We provide an in-depth look at how our markets are performing on a quarterly basis.
Our quarterly Market Watch reports offer a comprehensive picture of the residential real estate markets we serve in Connecticut, New York, and Western Massachusetts. These reports serve as an invaluable resource for consumers, real estate professionals, financial institutions, the media, and anyone else interested in the housing market.
Single family home sales were off to a slow start in 2026, even as many of the foundational pillars to a robust real estate market held fast. Buyer demand is still surging, new listings are trading quickly, and median sale prices continue to climb—all indications that the interruption in activity is likely temporary. Even so, there was an interruption, and sales were down nearly across the board throughout our markets. The lack of listings has limited sales, with both total standing inventory and new listing units taken down in most areas. Multiple factors suggest the pause in activity is a blip that will soon be behind us, and we fully expect business to return to normal in the spring.
In the third quarter, the sales momentum we’ve experienced throughout the year continued at a steady pace, with closed dollar volume for single family home sales increasing across many of our markets compared to the same quarter last year. Year to date, nearly all our markets remain firmly ahead of the first three quarters of 2024 in closed volume, while units are more mixed. We have begun to observe improvements in inventory, as both the volume and number of new listings taken have increased across markets year to date.
Our housing markets have consistently shown growth in closed sales volume for several quarters now. For the first half of 2025, our markets are firmly ahead in closed volume versus the same timeframe last year in most areas. There is also an uptick in inventory in many areas. While our markets have suffered from an inventory drought for years now, total standing inventory units now are inching ahead across several territories. Year to date, unit sales have risen in most markets as well compared to the first half of 2024.
The first quarter of 2025 saw a continuation of the increasing closed dollar volume we saw each quarter throughout 2024 compared to the same periods the year prior. Quarterly increases in closed units also persisted through the first quarter, leaving several markets firmly ahead of 2024 year to date with a handful of territories either flat or slightly behind last year. New listings taken slipped behind this quarter last year in some territories while staying relatively flat in others while, dollar volume in new listings continued to increase in most areas, a representation of increasing price points.
2024 was a year of steadily increasing activity in our housing markets compared to the year prior, a trend that accelerated in the back half of the year. All year long we observed growth in closed dollar volume for single family home sales across our markets, but in the third quarter single family unit closings began to catch up as well, improving in some areas versus the same quarter in 2023. By the final quarter of 2024, almost every market we serve experienced increases in unit sales compared to the same quarter last year. These gains were not high enough for annual unit sales to pull ahead of the full calendar year of 2023, but the quarterly growth tells us that a shift is underway. This is the first time we have seen consistent unit growth nearly across the board in more than three years. Rising levels in new listings also became one of the prominent market trends of 2024, with new listings taken in our markets up for the calendar year in both units and dollar volume in most regions.
As we enter the final months of 2024, we are seeing the trends we observed in our last two quarterly reports continue as expected along the same trajectory. Throughout the first two quarters of 2024 we watched as our housing markets increasingly experienced growth in closed dollar volume for single family homes year over year, and that trend has maintained in most every market at the close of the third quarter. Single family unit sales are lower than last year across our markets, as was the case in the prior two quarters, largely due to the limited inventory for sale. But even if inventory is low relative to historic levels, it continues to improve in most areas.
During the second quarter of 2024, our housing markets experienced the continuation of a promising trend that emerged at the start of the year. Last quarter, we observed increases in closed dollar volume in single family home sales across many of our markets, a notable turnaround following several consecutive quarters of consistent declines. But this quarter almost every market has now climbed ahead of the first six months of last year in closed volume. Closed unit sales were largely down year over year last quarter and remain so as we finish the first half of the year. Standing inventory levels have been increasing for a few months now following years of declines, so that at the end of the first half of 2024, almost every territory we serve now has more listings for sale than at this time in 2023. The increase in standing inventory suggests that our typically low-inventory markets have bottomed out and begun to normalize.
In our housing markets, the first quarter of 2024 played out similarly to the past several quarters according to most key metrics except one: in a striking turnaround, closed sales volume for single family properties increased in several territories compared to the same quarter last year. Closed unit sales generally remain lower than this time in 2023, and inventory is still in significantly short supply in many areas, but closed dollar volume often improved. We predicted such an outcome last quarter, observing that sales declines were trending in a positive direction, tracking at percentage decreases that were not quite as steep as prior quarters. Now, it appears that our markets have finally bottomed out and could start to see an upswing.
As we close a year where significantly reduced sales and inventory levels served as the norm in our housing markets, the fourth quarter saw us entering a period of transition. Just as new listings arriving on the market began to improve compared to this time in 2022, single family unit closings and dollar volume also demonstrated notable improvement relative to the past several quarters. Throughout the year, declines in closed dollar volume have tracked at lower and lower rates from quarter to quarter. This steady trajectory signifies that the next quarter is finally likely to see sales growth instead of more decreases. Recently declining mortgage rates also serve as a good indicator that our upward trend in new listings taken will continue into 2024.
The key dynamics impacting our housing markets have demonstrated little change as the year has progressed. Quarter after quarter, the situation has remained the same: The combination of historically low inventory and elevated buyer demand is driving a competitive buying landscape and sending new listings quickly into contract, leaving a scarcity of offerings to choose from and keeping median sale prices well above this time last year. At the same time, significantly higher mortgage rates are not only affecting buyers’ purchasing power but also influencing the decision process for potential sellers as they consider listing. Despite the inventory challenge, there are glimmers on the horizon that sales will improve according to our company’s data.
The housing markets in the second quarter of 2023 performed similarly to the first, with declining single-family property sales and limited inventory. However, a competitive buying environment and elevated consumer demand kept sale prices higher than last year. While the markets are behind last year’s performance, there is anticipation of improvement in the second half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Median sale prices remain higher in most markets, but the lack of inventory remains a significant challenge.
It is rare to witness all the dynamics currently impacting our housing markets play out at once. There have been periods of higher mortgage rates, fragility in the economy, declining sales, increased prices, low inventory and strong buyer demand, but not necessarily all at the same time. Yet this is the environment in which we find ourselves as we close out the first quarter of 2023. Closed sales volume and units decreased significantly versus the same quarter last year in every market we serve, but the declines are not for lack of buyer demand. One of the most significant reasons for the drop-off in sales is the ongoing shortage of inventory.
