For more than three decades, Barry Rosa has been a close observer of the local real estate market, first as a lender, now as a broker.
Rosa, vice president in the Rocky Hill branch of Prudential Connecticut Realty, helps produce the “Market Report,” which includes an analytical wrap-up of the market for the previous year and a forecast for the current year (See www.betaprudentialct.com for the full report.)
In his 2008 report, Rosa writes that the biggest myth is that Connecticut’s housing market has fallen off a cliff. It all depends on how you look at it.
“The market isn’t going gangbusters, we all know that,” Rosa said. “But last year (Connecticut) had 70 percent of the sales we had in 2007. It’s hardly a dead marketplace. Some of the numbers imply nothing’s moving in Connecticut.’’
Rosa plumbs beneath the numbers to try to get a more realistic picture of the market’s true condition.
Perhaps his most compelling insight is the relationship between several indicators he says best portrays the direction of the market at any given moment. Rather than tracking the number of closed sales in a period, Rosa focuses on the relationship between the number of listings and the number of sale closings that take place in a month.
Dividing the listings by the monthly closing pace yields the “supply time,’’ or the number of days it would take the market to absorb all the properties on the market.
The shortening or lengthening of that number is, Rosa says, a very good indicator of the relative health of the housing market. But he cautions that conclusions can’t be drawn from only one month of data. Several months of data are needed.
For instance, supply times for a single-family listing in Hartford County are running about 6½ months, compared to 9½ months for all of Connecticut. The supply of condos in Hartford County is a little over 7½ months, versus 10 months supply statewide, he said.
Medical Lease
Grove Hill Medical Center is leasing 10,141 square feet in a medical office building at 375 Willard Ave. in Newington.
The lease is a relocation for Grove Hill, which has nine central Connecticut locations.
The owner of the 31,000-square-foot building, Marc C. Abrahms, was represented by broker Gary Schless of Jones Lang LaSalle. Larry Levere of Sentry Commercial represented the tenant.
Landlord Cuts Rent
The owner of a Class B office building at 290 Roberts St. in East Hartford has lowered the asking rent to fill about a third of its empty space.
Landlord Roberts Street Associates LLC wants $16 a square foot gross, plus janitorial fees, for 10,274 square feet of vacant space that could accommodate as many as three tenants in 1,200- to 4,400-square-foot blocks on the second and third floors.
Broker Larry Levere of Sentry Commercial said the rent was set “a little below market rates’’ to attract tenants.
Environmental firm ATC Associates occupies most of the 30,000-square-foot building built in 1987, Levere said.
Ethnic Grocery Opens
Fresh Farm Market signed for an additional 1,850 square feet for an expansion in the Dollar Dream Plaza at 699 Park Ave. in Bloomfield.
The store will contain 6,930 square feet when renovations are complete. The store will remain open during renovations.
Fresh Farm has three markets in the Hartford area. The store is run by Ouseph Palazhi.
Levy Properties in West Hartford is the landlord.
Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal Web editor.
