It had been a while since I’d looked at real estate numbers in southeastern Connecticut, dating back to the Great Recession and its immediate aftermath when both sales and prices had plummeted.

So, wow, an average sales price for New London and Windham counties of more than $400,000 for a single-family home ... and sellers getting more than the asking price, on average.

Was I reading that right?

Yes, said Susy Hurlbert, executive director of the Eastern Connecticut Association of Realtors, the average sale in the third quarter of this year reached a staggering $430,207 for single-family homes in the region, while the median price was $350,000. I remember the era when prices in that range weren’t selling at all, right after Pfizer Inc.’s decision to move its research headquarters to the Boston area.

But the numbers didn’t faze Hurlbert. The only thing that seems to be weighing on the market now is a lack of inventory, she said.

“We encourage sellers to sell,” she emphasized.

But few people seem to want to leave their homes. She said the ones who do sell often get multiple offers, which explains why sellers are getting about 3 percent above their asking price right now.

“There’s been a spike in higher priced homes in New London County,” Hurlbert said by phone. “There are still a lot of cash buyers.”

Still, total transactions were down in the quarter, about 23% for single-family homes and 38% for condominiums.

Now usually when prices are going up and transaction numbers are plummeting, that’s a sign real estate markets are cooling. But Hurlbert said she saw no signs of a real estate recession in the offing, despite the highest mortgage rates in 23 years.

“We’re not in the same place we were in 2008,” she said. “There’s still a long list of buyers. ... The market is still strong.”

She acknowledged the interest rate spike has slowed the market somewhat, but Hurlbert believes Electric Boat’s strong position in gaining military contracts combined with a housing shortfall that has driven up apartment rental prices will buoy real estate long term. As long as the rental rates remains higher than the cost of monthly mortgages, she believes the market will remain strong.

Her position is supported by last quarter’s strong showing for land sales, which were up 31% in the third quarter compared with a year ago in terms of total numbers and up more than 40 percent for overall volume.

“That tells me there were large tracts of land purchases, probably to build more rental units,” she told me.

She added that multifamily real estate continues to be a hot commodity, with prices in the third quarter up more than 5% from the same period a year ago.

People from New York and Boston who have recently discovered the region continue to drive a good percentage of the sales, she added. The trend started during COVID and continues today.

“Connecticut has been a place to work and live, and that continues post-pandemic,” Hurlbert said.

Lee Howard is The Day’s business editor. Reach him at l.howard@theday.com for comments and story ideas.