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Single-family home sales surged across Connecticut in 2020 following a significant slump in the second quarter due to market disruptions from COVID-19, according to the latest report from The Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record.

Last year, there were 38,641 single-family home sales in Connecticut, a 16.6 percent increase from 2019. This marked the most sales in a given year since 2005. The gain came after single-family home sales dipped by double digits during the second quarter. However, proving resilient, local homebuyers more than made up for it between July and December, when 24,984 transactions took place. As a result of increased demand, the median year-end sale price hit $300,000, a 15.4 percent increase from 2019 and the highest price on record.

“The local real estate market stumbled during the second quarter as the reality of the situation surrounding COVID-19 started to set in,” said Timothy Warren, CEO of The Warren Group. “However, this didn’t have any long-term negative impacts on the market. Instead, the historically hot spring real estate market was just delayed until the third quarter. Once July and August rolled around, things went gangbusters. However, I’ll be curious to see if supply can keep up with demand. The median single-family sale price of $300,000 marked an
all-time high for the state, which indicates that there’s significant competition in the marketplace.”

Condominium sales in Connecticut followed similar trends – a lackluster second quarter followed by an uptick in activity during the final six months of the year. During the course of 2020, there were 9,167 condo sales, a 0.6 percent increase from 2019, and the most condo sales recorded in a single year since 2007. Meanwhile, the median sale price increased 12 percent to $187,000, the highest year-end price since 2010.

“Condos followed similar trends to the single-family housing market in 2020, and although sales rebounded in the final half of the year, the year-end total was relatively on par with 2019,” Warren added. “Meanwhile, the year-end median condo price reached a 10-year high and experienced the biggest year-over-year spike in 15 years.”