Brookfield Danbury Area Real Estate Volume and Prices – April 2011

Brookfield Danbury Area Real Estate Volume and Prices – April 2011.

Brookfield Danbury Area Real Estate Volume and Prices continue to be sluggish as shown graphically here. The Danbury area includes nine towns; Bethel, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, Newtown, Sherman and Southbury. Except for Bethel these towns all border Candlewood Lake, Lake Lillinonah or both.

The Brookfield Danbury Area Real Estate remains a Buyer’s Market. For the third month this year total Brookfield closings were only7, bringing the total to 25. This is 30% below last year to date and only slightly better than the terrible 2009 figure. Of the seven sales six were priced below $450,000. The seventh was at $1,000,000. That house had been on the market since July 2008, originally offered at $1,750,000. It might have sold at that price in 2005 or 2006.

There are currently 128 single family homes for sale in Brookfield (up 15% from last month). For the past six months Brookfield homes have been selling at the rate of 5 per month. The 128 home inventory represents a 25 month supply. These figures include only closed transactions – if “Pending” sales are also considered then absorption rate becomes 7.6/mo. and the inventory represents 16.8 months of sales. No matter how you cut it sales are sluggish. The Median Price is up 4% vs last year, but that is probably more due to the inclusion this year of a few more high priced transactions rather than a broad strengthening of prices.

For the nine town Danbury Area Real Estate market, there are 1477 homes for sale (up 16% from last month). Including “Pendings” the sales rate over the past six months has been at 92 per month; indicating a 16 month supply – well above the six month figure usually considered a balanced market and well into Buyer’s Market territory. The city of Danbury is similar with 14 months’ supply, based on an available inventory of 333. 18 transactions closed in April vs a rate of 15/month for the prior six months.

The Brookfield Danbury Area Real Estate market remains weak, with the first quarter of 2011 among the worst in the past few years. The long persistence of the continuing Buyer’s Market puts pressure on prices; which we are seeing. The spring market is here; March and April were disappointing. May and June will give us another look at how 2011 will shape up. There is some anecdotal evidence among Realtors that the Spring Market is late this year and that some positive data is on the horizon. More next month…