What's Selling in Salem, CT?

Now that the spring selling season is over, and we're heading into the holidays - and traditionally fewer buyers in the marketplace - I thought it would be a good time to take a look back and see what has actually sold in Salem this past season.

Right now there are 49 active single-family homes on the market in town. Since April, 17 homes have actually sold, and there's one under deposit. Now let's look at a couple of details: the price ranges of the homes actually sold this spring/summer, for one.

The most popular price range that resulted in a sale was in the $200,000 to $300,000 range - 6 homes, to be exact, closed in that range. A close second was the $300,000 to $400,000 range, with 5 homes selling. The least expensive sale was in the $100,000 to $200,000 range - one house - and the same statistic shows up in the highest range of $601,000 and above. Between $401,000 and $500,000 and between $501,000 and $600,000 were 2 sales each.

Now lets look at the style of homes that sold. Does it matter if you're trying to sell a raised ranch or a colonial? Apparently it does: of the sales in this same time period, twice as many colonials sold as raised ranches, capes or splits. But temper that by noticing that the largest number of homes actually for sale in Salem is usually a colonial, and it makes sense that more of those would also sell.

The last criteria is location, often as - or more - important than price or style of home. In Salem, there really isn't anyplace anyone would call "undesirable", although families often prefer a neighborhood setting to a home on a main road. Since we have a very small downtown, we're a community of suburbs. But there are popular neighborhoods, either due to price or style of home, in addition to being off the main roads. The least expensive home sold in Salem in the last 6 months was in the Horse Pond area, and was a raised ranch. The most expensive home sold was in Emerald Glen. The interesting part about this little statistic is that these two neighborhoods are right next to each other. Anyone who knows Salem probably knows why.

As for sale price vs. list price, let's be clear: all the homes sold in Salem have gone for within 3 or 4 % of their asking price. If you're thinking about selling right now, your best chance may be to come in within the $200,000 to $300,000 range, and you might want to think twice if you're hoping to sell for anything over $400,000, because that range just isn't moving in this market.