42 Open Houses from $325K to $10.75M on Sunday

This week we have 42 open houses with them pretty evenly split 20 under $1 million and 22 over $1 million.

We have 3 open houses in Banksville and several very attractive homes in Old Greenwich and Riverside. The latest weather report indicates a sunny afternoon in the 70s. The trees are in flower and the leaves are popping out. You really should get out to a couple of the open houses below on such a beautiful day.

Greenwich Real Estate Market Report for First Half of April

Houses are selling in days
If you want to see a market heat up just take a look at the days on market for accepted offers and contingent contracts so far this month;

• 67 Lockwood Rd., 3 days, $1.59M list;
• 30 Silver Beech Rd., 4 days, $835K list;
• 145 Parsonage Rd., 7 days, $4.99M.

Out of 31 accepted offers and contingent contracts listed on the Greenwich MLS, 13, or close to half of them, were off the market in less 30 days. Executed contracts, i.e. non-contingent contracts were similar. Out of 21 houses with binding contracts 9 of them were in contract in less than 45 days of coming on the market.

Market activity up at most price level

These rapid contracts are happening at all market levels. Two the houses going to contract in less than 30 days had list prices over $10 million. Each lower price range also has at least one example of a quick deal. At the lower end we are supplied constrained with several properties that had been sitting around for a while going to contract.

Bonuses being spent prudently

Much of this new activity is coming from the financial sector spending their bonuses. Everyone has heard that bonuses were down significantly this year, but still billions of dollars in bonuses were paid out. The over $10 million market is doing better than it has done in three years with a bunch of contracts (of course some these took years of work before the buyer finally pulled the trigger).

Up to around $4 million houses are selling and the pace of sells is accelerating. The only slow segment that we have is the $5 - 10M segment as reduced bonuses and more conservative attitudes make this price range a buyer's market. (That is unless it is waterfront property).

Today's $4M house was much more expensive four years ago for two reasons. Not only was the price much higher, but interest rates were much higher. As a result the mortgage payment for the same house is much lower. Even though many houses in this price range are bought for cash, the opportunity cost of an all cash deal is lower in today's low interest rate enviroment.

Rob Pulitano's view:

Investors are coming back into the market.

My father, Pat Pulitano, has been practicing architecture in Greenwich for years and we are seeing developers buying up attractively priced properties. They are able to find private capital because there is a belief among foresighted investors that we have seen the bottom of the market.  He also sees the commercial market improving based on his interests in local commercial buildings.

GreenwichStreets.com Open House List for Sunday, April 15th

The list of open houses appears below. A color coded static map of the open houses  is above. You can see the interactive map here and find detailed instructions for its use here. If you mouse over any pin on the map a box will pop-up with the address, time and price of the open house. If you click on a pin or on an address in the right column of the map a larger balloon will pop-up. Click on the MLS number in the balloon and you can get details for that property.

If you are out looking at open houses feel free to stop by my new listing at 9 Tomney Road from 12 -2:30. I'd love to say hello and offer you a fresh baked cookie. You can also see a very beautiful 4BR, 3/2BA house built in 2006 in immaculate condition.

Address

Thanks to Rob Pulitano for preparing the list and map.