A Hushed Market for Real Estate Transactions in Norfolk

By Avice Meehan

The British pop band Herman’s Hermits made it big in the U.S. in 1967 with a hit song called “A Kind of Hush” – and hushed is a good description of Norfolk’s real estate market this spring. 

“There’s not much on the market,” observed Betsy Little, who first began selling real estate in Litchfield County more than 30 years ago. “We went through a two-year frenzy and prices got high. Now, between the stock market, a possible national debt crisis, and higher interest rates, we’re in a little bit of a quiet time.”

Norfolk has roughly 967 housing units. The vast majority are single family homes and roughly a quarter of them are occupied by part-time seasonal residents, according to the town’s draft housing plan. 

At the end of May, there were only five properties on the market, including a $3.9 million estate on seven acres with a dock on Doolittle Lake. Other, more representative listings include a cape on Winchester Road and homes on Bruey Road and Maple Avenue. In other years, the number of active listings might be triple or quadruple that.

“I would describe the market as resting. I think it has just started to open its eyes and wake up,” said Thomas McGowan, a veteran agent with Elyse Harney Real Estate. “People are trying to figure out whether they should make a move and a lot of them may be in real estate for more than they can get out of it.”

The trend is not unique to Norfolk or Litchfield County. A recent New York Times analysis described the market as being in a “stalemate” across the country. Real estate sales continued their decline based on April data from the National Association of Realtors. Prices in the Northeast remained robust, however, and continued to show an increase from 2022.

Norfolk home prices have been trending upward for several years, although median and average prices are tough to compute given the small number of transactions relative to other communities. The median price of a Norfolk home has bounced around since 2018, but reached a new high of $409,000 in 2022, according to data collected by the Litchfield County Board of Realtors. The median price reflects the middle point, meaning that half the houses sold above that price and half below. In 2022, for example, there were 23 closed sales used to calculate the value.

“The lows in Norfolk are never as low as in communities where there is a lot of activity and the highs are never as high,’ said Little.