51 Open Houses in Greenwich on Sunday, April Fool's Day

This week we have 51 open houses with a good selection in all price ranges. We have 22 open houses under $1 million, 13 from $1 - 2 million and 15 houses over $2 million We have more houses in mid-country and also near the water in Old Greenwich and Riverside than in previous weeks. With next weekend being Easter, this weekend is a good time to get out and see some houses.

Greenwich Real Estate Market Report

March was a really good month for real estate in Greenwich. If you look at the chart below you can see how much the market has improved from February. The white bars show the months of supply as of the end of February.

For example if you look at the $1.5 - $2 million price range in February we had a 27-month supply of houses, i.e. if sales had continued at the same rate for the rest of 2012 it would take two years and three months to sell all the inventory. In March months of supply was down to 14 months in this price range (blue bar). Months of supply was almost cut in half and it is likely to be even better. 

Months of supply are likely to go down even more as you can see by the red bar. When you take the sales and add the accepted offers and the contracts waiting to close (and assume it will on average take an additional month and half to close) months of supply drops to 8.5 months for the $1.5 - 2 million price rage. This is about one third of what it had been at the end of February. This drop is even more dramatic when you factor in the 21 new listings that came on the market in this price range during March.

Over $10M Likely to Do Better

The price range with the biggest improvement isn't on the chart, because the months of actual supply is literally off the chart. The over $10 million range has an 11-year supply of houses, but when you add in the 6 pending sales months of supply drops to 28 months.

You always have to take pending months of supply with a large grain of salt and especially this month in this price range. Of the six pending sales only two are non-contingent contracts. Two are only accepted offers and two are contingent contracts. Now days not all accepted offers result in sales, but at least for once we have some promising news in this price category.

$5 - 10 Million Lots of Supply, Needs Lots More Sales

The one segment that is showing mixed signals in March is the $5 - 10 million range where months of supply dropped from 65 months supply at the end of February to 42 months of supply at the end of March but with only 2 contracts pending the pending months of supply jumps to 51 months. The months of supply also increased due to the 11 new listings in this price category.

Under $1.5 Million Very Good and Not Bad to $3 Million

If you are thinking of buying a house under $600K you need to move quickly, we are down to a 4-month supply. We have a 7 - 8 months supply up to $1.5 million. From $1.5 million to $3 million we see dramatic drops in pending months of supply to due to 44 pending contracts and the 8 sales.

Summary

Overall the market is contining to get better from the bottom up. The recovery above $10 million is fragile, but is very promising given how weak this market has been. We are getting lots of new listings, but many are going to the contract quickly. With interest rates staying low now is a good time to get back into the market.

GREENWICH OPEN HOUSE LIST FOR APRIL 1st

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.

487 North St.

Lot 1

Once again thanks to Rob Pulitano for preparing the open house list and interactive map. You can reach him at robertpulitano@prudentialct.com and me at markpruner@prudentialct.com.