Greenwich, CT Residential Real Estate Blog and Analysis: January 10th

Please visit www.greenwichrealestateguy.com/blog for a more friendly view as my charts, graphs, and formatting of the open house list with links does not transfer as well. 

I have decided to leave the year in review analysis for one more week for those of you who missed it.  However, I have updated the open house list.

I decided to do a 2013 Year in Review as my first newsletter of 2014.  To that end the above pictured estate was the highest sold property through the Greenwich MLS in 2013.  555 Lake Avenue sold for $25M.  It boasts 8.23 acres of land.  The home has 8 bedrooms, 11 full baths, as well as 2 half baths.  The new owners will stay warm on days like this as there are eight fireplaces.  There are twenty five rooms, in the estate that was constructed and designed by award winning architect Dinyar Wadia and the twenty five room interior designed by Linda Ruderman.

When we look at 2013 as a whole we can definitely see the market turn.  We sold 834 units, compared to 722 in 2012.  However, when we dig into the data we realize that it was the story of two different markets.  The under $3M market and the over $3M market.  Every price range under $3M grew.  In 2013 we sold 710 properties under $3M compared to 583 in 2012.  That is a 22% increase, which is incredible growth in one year.  However, over $3M we sold 124 units compared to 139 in 2012, which is an 11% decrease.

Obviously, this is looking at 2013 as a whole.  It is important when looking at these numbers to compare with the current market.  I believe these numbers show that last year was the market regaining it's momentum.  In the beginning of the year it was anything under $1M was flying off the shelves, in the middle of the year it was anything under $2M, and by the end of the year, under $3M was heating up.  Hence, as we look at 2014, I believe we will see two things happen.  I believe the message will get out that the market has changed and we will see an onslaught of inventory in the spring.  It will be very interesting to see if that inventory moves quickly or not.  Secondly, I believe we will see the luxury market pick up steam.  If you look below at the Market Report pay close attention to the right side which shows the difference in the past two years.  For example the over $10M properties was down 43% last year.  However, our first property over $10M did not sell until late June, so in actuality we had eight properties sell in the last five and a half months.  Plus, there are three properties currently priced over $10M that are in contract or have executed contract.  Hence, you can see that even though 2013 as a whole was tough for that market, it is definitely a stronger market now than in the first six to nine months of 2013.

There is a lack of inventory currently as properties come off of the market for the year end.  In my opinion that points to an onslaught of inventory in Spring.  If, you are looking to put your house on the market I would advise to put on before rather than later, as I feel there the philosophy of waiting until the spring market is outdated with the internet.  The difficulty with that thought process is if everyone else is doing the same then you are competing against numerous properties.  However, if you put it between now and February you have the opportunity to differentiate yourself online as well as the Realtor Community.  As Realtors we tour houses every Tuesday and Thursday, and if there are not a lot of broker open houses your house will be seen by a lot of Realtors which obviously helps in those realtors showing your house.  Currently, we have 455 properties on the market.  When you look at my blog from the end of September we had 656 properties, which is a 31 percent decrease in total inventory in the last couple of months. 

Please let me know if you would like me to provide customized information or statistics for you based on your criteria.

**The information on the featured property and all statistical information is from the Greenwich MLS.

**All opinions garnered from the statistics are my own

As mentioned above we outdid last year with 834 sold properties compared to 722 in 2012.  We outpaced last year in nine of the twelve months.  

Not only did we outpace last year with sold properties, but we also did with new listings.  The positive here is that it was only a slight gain.  2012 we had 1,195 new listings, compared to 1,251 this year.  In my eyes this is promising as the percentage increase in sold properties outdoes the percentage increase in listings.

In an effort to define the different markets as a good time to buy or sale I believe one needs to look at the months on average it would take to sell through the inventory we have.  I have broken this down by June of 2012 (which is the high in my opinion) to January of 2013 (the low in my opinion) then will add each month as we come to them.   

** to calculate months on average in this chart I used year to date sold properties in each price range.

There are two individuals I feel most confident about when it comes to home mortgages.  One in Manhattan and one in Greenwich.  They are Jeff Ihrig of First Republic in Manhatan, and in Greenwich I prefer Treena David-Chirico of Wells Fargo.

Jeff can be reached at 646-372-5181.  Treena's phone number is 203-618-3923.  You can go to her website to input your specific information to receive rates.  Her website is www.wfhm.com/treena-david-chirico.