Mixed Results in January/February 2019

January & February 2019
 Results are Mixed

The 2018 Spring market was an active one, spurred in part by the new Trump era tax Legislation which had not officially come into play.  Early 2019 real estate sales point to activity that may be linked to certain mortgage and real estate tax  limitations imposed by the new laws.  New home loans cap that can be used for deductions has been reduced to $750,000 where they had been one million dollars previously.  The allowable real estate deductions are now capped at $10,000/year. 

Most affected by these changes are the blue states on both coasts where real estate values and real estate taxes tend to be higher than in the Midwest, South, and Southwestern regions of the country.  This is especially true in the large cities of the Northeast and their suburbs, as well as the large cities and suburbs of the West coast.

So it should not come as a big surprise that in the uncertainty leading into the 2018 tax season due to be filed by April 15^th of this year, that there is still some confusion in the minds of those currently looking to purchase.  In the towns which I cover, where the median price of homes is below the Million dollar mark (suggesting that most home loans will fall within the $750,000 parameters previously discussed), there has actually been increased overall activity.

In Weston and Wilton, which last year had median home sale prices of $702,000 and $780,000,respectively, closed sales in January and February of 2019 have surpassed the totals seen in the same months last year.  Weston had 15 closed sales in Janaury/February with the highest priced home sold being at 6 Calvin road for $1,350,000.  In 2018 there had been 14 in the same period of time and the highest priced home sold at 43 Norwalk Woods Road, which sold for $1,300,000.

In Wilton, there were 26 homes sold in 2019 compared to 22 in 2018 for the first two months.In 2018 there were 6 homes that sold for over $1million compared to 4 during the first two months of 2019.  The median price for Jan/Feb. in 2018 was $812,500 compared to $625,000 in 2019.  The highest priced home that sold in the first two months in 2019 was at 235 Cheesespring road for $1,760,000 compared to $2,850,000 for the home that sold at 21 School road in 2018.

Fairfield, which in 2018 had a median sales price of $630,000, also saw increases in the number of homes sold in Jan/Feb. of 2019.  93 homes sold during this period of time compared to 85 in the same period of time.  As far as the highest sales price is concerned, that number was considerably higher in the first two months of 2018, with the sale of 945 Sasco Hill road which sold for $4,650,000 compared to the highest sale of this two month period of 2019 when 3236 Congress street recently selling for $3,250,000.

In Westport, with a significantly higher median sales price of $1,220,000 in 2018, the number of sales in the first two months in 2019 dropped dramatically: from 51 in Jan/Feb, 2018 to 28 in the same period of 2019.  The highest sales number also dropped significantly, from $5,362,500 for the sale of 3 Charmer’s landing in 2018 vs. $2,847,768 for 16 Linda lane in 2019.

It may be that we will see these numbers change once people complete their taxes, and once yearly bonuses have been distributed, but it is difficult to predict. There have been an increasing number of multiple offers in the lower priced offerings which may be something that will continue for well-priced move-in condition homes below $800,000, more or less.