Properties lingered due to cooling real estate market

This three bedroom antique house at 112 Town St. was built in 1826 with four fireplaces. The July sale of $1.15 million was over the 2024 median sale price for Cornwall of $1,115,000.

Christine Bates

Properties lingered due to cooling real estate market

The regional real estate market returned to equilibrium in 2024 with fewer sellers and patient buyers.

Multiple offers on listed properties were infrequent and discounts from listing price were small. Buyers looking for move-in ready HGTV-perfect remained the norm with little interest in updating, not to mention renovating. Younger professional purchasers both from Brooklyn and California continue to find the Litchfield Hills attractive.

The performance of the real estate markets in 2024 in Connecticut’s Northwest Corner showed slight declines in median prices in five of our eight towns compared to 2023. The highest median price was in Cornwall at $1,115,000 and the lowest in North Canaan at $255,900. The number of closed residential sales was also down in five out of eight towns with Goshen — the most active market — edging out Salisbury with 48 sales during the last 12 months. At the same time price per square foot increased in most towns except for Sharon which decreased by 17% to $279 and Canaan, down 18% to $378 per square foot.

The results of this year demonstrate once again how a few high sales can dramatically change comparative town statistics. This year the Town of Cornwall is a splendid example with the sale of two properties over $5 million — 400 5½ Mile Road for $12 million and 40 Cobble Hill Road for $6.25 million. The estate built for tennis great Ivan Lendl on 5½ Mile Road with 18,000 square feet and 446 acres had been on and off the market for some time before selling in January 2024 — the most expensive property ever sold in Litchfield County. A month after selling their estate the Lendls purchased a slightly smaller 6,400 square foot house on 187 acres in Cornwall — the second most expensive house in our region in 2024.

Million-dollar properties continued to be sought after and accounted for approximately 22% of all properties sold, with Salisbury accounting for 22 of the 63 million-dollar properties selling in the eight towns.

New Home construction continues, and 55 pieces of vacant land were sold in the eight towns. The most expensive was 59 acres on 189/195 Amenia Union Road in Sharon which sold for $1,775,000; however, the 11 acres at 4-5 Mount Mauwee Lane in Kent at $500,000 was the most expensive price per acre at $45,000. On the affordable end of the market, 14 sites ranging from 19 acres to half an acre sold for less than $100,000.

Latest News

East Canaan's CowPots to face the 'Sharks'

Amanda Freund of East Canaan will appear on the television show "Shark Tank" on April 4 to pitch CowPots.

Photo by Ruth Epstein

CANAAN — Fans of the television show “Shark Tank,” stay tuned. On Friday, April 4, Amanda Freund of East Canaan will be facing the panel, imploring members to invest in her unique product: cow poop.

Freund and her father Matthew Freund produce and market CowPots, which are made from the abundance of manure found on their dairy farm. Matthew Freund, realizing cows were producing more manure — 100 pounds per cow per day — than was needed for fertilizing fields for crops, came up with the concept of the pots. Years of trial-and-error experimentation finally resulted in success. In 2006 he began selling the biodegradable pots using 100% composted manure to local stores. Now the pots can be found in outlets across the country, as well as internationally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss lacrosse ices Kingswood Oxford 19-0

LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School opened the girls varsity lacrosse season with a big win in the snow against Kingswood Oxford School.

The Bearcats won 19-0 in a decisive performance March 26. Twelve different players scored for Hotchkiss, led by Coco Sheronas with four goals.

Keep ReadingShow less
HVRHS releases second quarter honor roll

FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.

Highest Honor Roll

Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Ditto

ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.

When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.

Keep ReadingShow less