Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2020 and reflects market conditions at that time.
When COVID-19 shut down much of the country in 2020, nearly everything changed: how people worked, how children went to school and how much time families spent together. Real estate changed too, and in Connecticut the change was for the better.
A market turning around
For years, Connecticut’s housing market had been in decline, and buyers were picking up properties at very low prices. In the summer of 2020, things began moving the other way.
Real estate agents kept working through the pandemic as an essential business. They showed homes in masks and gloves and ran virtual tours online. Even so, agents reported more people looking for a new home than they’d seen in a long time, and stiff competition among them.
Why Connecticut?
Connecticut is close enough to New York City to be convenient and far enough away to offer lower prices and more privacy. As more people began working remotely and social distancing became routine, that combination grew more appealing. Higher-income New Yorkers started moving to single-family homes in Connecticut’s suburbs.
Low mortgage rates and rising prices in many markets added to the momentum.
What the experts said
A Hartford Business Journal report quoted Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. He predicted that Fairfield and New Haven counties would see strong activity in 2021 as part of a V-shaped recovery in housing that had begun earlier that summer.
Homes sold in days
Houses were selling after only a few days on the market. Agents said this was true even in quieter towns, where a property normally takes time to find the right buyer. In competitive markets there were bidding wars, and some buyers lost out even after offering $20,000 over the asking price.
What it meant for investors
For investors, a market like that called for two things. One was to bring renovated properties to market promptly. The other was to keep looking for the next project.
We followed up on this story in Hot Housing Market in CT Shows No Signs of Slowing in 2021. For current lending in the state, visit our Connecticut hard money loans page, or contact Sachem Lending about funding your project.
