Real Estate

What’s happened in the last five years

Exactly five years ago, Main Street Magazine looked at the Town of Sharon and its real estate market. Today, we wondered if anything had changed in this New England town. Was traditional Sharon the same place post-COVID? Had Sharon maintained its character and quiet demeanor? Did anything change in the real estate market?

First, we looked at the basic trends contained in Connecticut Town Profiles reports, Connecticut Department of Public Health, school district, and census numbers, reasoning that those changes would eventually be reflected in the real estate market. After two decades of slowly declining numbers, the town’s population actually bounced up to an estimated 2,900 people in 2024, an increase of 7.8% over 2019. At the same time, the median age declined from 59 to 53 years and estimated median household income jumped to over $102,963 while the poverty rate declined to 9%. Simultaneously, the Pre-K to eighth grade enrollment in the Sharon Center School District declined to 104 from 115 in 2019. Would slightly younger, wealthier, better educated residents result in higher real estate prices, or did Sharon simply benefit from the recent, national run-up in real estate prices?

Median Sharon home prices have doubled in five years

Median single-family home prices in the last five years in the Town of Sharon have more than doubled from $330,000 to $746,000 on a rolling 12-month average. (Market statistics provided by Smart MLS InfoSparks.) Rising off a lower price level in 2019 Sharon’s increase is more than Salisbury, Kent, or all of Litchfield County, which each rose around 160% in the same period. Simply, it’s not only the market that is fueling real estate prices in Sharon.

These price increases are driven by sales of properties over 2,500 square feet where the median price is now $1,540,000 in contrast to homes with less than 2,000 square feet, which have only increased 54% to a median price of $440,000. 

Condominium prices in Sharon over the last five years have also doubled with a current median of $251,000.

Looking back twenty years to 2004, Sharon didn’t exceed its $528,750 peak in median home price during the housing bubble until May of 2022. Since August of last year, median prices of all Sharon single-family homes have risen steadily to their highest peak of $746,000 in June of this year. 

Median asking price now above $800,000

So where is the market right now? There were only 17 houses for sale in Sharon at the end of June, 2024, with the median a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house on 10+ acres at 107 Amenia Union Road listed at $849,000. Of the six homes below the median, none are listed for less than $500,000. The only condominium, and the most expensive piece of real estate, is the Buckley family home listed at $5,500,000. 

There are 15 parcels of land currently listed, starting at $109,500 for a 2.5-acre parcel on Silver Hill to $2,995,000 for 94 acres on Lambert Road. The COVID year of 2020 saw a peak of 15 land sales in one year. Over the last five years, 57 parcels of land have been sold.

Inventory in the rental market has improved with four year-round unfurnished rentals under $3,500, winter/academic furnished homes ranging from $3,200 to $7,500, and six summer rentals still available in early July. Sharon developed affordable housing at Sharon Ridge in 2008. One- and two-bedroom townhouses are fully occupied and rent on a sliding scale of 30% of adjusted gross income.

Signs of change

There is a subtle change occurring in Sharon. Grand historic houses up and down Sharon Green are being renovated, and cool murals have appeared on the sides of buildings. Busy Le Gamin has added a casual all-day French bistro to the Sharon restaurant scene. Hotchkiss Library has finished its expansion. The Sharon Land Trust has added trails and encouraged community involvement. New business registrations have more than doubled since 2019 to 43 versus 19 five years ago, and building permits for new houses are being issued – only five in all of 2019 and four so far this year with a noticeable uptick in renovations to add living space. Jasper Johns continues to buy properties to add to the artist’s colony he plans to leave as a legacy. Always elegant, Sharon is becoming a more interesting place to live and, of course, to work remotely.•

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.