Greater Hartford home/condo sales and prices continued to soar in February, just weeks before home buying interest began to slide nationally due to economic uncertainty amid the COVID-19 outbreak, new data shows.
There were 346 single-family home sales in Greater Hartford last month, up 3.6% compared to Feb. 2019, the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors (GHAR) said Monday.
Median price for homes sold in February also jumped to $231,500, up about 15.7% from $200,000 in the year-ago period, GHAR said.
For the year, home sales have increased by more than 4.6% to 764 from 730 a year ago, and median sale price has climbed 13.5% to $235,000.
Condo sales in February also increased 8% to 94 units from 87 a year ago, and their median price also rose 6% to $160,000.
GHAR CEO Holly Callanan said Greater Hartford’s housing market last month recorded another “strong start” to begin 2020. But Callanan suggested the industry could face challenges during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis.
The region’s latest home buying report is being aired after roughly half of more than 3,000 members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) surveyed last week said buyer interest is decreasing as cases of COVID-19 mount across the nation.
That’s up significantly from a week earlier when 16% of NAR members said buying interest was falling.
Also, 69% of Realtors said there’s no change in the number of homes on the market due to the global pandemic, down from 87% a week earlier.
Buying fears, industry experts say, are being driven by a growing number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, an illness caused by a novel coronavirus.
COVID-19 cases have surged in all 50 U.S. states and territories to at least 34,354 cases, according to CNN. There are 327 reported cases in Connecticut, including eight deaths, as of Sunday.
