connecticut remains one of the toughest markets for home buyers
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By Anne Xia | Published on August 12, 2026
Some consolation for aspiring homeowners undergoing fierce bidding wars in Connecticut: The data suggests that you are not alone.
In June, Connecticut was one of only three states where most properties sold above final asking price, with an average sale price of 102% of what sellers sought. The other two states were fellow members of the tri-state area, New Jersey and New York.
Connecticut was one of three states where properties sold on average above asking price
Data for June 2026.
Connecticut's real estate market was not always this competitive. During the 2010s, only one or two out of every ten sales ended in the buyer paying above the final list price.
During the pandemic, that proportion shifted. At the start of 2020, about 20% of Connecticut properties sold for above asking. Over the course of the next three years, that percentage shot up to more than half of sales, peaking at over 60% in November 2023.
Half of Connecticut properties are selling above asking price, double the U.S. average
Lines represent the percentage of sales above asking for each month. Shaded area represents officially recognized pandemic period.
For the first part of the pandemic, Connecticut's increasingly hot real estate market matched national trends. However, when the market started to decline in 2022 elsewhere in the U.S., competition remained stubbornly intense in Connecticut.
In June, the United States returned to a pre-pandemic percentage of properties selling above asking price. Meanwhile, the percentage in Connecticut hovers around 50%, similar to what was seen at the height of the pandemic.
For the past few years, Connecticut has almost continuously topped the charts for how much above the asking price the average buyer pays.
Connecticut ranks as No. 1 state for how much buyers pay above asking
Lines represents a state's rank for each month.
Once again, the two other states in the tri-state region followed closely behind. Several other New England states — Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire — also appeared in the top ten.
One way to escape these bidding wars is simply not to buy a house in much of the Northeast. If that's not in the cards, Connecticut home buyers can do the next best thing: Feel completely justified in complaining.