CHFA and the Partnership for Strong Communities have partnered on an HNA explainer video series covering
As a major industry partner, CHFA seeks to continuously respond to the housing needs of our residents. To do so, we must stay abreast of key market trends, world events, and economic conditions that impact Connecticut families. In this way, we better position ourselves to serve our communities by creating programs and solutions that address these challenges. In late 2023, CHFA published its second Housing Needs Assessment (HNA). The goal of the HNA is to provide as close to real time data as possible for CHFA and its partners to make informed data-driven decisions.
It’s been roughly one year since the publication of the 2023 Housing Needs Assessment, and we wanted to provide an update on how the Connecticut housing market has changed over the last year.
We’re also excited to bring the HNA to life with an interactive Dashboard. The data contained in the dashboard will be updated regularly and aims to provide our partners with live and interactive data.
For questions or requests for additional data, please email research@chfa.org?.
Household formation in Connecticut remains strong even as population growth is moderate. According to the U.S. Census, a household is formed any time someone occupies a housing unit. For example, household formation occurs when a recent college graduate moves from their parent’s house into a place of their own. Between the 2017 and 2022 Five Year ACS periods, Connecticut saw a 3.53% increase in the number of households with a population increase of just 0.47%. This trend in household growth was strong across the state with each of the nine planning regions seeing an increase of more than two percent. This phenomenon points to both an increased demand for housing and suggests that households are getting smaller. Over the same Census period, the average household size in Connecticut dropped slightly from 2.55 to 2.48.
According to the U.S. Census Building Permits Survey, in 2023 there were roughly 6,300 permits issued for new privately owned units in Connecticut, the highest number since 2007 but still well below Pre-Great Recession levels. However, permits for units in structures with five or more units jumped to roughly 3,900, the highest since 1988. On the other hand, permits for one-unit buildings declined to just over 2,000, in 2023, the lowest since the survey began in 1966.