Steady as She Goes

October activity outpaced 2014 levels in all 4 towns that I regularly cover in this blog.  Contracts were up in many towns 100% or more throughout Mid-Fairfield towns.  Meanwhile, the number of closed sales has been a little less vibrant, with most sales running at levels similar to 2014, while a few are ahead.  The New York Metropolitan area, as seen by the Case-Schiller index, is also following a similar trend, up just 1.85% compared to 2014.

Westport had 51 properties go to contract in October compared to 35 in October ’14.  Year to date there have been 357 homes that have gone to contract compared to 341 at this time last year, though there have been 333 closed sales compared to 334 through October in ’14.  The volume of homes coming to the market is up 7%, representing 9.8 months of inventory.  In a more even real estate market we would expect to see 5-8 months of inventory.  The median price in Westport has actually seen a slight dip of 2.1% to $1,295,000.

In Weston there were 21 homes that went to contract compared to only 9 in October 2014. Contracts are up 12.1% year to date, though closed sales are lagging slightly 130 vs. 134 at this time last year.  2014 was a nice bounce back year for Weston, which had seen some softness in sales.  The median price is up 2.5% to $827,000 for the year, though marketing time is still over 180 days.

Our laggard this year appears to be Wilton.  Closed sales are down 10.4%, from 201 at this time last year to 180 thus far.  Yet October was also an excellent month for Wilton with 20 properties going to contract compared to 18 last year.  To add to the mixed results we see an increased median price of $845,000 (+5.6%), yet inventory is up 13.4%-while at 9.1 months, it is more favorable than Weston and Westport levels.  Marketing time has also decreased 8.4% to 142 days on average.

Our volume leader continues to be Fairfield with 667 closed sales, an 18.5% increase.  The median price, though, is practically unchanged at $575,000, compared to $573,000 in 2014.  Clearly entry level homes continue to drive the Fairfield market.  High end sales are up slightly, with 17 sales over $2 million in 2015, but way behind Westport, with 80 thus far this year. The inventory level of 8.4 months is somewhat deceptive, with higher end homes sitting and homes under $1 million continuing to sell at a much more brisk pace.