September 2012 Update

Quietly and Steadily moving along With the opening of schools, end of summer, public and religious holidays, September is usually a slower month on the real estate calendar. Not so this year. Each of the towns in Mid-Fairfield saw large increases in activity in September when compared to the previous year. On the top of the list proportionately was Weston which had 17 additional properties go to escrow compared to 2011, an increase of 283%! Total escrows in Weston have already are up 63% over this time last year, and total closed sales (94) are 13% higher than at this time last year. The median is holding steady at about $750,000. Wilton had 10 more homes enter escrow in September ’12 than ’11, a 62.5% increase. Closed sales are up 26 year to date, an increase of 18%. Wilton is slightly outpacing Weston for the year, but Weston may catch up. The median price is almost dollar for dollar the same as Weston. Westport’s escrows were also up, 22, a 100% increase over September 2011. Closed sales of single family homes now stand at 278, 12 behind the pace of 2011, but the total dollar volume of sales in Westport has increased by 12.8%. The median sales price fell slightly in September. The median sales price year to date is $1,225,000. Total inventory has been slowly creeping up in Westport. There are now 10 months worth of inventory when compared to recent sales. This is actually an improvement over 2011, and does not tell the whole story. Much of this inventory is weighted in the high end ($2,000,000+). 123 of the current 318 single family homes listed for sale in Westport are asking over $2 million, and 250 (79%) of those listings are for over $1million. Fairfield’s home inventory of 6 months is the healthiest, including the high end. Its current median price of $550,000 is a good indication of where activity has been highest, and well-priced homes under $700,000 in Fairfield have been moving quickly. In a healthy market, where there is a reasonable balance between seller supply and buyer demand, there tends to be less than 6 months worth of inventory in most price ranges. Weston’s 8.6 month’s of inventory and Wilton’s 9.5 months are also signs of markets that are transitioning back to healthier levels. It is still a seller’s market, but in certain price ranges in each town there are many exceptions.