Single-family home prices in Connecticut tumbled 17.1 percent in February compared to the same month in 2008, while sales dropped 26 percent, The Warren Group said today.
It was the fifth consecutive month that median prices have been dropped by double-digit percentage, said Boston-based Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record.
The median selling price for single-family homes declined $45,000 to $218,000 from $263,000 in February 2008. Year-to-date the median home price fell 17.3 percent to $220,000 from $266,000.
“The declines in median home prices have exceeded 10 percent for seven of the last 12 months. We didn’t see such a period of price slumps during Connecticut’s last housing downturn in the early 90s,” said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group. “Prices won’t level off until sales activity picks up substantially for several months straight.”
While home sales climbed in other parts of the country last month, particularly in states where foreclosure rates are high, that hasn’t been the case in Connecticut.
Single-family home sales dropped to the slowest sales pace for the month of February in the 20 years that The Warren Group has tracked Connecticut’s housing market. Sales fell 26.1 percent to 1,025 from 1,387 in February 2008. A total of 2,088 single-family homes traded in the first two months of 2009, down 31.3 percent from 3,041 last year.
Bank-owned properties accounted for about 5 percent of single-family home sales transactions in February. A total of 51 bank-owned, single-family homes were sold in February. In nearby Massachusetts and Rhode Island, more than 1 in 10 single-family home sales in February were of bank-owned properties.
The condominium market also continued to experience sharp drops in sales. Condo sales statewide plunged 42 percent to 316 from 547 in February 2008. There were 671 condo sales in the first two months of the year, down 40.9 percent from 1,135 a year earlier.
The median condo price retreated 11.2 percent to $171,250 in February from $192,900. The year-to-date median condo price is $175,000, a 7.9 percent decline from $190,000 a year ago.
