2008 March « Connecticut Real Estate Blog

The Connecticut legislature is considering a bill that would stop homeowners’ associations and towns from restricting clotheslines or the drying laundry outside if there is no area for air drying elsewhere.

On one side, you have people who want to save money or cut down on their energy usage.

On the other, you have homeowners associations whose main purpose is to enforce uniformity in their community in the name of protecting property values.

Everyone has a point.

When you buy a home within an association you leave some of your individuality at the gate. No garden gnomes or inflatable snow men (someone should actually ban those). But not being able to paint your front door purple isn’t going to cost you money. Rising energy costs do and drying your laundry outside can help your budget.

The associations are right to be concerned about the impact of property values, which are a result of perception. When buyers drive through a condo complex and they see sheets hanging from every back porch, they aren’t getting the feeling that the community is peaceful and park-like.

The issue is property rights – do you have the right to do what you want on your property?The answer is no – especially in a homeowners’ association which can seem to operate like a communist regime, squelching individual expression in exchange for the collective good. In your homeowners’ association, Big Brother is the little old lady in Unit 6F and she has lots of free time to report you to the Board.

As a kid, it was one of my jobs to hang up the laundry on the clothesline. Little did I know that our clothesline was driving down property values. Maybe my neighbors could have sold their house for $75,000 rather than $74,000 (this was the 80’s) if the buyers hadn’t seen my pillowcase flapping in the breeze.

I think a compromise can be made. Perhaps associations could install clotheslines or drying racks so they’re uniform or restrict laundry hanging to certain days of the week, avoiding weekends. The law does provide an exception for indoor air drying, provided it is accessible and does not use electricity or fossil fuels.

Personally, I’m going to ask my husband to set up a clothesline at our house. I’ll let you know if and when my property values start to plummet (wait, they already have).

For more about this, read:

Boston.com

Commondreams.org

2 comments March 14, 2008

Don’t Fire Your Agent Yet – New Free Consumer Website for Connecticut Multiple Listing Service Lacks Vital Info

The new free MLS site, www.CTREAL.com, is good news.

Connecticut home buyers and sellers can access some really great information about real estate, such as:

Active and Sold Listings
Open House Information
Search listings by your criteria or by map - this is a great feature, by the way. Not only does it show you listings within a wide or limited area, but it shows you where the schools and other landmarks are. And each listing appears as a little house with a pop-up that has a picture and a brief description.
Saveable Search
School and Community Information

Below is a screen-shot of a search I did for active listings in Old Wethersfield (see the dark grey area). Note the pop-up for one of the listings as well as the icons for area schools and hospitals.

But if you think this site will replace the need for a buyer’s agent, think again. Too much really important information is missing, such as:

Actual Sold Amount – I checked a few random sold listings and CTREAL.com leaves out the actual sold data. It looks like the sold amount is the last list price.
Days on Market – you probably want to know if the house has been on the market for 2 years.
Seller Concessions – this affects sales price
Tax Information
Doesn’t Distinguish Between Active and Show listings

CTReal.com is a great marketing tool for listing agents and offers better information than Realtor.com. But it’s not exactly free access to the Multiple Listing Service – not yet anyway.

I am going to attend the launch party next week and hope to find out if and when they plan to add any additional information.

2 comments March 13, 2008

West Hartford, CT Real Estate Market February/March 2008

West Hartford, CT

Single Families

Average List Price: $473,422
Average Sales Price: $388,314
Active Listings: 169
Closed Listings in Last 6 Months: 249
Months of Inventory: 4 or Balanced Market

Condominiums

Average List Price: $348,360
Average Sales Price: $267,437
Active Listings: 72
Closed Listings in Last 6 Months: 71
Months of Inventory: 6 or Buyer’s Market

Multi-families- 2-4 Units

Average List Price: $322,358
Average Sales Price: $345,938*
Active Listings: 12
Closed Listings in Last 6 Months: 16
Months of Inventory: 5 or Balanced Market

*Why is the average sales price higher than the average list price? It just so happens that there were many more multi-families over $400,000 to sell in the last 6 months than there are actively on the market.

2 comments March 12, 2008

Schools Matter in Real Estate – Searching for Your Home in Connecticut by School District

Schools affect property values.

When buying a home, even if you don’t have children, you may want to still consider how the local school system is perceived. The better the schools, the higher the demand to live in the town. The higher the demand, the more stable real estate values will be.

Schools not only vary from town to town but within the town itself, from school to school.

In the Multiple Listing Service, there is a field for elementary school but can be left blank because the agent doesn’t know which school the house is in or doesn’t want to put it in.

The good news is that you can sometimes find out that information with just a click of your mouse. With the name of the school in hand, you can then research how well the school performs on standardized tests, how diverse the school is, and what parents and kids are saying.

Here are some links to maps/lists of schools by street for several towns in the Central Connecticut area.

1 comment March 10, 2008

Cry Wolf in Connecticut Lately? You May Be Right

File this under “exciting news but I don’t want to ever find out personally that it’s true.”

According to a report from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a dog-like animal found dead in Western Massachusetts this fall was positively identified through genetic testing as a Gray Wolf. From the blog Connecticut Hunting Today:

It’s unclear where the wolf came from — the best guess is that it made its way south from established wolf populations in Ontario or Quebec…

Dale May, director of the wildlife division of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said young wolves seeking to establish their own territory can travel “100, 200 or 300 miles.” If a wolf were able to move from Canada to Massachusetts, May said, there’s reason to think one might eventually wander even farther south into the forests of northern Connecticut…

A single gray wolf won’t mean a pack will ever set up residence in Connecticut. May said wolves need 50 to 100 square miles of wild country to operate successfully.

(more…)

2 comments March 8, 2008

Open House 3/9/08 – 21 Webster Lane, Hebron

21 Webster Lane features 3 bedrooms/2 full baths, 2,403 square feet, 1st floor laundry, formal dining room, bonus room above garage and full, finished walkout lower level. Great location near Bolton line and convenient to highways. Pictures are below.