Ed's Chesprocott Region Blog: July 2016

Everyone Talks about the Weather

Our summer temps this year have been hot, like many other parts of the country. Typically we have warm summers with an occasional spike over a period to be able to call it a heat wave.  Our July heat wave this year has lasted almost a week with temps during the day maintaining themselves over 90 and for a couple of days we even hit 98 yet still did not set a record.

With the heat, activities have be to curtailed especially for young people and the very old. Special cooling stations are set up to allow people with no air conditioning an opportunity to sit down and relax in a controlled environment.

How's The Real Estate Market Doing?

 While the summer is warm, our real estate market lacks the sizzle the rest of the country is enjoying. Historically, Connecticut has been one of the last states to go into a recession and also the last to come out of a recession. The area has prices to satisfy all budgets but due to the inconsistency of our state economy and the exodus of jobs higher valued homes are not the best sellers.

As an example, my primary market are the towns in the Northwest corner of New Haven County with a jump over into Litchfield County. These would be the towns of Cheshire, Middlebury, Naugatuck, Prospect, Waterbury, Watertown and Wolcott. From Jan 1 through July 26 of 2016 there have been 970 closed transactions in this area with an average sales price of $184,350.  In that number of sold units, however there have been 218 foreclosures which is 23% of total sales.  The average value of the foreclosures was  $94,332. 

By comparison, for the year 2015 for these same towns, there were 1,810 homes sold with an average value of $182,239. Through the current period of the year the number of units sold and values are only slightly better than all of 2015.

The foreclosure totals for these towns in 2015 was 443 homes with an average price of $88,319 . Again foreclosures represented 24% of total sales.

What to Do on A Warm Summer's Evening

Warm summer nights are a joy and we so enjoy the evenings with the summer concerts available to us. In our town of Prospect CT, Wednesday nights are music nights on the town green. For a small town a typical night would be 300 people with the exception of the night the local town musician came back, Vincent Ingala, and had a crowd of over 1100 to hear his jazz quartet. 

We also make the Talcott Mountain Music series which features the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Connecticut is a unique state as we have the mountains, ocean shoreline, large lakes, tree lined country roads that can also offer views of farms and pasture land.  There is always some way to pass the time and enjoy the beauty of nature as well.

It's Hot and Hot But Not Much Sizzle in Central Connecticut