Greenwich CT, Residential Real Estate Blog and Analysis: December 13th

Greenwich, CT Residential Real Estate Blog and Analysis:   December 13th A weekly analysis brought to you by Greenwich Real Estate Guy. www.greenwichrealestateguy.com

With the market slow due to the lack of new inventory and it being December, I have decided to feature a property that just sold this week.  The above property is located at 85 Richmond Hill Road.  This colonial was built in 2005 and sits on 4 acres of land.  There are 8 bedrooms, 9 full baths and 2 half baths as well as 5 fireplaces, and a garage fitting three cars.  The home is listed as containing 10,006 s.f.  If you have been reading this newsletter you know that the area that has been hit the hardest over the last few years is back country.  This home first came on the market for $8.9M in February of 2007.  The last time it came on was December of 2012 for $7.675M.  It had been on the market for 1,097 days and closed this week for $4.825M.  There are two ways to look at this.  Obviously the negative that it was on for so long and sold for such a small percentage compared to where it started.  However, for me it signifies the market really starting to show signs of sustainability.  The two aspects of the market that are slowest are back country and anything over $3M.  The fact that it sold, along with the other transactions over the past two months in Back Country are demonstrating the wait for Back Country to pick up could be over. We just changed our MLS (Multiple Listing Service).  If you would like me to set you up with a web portal based on your customized search that will alert you as a new property comes on the market, changes price, or is sold, send me an email with your criteria.  Clients love this as it helps them become more educated on what price points properties are transacting at within their own personal criteria.   There is a lack of inventory currently as properties come off of the market for the year end.  In my opinion that points to an onslaught of inventory in Spring.  If, you are looking to put your house on the market I would advise to put on before rather than later, as I feel there the philosophy of waiting until the spring market is outdated with the internet.  The difficulty with that thought process is if everyone else is doing the same then you are competing against numerous properties.  However, if you put it between now and February you have the opportunity to differentiate yourself online as well as the Realtor Community.  As Realtors we tour houses every Tuesday and Thursday, and if there are not a lot of broker open houses your house will be seen by a lot of Realtors which obviously helps in those realtors showing your house.  Currently, we have 514 properties on the market, only down two from last week.  If you look at my blog from the end of September we had 656 properties, which is still 22 percent decrease in total inventory in the last couple of months.  Since, there were not a lot of changes with the market, I have not updated the graphs as they are all accurate.  I have updated the open house list in case you are expert snow navigators. Below are the Sold Price to List Price percentage for each of the four towns as well as some neighborhood data: Sold Price vs. List Price    Neighborhood Data       Please let me know if you would like me to provide customized information or statistics for you based on your criteria. **The information on the featured property and all statistical information is from the Greenwich MLS. **All opinions garnered from the statistics are my own

Properties Sold    We had another great month in sold properties.  Last year's November was busier than the past with the uncertainty of the fiscal cliff.  Those fears pushed December to the best in recent memory as you can see above.  It says a lot that November out paced last year by so much.  Obviously, I do not see us competing with last year's December, but all and all we are seeing a lot more properties transact.  All of last year 722 properties sold, this through December 7th, we are already at 780. New Listings Again, we see the new listings out pacing previous years.  In my opinion this will only continue as homeowners feel the market gets better, I see more and more putting their house on the market.    Year to Date Sold  We are not seeing a huge change in the percentages as we are towards the end of the year.  However, I think it is important to point out where there are differences in prices ranges that have a flux between the sold and inventory.     Year to Date Available     In an effort to define the different markets as a good time to buy or sale I believe one needs to look at the months on average it would take to sell through the inventory we have.  I have broken this down by June of 2012 (which is the high in my opinion) to January of 2013 (the low in my opinion) then will add each month as we come to them.    Price Range 6/12/13 1/5/13 2/1/13 2/22/13 3/22/13 4/26/13 5/31/13 6/28/13 7/26/13 8/30/13 9/30/13 10/31/13 11/30/13 0-$500K 6.36 4.96 5.76 5.28 5.12 4.95 5.76 5.76 6.24 5.11 5.28 6.08 4.96 $500K-$1M 7.98 3.88 4.22 4.22 4.72 5.11 5.5 5.55 5.5 5.16 5.33 5 3.72 $1M-$1.5M 11.48 7.22 7.34 7.1 7.22 8.2 9.3 8.81 7.95 7.59 7.95 6.97 5.38 $1.5M-$2M 10.86 7 8.55 9.06 8.68 9.44 9.19 8.8 8.5 7.53 7.27 6.25 6.12 $2M-$3M 15.27 8.64 9.72 10.2 9.96 12.24 13.8 12.6 12.12 11.76 13.08 11.64 9.12 $3M-$4M 21.82 12.4 13.77 16.22 17.55 20.88 22.66 22 20.22 20.22 22 19.77 16.22 $4M-$5M 37.33 17.5 16.5 18.5 21.5 27.5 28 27.5 23.5 21.99 24 24.5 18 $5M-$7.5M 30.92 19.4 20.47 20.47 20.82 23.64 25.76 26.82 26.47 24 26.11 24.7 23.29 $7.5M-$10M 57 25.84 22.15 22.15 25.84 26.76 31.38 33.2 32.3 25.84 26.76 27.69 26.79 $10M+ 40.21 36 36.85 40.28 38.57 36 38.57 36 31.71 29.14 39.42 40.28 39.42   **to calculate months on average in this chart I used the full year of 2012 sold properties in each price range   Look at the difference in the last month's numbers and how it has affected the overall market.  With so many people taking their homes off the market in the past month it has really affected the market.  The interesting aspect is that the luxury market has stayed consistent.  Yet, the other price ranges have dropped tremendously over the last month. Price Range 8/30/13 9/30/13 10/25/13 11/30/13 0-$500K 4.26 4.4 5.2 4.2 $500K-$1M 4.65 4.9 4.6 3.4 $1M-$1.5M 4.96 5.2 4.6 3.6 $1.5M-$2M 5.61 5.6 5.1 5 $2M-$3M 7.84 9.1 8.3 6.3 $3M-$4M 20.22 23.4 21.3 17.1 $4M-$5M 22 23.9 25.3 18.8 $5M-$7.5M 40.8 31.6 26.4 25 $7.5M-$10M 44.8 52.1 58.8 53.1 $10M+ 272 103.2 92.1 72.2 ** to calculate months on average in this chart I used year to date sold properties in each price range. Obviously the months on average were the lowest at the end of the year 2012.  The uncertainty of the fiscal cliff, as well as the election (most properties that closed in December were negotiated before election was finalized), and uncertainty of taxes.  Not to mention if people are going to take their house off of the market they will tend to do it over the holidays.   Open Houses December 16th      Below are all of the Greenwich Open Houses for Sunday.  I apologize for the spacing issue.  I am pulling the information from our new MLS and could not get the spacing correct.  I will fix it by next week's edition. Address Town Price Time Broker 52 Lafayette Place #4B Greenwich $276K 1-3 PM Raveis 1535 E Putnam Avenue #301 Old Greenwich $300K 12-2 PM Raveis 561 River Road Cos Cob $730K 1-3 PM Raveis 40 Ettl Lane #14 Greenwich $875K 2-4 PM Weichert 30 Caroline Place Greenwich $1.195M 1-4 PM Raveis 111 Lake Avenue Greenwich $1.595M 1-3 PM Houlihan 16 Fairview Terrace Greenwich $1.995M 1-4 PM BHHS 3 Woodland Drive Greenwich $1.25M 1-4 PM BHHS 55 Shore Road Old Greenwich $2.349M 1-3 PM Weichart 294 Round Hill Road Greenwich $2.495M 1-4:30 PM BHHS 20 West End Avenue Old Greenwich $3.899M 1-3 PM Higgins Best,                                                                                                                                                         Jared Randall                                                 Join my Mailing List Houlihan Lawrence Greenwich                     Search Properties www.greenwichrealestateguy.com                Forward to a Friend cell:  203-273-1034                                         View My Website email:  jrandall@houlihanlawrence.com     Like me on Facebook            Mortgage Information There are two individuals I feel most confident about when it comes to home mortgages.  One in Manhattan and one in Greenwich.  They are Jeff Ihrig of First Republic in Manhatan, and in Greenwich I prefer Treena David-Chirico of Wells Fargo. Jeff can be reached at 646-372-5181.  Treena's phone number is 203-618-3923.  You can go to her website to input your specific information to receive rates.  Her website is www.wfhm.com/treena-david-chirico.