Current Activity

Inventory has slowly been decreasing in the past month or so and there is only a trickle of new listings coming to the market. Sales activity has been limited in the past month or so.

There has been an uptick of activity in single family homes under $600,000 in all of the towns. Fairfield and Norwalk, with a much larger inventory of homes in this price range, have much larger numbers than do Westport, Weston and Wilton.

Looking at yearly figures to date and comparing to 2010, Westport is running almost exactly as it did last year. The only town that continues to be ahead of 2010 figures is Wilton with 162 closed sales in 2011 vs. 146 last year. Weston is running about 10% behind 2010, a slight improvement over figures earlier in the year, and both Fairfield and Norwalk are running 14% behind single family home sales in 2010.

Autumn is the Best Time to Buy Real Estate

The spring time is traditionally the busiest time of year in the real estate market as buyers and sellers prepare to make changes in the warmer months. Savvy buyers know that some of the best values can be found in the autumn when motivated sellers are willing to sell at a discount rather than holding a property through the winter. The savings can be substantial.
Some properties have been on the market for an extended period of time because they are overpriced or may have some defect that makes their sale difficult. The key for a buyer is having an experienced broker who will be able to sort through the inventory and make analytical recommendations about which properties to see. I often start to make a list of my own in the late summer of properties that I follow through the fall. These properties fall into all price ranges.