market longer.

"We've seen homes with reductions in the past couple months because they've been priced too aggressively to begin with," he said, adding that Greater New Haven homes are spending an average of 70 days on the market.

"The buyers are the ones that set the prices," Ratner said, and buyers generally can get seller to reduce their original asking price by 3 percent to 8 percent.

During the first quarter, the median list price of $416,303 was 21 percent higher than the $343,884 median sales price.

"Some of the homes are staying on the market a little longer," said Clem Fucci, a broker at Weichert Realty Regional Properties in Orange.  "(But) houses that are priced right don't stay on the market long at all."

Still, increasing prices are a sign the market remains strong, Fucci said, adding that sales numbers at Weichert seem to be ahead of where they were last year.

The number of houses sold dropped in 17 area towns, according to H. Pearce.  Middlefield had the steepest decline - 50 percent - but also sold relatively few homes.  Four homes sold there least quarter, down from eight a year earlier.

Essex had the second-largest decline, selling 16 homes last quarter, down 41 percent from the 27 sold there a year earlier.

Meriden had the greatest humber of sales last quarter, with 122, up 3 percent from the 118 that sold there during the 2005 first quarter.

In New Have, the median sales prices in the first quarter was $210,000, up 19 percent from $177,000 a year earlier, and the median list price was $239,900, up 9 percent from $221,000.

A total of 72 homes were sold in New Haven in the first quarter, down 13 percent from 83 a year earlier.

H. Pearce Company REALTORS® is a full-service real estate company with more than 140 agents and branch offices in greater New Haven and the Shoreline. Corporate and Industrial & Commercial offices are located in North Haven, where the company was founded in 1958. All listings can be found in color on the web at: www.hpearce.com.