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Monday, February 24, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
East Rock, Downtown, Edgehill, St Ronan areas of New Haven and Hamden trends
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Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Connecticut Blues
My accountant just told me that real estate sales are depressed because everyone wants to move out of high-tax Connecticut. He's not the only person who's told me that this week. Estate taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and real estate taxes are higher here than in many other places. Since we have an aging population compared to other states, those things affect us more, especially the estate tax piece.
That's why you may be reading that real estate is booming elsewhere, but not seeing those "SOLD" signs in your neighborhood. You are experiencing the results of a long-term State anti-business climate. Even though there may be good and sufficient reason for us to be proposing the highest minimum wage in the country, businesses who can choose where to expand see that bill as a proxy for other mandates and regulations that will make it hard to do business in Connecticut. I've actually had people in other states point to our legislature as the reason our real estate market is slower than theirs. Housing goes with jobs. We need to create more of the latter in our State.
That's why you may be reading that real estate is booming elsewhere, but not seeing those "SOLD" signs in your neighborhood. You are experiencing the results of a long-term State anti-business climate. Even though there may be good and sufficient reason for us to be proposing the highest minimum wage in the country, businesses who can choose where to expand see that bill as a proxy for other mandates and regulations that will make it hard to do business in Connecticut. I've actually had people in other states point to our legislature as the reason our real estate market is slower than theirs. Housing goes with jobs. We need to create more of the latter in our State.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Snow and Real Estate Sales
Snow is not good for real estate sales. I taught my children at a young age to moderate their excitement on school snow days, telling them that snow causes people to cancel their showing appointments. Buyers don't want to go out and drive around in bad weather, and sellers don't want to worry about shoveling and dirty boots tracking through their clean houses.
But real estate isn't an impulse purchase, right? It's hardly in the category of the candy by the checkout counter, or even the perfect dress in a shop window. Therefore, people who don't look and buy one day should do so the next, or the next week or month.
Well, they probably do. Unfortunately for us, we track sales year to year by the week and the month. When we look back, we don't always remember the weather at the same moment the year before. Perhaps, however, this year will be different. This weekend marks the first anniversary of the Blizzard of '13. That storm impacted sales for weeks, so much so that the whole month of February 2013 was horrendous for us. That loss followed us for the whole year, for good and for ill. We popped later in the spring, the spring market lasted well into the summer, and the summer lag started in late August.
So what will 2014 bring? So far, a lot of ice and snow!
But real estate isn't an impulse purchase, right? It's hardly in the category of the candy by the checkout counter, or even the perfect dress in a shop window. Therefore, people who don't look and buy one day should do so the next, or the next week or month.
Well, they probably do. Unfortunately for us, we track sales year to year by the week and the month. When we look back, we don't always remember the weather at the same moment the year before. Perhaps, however, this year will be different. This weekend marks the first anniversary of the Blizzard of '13. That storm impacted sales for weeks, so much so that the whole month of February 2013 was horrendous for us. That loss followed us for the whole year, for good and for ill. We popped later in the spring, the spring market lasted well into the summer, and the summer lag started in late August.
So what will 2014 bring? So far, a lot of ice and snow!
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
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