Real Estate

After the real estate boom years of 2020 to 2022, some buyers expected that 2023 home prices would decline. That did not happen everywhere in the Northwest corner of Connecticut. The high, low, and median prices of recent sales vary enormously from town to town. Here we examine the 2023 residential real estate market in six Northwest Connecticut towns and, just for vicarious fun, the highest sale in each town. 

Overall, 2023 results in each town were affected by low inventory, which continued into 2024. In four of these towns, 2023 median sales results were lower than the previous year, but in Salisbury and Canaan median prices were strongly above. Cornwall was 35% below 2022. Prices in Kent and Cornwall have still have not reached the levels of the real estate bubble of 15 years ago. 

It’s possible that with declining interest rates, a healthy stock market, continued demand, and low unemployment sellers will be tempted to put their properties on the market this spring – possibly at even higher prices.

North Canaan

Laughing Willow was the most expensive property sold in North Canaan in 2023, but the least expensive compared to other towns in the Northwest corner. Stephen Drezen and Phil Fox of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty were the co-listing agents of this property and Phil Fox represented the buyers in this $805,000 sale in March 2023. The sprawling stone home with 4,200 square feet sold at $805,000, over its asking price of $795,000.  

Originally built as a hunting lodge, the spacious one-story home was enlarged over the years to include five bedrooms and three full baths and four half baths on one floor. Prospective buyers responded to the home’s privacy, its placement with 20 acres in the back and four acres in front, its unique storybook character, and its rustic interiors. 

A total of 24 single family homes sold in North Canaan in 2023 with a median price of $257,750, slightly below December’s 2022 median of $285,000. During 2023 only two homes sold above $400,000. North Canaan’s market low was in June of 2013, when a median priced home could be purchased for only $112,500. The number of houses sold in the previous 12 months peaked in August 2021, when 47 houses were sold at a median price of $252,000.

Canaan

Meticulously renovated, 119 Under Mountain Road in Falls Village on 18 acres was the most expensive house sold in Canaan in 2023. It was listed by Bill Melnick and Elyse Harney Morris of Elyse Harney Real Estate, with Elvia Gignoux of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Real Estate representing the buyer. It sold for $2,125,000. The 3,000-square-foot antique main house, built in 1748, was transformed with luxurious, contemporary upgrades. Two renovated slate-roofed barns added garage, studio, and office space to the property purchased in November 2020 for $823,000.

Only 12 homes sold in Canaan in 2023 with a median price of $719,000, a 20.8% increase over December 2022 of $595,000. Since the low point of only $176,000 in December of 2017, prices have steadily risen in Canaan to well over their real estate bubble high of 2008 when prices briefly reached $576,000.  Currently there are only five homes for sale, ranging from $315,000 to $2,126,000.

Cornwall

Narrow Valley Pottery at 299 Great Hollow Road was the highest sale in Cornwall in 2023 at $1,680,000. It was listed by Patti Guarantano of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty and sold by Chris Garrity of Bain Real Estate. The east section of the home was once a potter’s cottage for the historic Cornwall Castle. Over the years the stone cottage has been enlarged with craftsmanlike attention to renovation. Guarantano explained that “The original kiln was turned into a kitchen, but pieces of the original potter’s work remain. The pottery found the right buyer, who valued a 3,000-square-foot stone château with four bedrooms that required no further renovation.” 

Median prices in Cornwall fell to $498,000 in 2023 after reaching their peak in December 2022 of $800,000. The previous median price peak was $850,000 in December of 2007, meaning that Cornwall, even after the COVID run-up, has still not exceeded median prices reached during the housing bubble. Cornwall’s low point was $190,000 in December 2015. Since then, prices rose slowly into 2020 until falling back by over 60%. There were only 17 houses sold in 2023 compared to 43 in June of 2021. 

Sharon

Known as Mole’s Hill Farm, 201 Millerton Road, an English-style manor, was the most expensive house sold in Sharon in the past three years. It was listed by Liza Reiss and Bill Melnick and sold by John Panzer and Elyse Harney Morris, all of Elyse Harney Real Estate, for $5,482,694.

Originally built in 1809, the 5,800 square foot main house sitting on 28.7 acres has five bedrooms and six bathrooms, five fireplaces, a gunite pool, a tennis court, and an orchard. The gardens were designed by Penelope Hobhouse, a noted English garden designer, and the architectural elements, including the pool, pavilions, walled garden and obelisk folly, were designed by English architect, Sir Anthony Denny. 

“This property is so special – an iconic property for this area,” remarked Morris. “The land is magical, with small bridges over the stream. The greenhouse, gardens, and orchard were a big draw for the buyer.”

Forty-three houses were sold in Sharon in 2023 with a median price of $645,000, only slightly below December 2022 at $650,000, but still above the real estate bubble peak of $615,000 in April 2010. In Sharon the recent real estate market appears to have peaked in August 2022 at $705,000 rising from a low of $279,700 in April 2016. Currently there are 15 houses on the market ranging in price from $285,000 for a farm house on Hospital Hill to a large colonial home on Amenia Union Road for $5,000,000. 

Salisbury

The most expensive house sold in 2023 in the six towns in the Northwest corner was 130 Taconic Road listed by Juliet Moore and Elyse Harney Morris of Elyse Harney Real Estate and sold by Heather Croner of Heather Croner Real Estate of Sotheby’s International Realty for $6,025,000. 

Professionally landscaped with far western views, the estate on 41 acres with a five-bedroom, eight-full and three-half-bathroom main house offered not only an indoor pool but also  a gym, a pond with a dock, a tennis court, a guest house, a gate house, and a multi-car garage with an apartment above. 

The sellers, who had purchased the 245-acre property in 2021, decided that such a large formal home wasn’t ideal for their young family, sold 35 of the acres for $1,000,000, and put the houses and 41 acres back on the market, retaining 160+ acres for their future use. The family is in love with Salisbury community life and continues to live in the town.

As usual, the Town of Salisbury was the most active and most expensive market in the Northwest corner with the highest median price – 58 houses were sold and 26 cost over one million dollars. The median 2023 single-family-home sale was $904,000 compared to $817,500 in 2022, and $715,000 at the height of the housing bubble in November 2007. Prices just keep going up – in early January there were 20 houses on the market, eleven of them asking over $1,000,000. The lowest median price in Salisbury was in 2011 at $370,000.

Kent

Very private, 100 Treasure Hill Road in South Kent was the most expensive home sold at $3,975,000 in Kent in 2023. Listed by Graham and Peter Klemm and sold by Maria Taylor, all of Klemm Real Estate. In addition to the four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom house, the property offered western views on two parcels of almost 32 acres. 

The Kent real estate market has always offered homes in a wide range of prices. Last year thirty homes were sold with six over a million dollars and a median price of $502,250 – 18% lower than December 2022 of $616,140. Over the last twenty years, single-family home prices in Kent peaked at $657,500 in January 2011, and then fell to $267,000 in September 2012, a twenty-year low. Like all of the Northwest Corner towns the number of homes listed for sale has fallen since 2016, when Kent had 74 homes on the market and Salisbury had 76. At this moment Kent has only four homes for sale. •

Christine Bates is a registered real-estate agent in New York and Connecticut with William Pitt Sotheby’s. She has written about real estate and business since Main Street Magazine’s first issue in 2013.