Home sales and prices plunged in Fairfield County in the fourth quarter of 2008, with University of Connecticut researchers publishing statistics showing local home prices dropped between 10 percent and 15 percent from the same period a year earlier.
After more than 1,400 homes sold in the third quarter in Fairfield County, sales dropped to fewer than 700, according to preliminary data furnished to UConn by the Warren Group, a Boston-based company that publishes Banker & Tradesman. Home sales were down by nearly 25 percent on a year-over-year basis, compared with an 8 percent year-over-year drop statewide between the two periods.
A separate report from RE/MAX of New England determined that Connecticut home sales dropped 25 percent between 2007 and 2008, and prices were down 8 percent.
The Warren Group data examines aggregate sales volume and prices of comparable homes in most sections of Fairfield County, excluding the towns of Brookfield and Sherman.
Brookfield neighbor Newtown was the lone municipality in the county to register a year-over-year gain in home sales, with homes in the low range of prices up 3 percent and mid-range houses up 7 percent.
Norwalk home sellers took the biggest hit, the least-expensive homes down a quarter from a year ago, and the most expensive homes off 18 percent. But save for a few pockets like Newtown, sales were down across the board, with low-end homes in Bridgeport dropping by virtually the same amount as Westport”™s high-end homes ”“ 17 percent.
If the preliminary data hold, Fairfield was bumped from its hilltop as the most active market in Fairfield County, as sales there plunged from nearly 200 in the third quarter to just above 70 in the fourth. Stamford inherited the top slot with more than 75 sales.
