An Assessment of Market Conditions and Trends in the City of Hartford, Connecticut

Author(s): Center for Community Progress

The Center for Community Progress retained by the Hartford Land Bank with the support of the Hartford Foundation and LISC Hartford, to conduct an analysis of small area, or neighborhood, housing market conditions and trends in the city of Hartford. The commission of this report is the latest in a series of recent efforts by the Land Bank, as well as key leaders and staff at the City of Hartford and other local nonprofit and community stakeholders to identify and develop more impactful strategies to address vacant, abandoned, and substandard properties in Hartford. Those local efforts have included retaining Community Progress to provide guidance and assist in planning the initial direction and actions of the newly formed Land Bank, revising parts of the City’s Municipal Code to provide more effective tools to address nuisances and substandard property conditions, playing a central role in the passage of new statewide land bank enabling legislation, and commissioning a citywide survey of all property in Hartford to assess vacancy, property condition, and other related factors.

This report describes neighborhood market conditions and trends in Hartford, to enable the city and other stakeholders to use this information as a critical tool to inform and develop equitable, efficient, and effective strategies to address disinvestment and decline in neighborhoods and build stronger housing markets throughout the city.

The report makes the following recommendations:
1. Use data as a tool for stabilization and revitalization.
2. Design interventions to address key property issues.
3. Match strategies to neighborhood positions.