Friday, November 05, 2010

The Insider's View October 2011

October 2010
The Insider’s View

Activity in Mid-Fairfield County had mixed results in October. All towns continue to see improvements over year-to-date results compared with 2009 but economic and political uncertainty seemed to have slowed down the momentum of the early part of the year. The remaining months of the year may give us an indication of what the spring 2011 market will bring.
The perception remains that the market remains a buyer’s market despite gains in number of sales and increases in Median sales prices. Inventory has not dropped as much as one would have hoped. Most sellers have remained fairly firm in their prices, with notable exceptions.

Overall though this is a much improved market over the previous two years. Here is the breakdown by towns:

Westport- October saw a general slowdown in Westport. Only 29 homes went to escrow vs. 31 in Oct. 2009, however the median sold price in October increased to $1.41 million. Year to date vs. 2009 there has been an increase of 48.9% of properties selling. Inventory remains high in part because of high end properties which are taking longer to sell. The greatest amount of activity has been occurring for properties selling under $1,300,000 with 2/3 of 2010 sales falling into this category. However, the second highest residential property closing ($20,000,000) in Westport’s history occurred on October 29.

Weston- The lower end of the Weston market has been its driving force. Properties going to escrow have increased by 43% over 2009 year to date, and inventory is down slightly. The median sold price is up to $832,000.

Wilton- Wilton has also seen a preponderance of activity on the lower end of the market. 50% of 2010 sales have been under $850,000. Unlike Westport and Weston, October was a very good month for Wilton, with 22 properties going to escrow vs. only 7 in the previous month, though inventory increased by 11.6%.

Fairfield- Fairfield has seen 2010 sales increase by 34.4%, but the median price is now down to $525,000, a decrease of 7.9%. This is a good indication of the activity in entry level properties in Fairfield. In October there were 60 properties that went under escrow vs. 41 in September. Of note: one home in Greenfield Hill going under escrow in October, listed at $7,500,000.

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