Spring brings cha-ching to housing market

4/16/2015
Spring brings cha-ching to housing market - NewsTimes
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Spring brings cha-ching to housing market
Warmer temperatures, low interest rates attract homebuyers
Published 10:50 pm, Wednesday, April 15, 2015
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Kim Gifford is a real estate agent in the Danbury, Conn. office of William Pit Sotheby's International Realty. Photographed
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Susan Coyle says her Real Estate Two agents
can feel it, whether at her original office in
Shelton or in Fairfield where the firm opened its
newest location two months ago.
Buyers are out in force, armed with low interest
rates, and sellers appear ready to make a deal, if
not quite at the prices they would like.
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With springlike temperatures finally arriving in
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4/16/2015
Spring brings cha-ching to housing market - NewsTimes
April, open houses have been heating up for
home sellers, area real estate agents say, a
welcome change from a punishing February
that forced many to delay listing their homes for
sale until contractors could complete needed
repairs or cosmetic jobs.
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"A lot of listings have, all of a sudden, started to
come onto the market," said Coyle, co-owner of
Real Estate Two and secretary of the Greater
Fairfield County CMLS. "March 15 -- things
started picking up. You could feel the difference
in the last two weeks of March from the first
two weeks."
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Based on the past month, Coyle is fairly certain
it is going to be a good year in residential real
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estate in Fairfield County, and she is not alone
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in that sentiment. Buyers are emboldened by
interest rates that promise to stay low through
the first half of the year, according to Michael
Feldman, president-elect of the Connecticut Association of Realtors and an agent in the
Stamford office of Shelton-based William Raveis Real Estate. If houses are hitting the market
at an escalating rate, a far greater number of people appear to be house hunting, Feldman
noted, creating a favorable supply and demand trend for the spring as millennial-generation
parents look to get their children settled in school districts in advance of the next
academic year.
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Results were mixed town by town, with Shelton seeing 58 homes sold according to Connecticut
Multiple Listing Service data published by William Pitt + Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International
Realty, a 66 percent increase from the same three-month stretch in 2014.
LATEST NEWS
Other towns saw declines, however, including Trumbull with 49 homes sold, five fewer than in
the first quarter of 2014; and Westport, likewise with five fewer sales for 58 in all, possibly a
function of some would-be sellers waiting for a bigger rebound in prices at comparable homes
before listing their own.
In a first-quarter market report, William Pitt + Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty
stated the Fairfield County market has the highest inventory of available homes in 10 years,
with sellers expecting buyers will bid close to their asking prices for homes. As of March 31, the
inventory of single-family homes was up 36 percent from a year ago; and pending sales surged
78 percent, representing activity by both local buyers as well as those relocating to the area.
Fairfield County homes are currently averaging 108 days on the market, about nine fewer days
than in the first quarter of 2014.
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"Values are up which means ... sellers have a little more equity," Feldman said.
Prices holding steady
In the first quarter, 1,288 single-family houses sold in the Fairfield County area according to
data from the Connecticut Multiple Listing Service, with Bridgeport sales excluded from that
data. That represented a 13 percent increase from the 1,139 single-family homes sold in the
region last year,
Across Fairfield County, the average price for a single-family home climbed just 0.6 percent, to
$643,000, while the price of the median home sold was off slightly to $394,000.
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"The hardest thing is to explain to the seller that prices have not increased," said Real Estate
Two's Coyle. "(Homes) are coming on the market, they're selling; but ... the prices have not
gone up."
Still, it beats having to relay a professional opinion that things are heading in the
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4/16/2015
Spring brings cha-ching to housing market - NewsTimes
opposite direction.
"The market is creeping up in price," said Kim Gifford, an agent in the Danbury office of
William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty. "There's no more low-balling anymore -- the
sellers are not that desperate."
While the average condominium price was up 2.2 percent to $276,000, 40 fewer units sold in
the first quarter across Fairfield County from a year earlier, down 7.5 percent.
February's onslaught of cold and storms likewise impacted condominium sales, Coyle said,
with older couples looking to downsize waiting out the weather before making the rounds of
open houses.
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Still, add it all up and the market is shaping up as the best in years, Feldman said, with low
interest rates giving buyers some wiggle room to sweeten offers and sellers having built up
additional equity in their properties the past few years. Also helping things is a steadily
dwindling overhang of foreclosed homes hitting the market at bargain prices.
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"The first six months is going to be the telltale sign for how the year is going to go," Feldman
said. "Those deals that close in June are happening in March ... That's where the value
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Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-964-2236; www.twitter.com/casoulman
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Spring brings cha-ching to housing market - NewsTimes
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