Letter to the Editor

By John Engel Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predictable, but desirable. They mean growth. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. -Fyodor Dostoevsky I’ve been thinking about datamining a lot these days, what it means and how it

By John Engel Past performance is often used as a warning label to caution against assuming an investment will continue to perform well in the future: “past performance is not a guarantee of future success.” But this is election week, the correlations are strong, and you can take my predictions

By John Engel Zillow, inventor of the controversial Zestimate, has rolled out a new “climate risk threat score” for every house in the country. Zillow gets their data from First Street which has been crunching numbers on climate risk for a decade. Redfin offers a similar tool, but Zillow’s version

By John Engel I read with interest in Good Morning Wilton the story of an historical building owned by the town of Wilton which has fallen into disrepair and is now evacuated, requiring a multimillion-dollar renovation. This is not a problem unique to Wilton. New Canaan tasked Penny Young and

By John Engel The New Canaan Housing Authority (a non-profit corporation) is attempting to purchase Avalon New Canaan, 9.1 acres, 10 buildings, 104 units, currently with only 7 vacancies starting at $4,030 per month (for a 2-bedroom)  Why the Housing Authority?  The New Canaan Housing Authority (HANC) has statutory authority

By John Engel It is October and that means it’s time to paint a picture of the Fairfield County real estate market through 9 months. I’ll compare New Canaan with peers Darien and Westport and include large-market Stamford as a contrasting baseline.  Median Sales Price – All Property Types –

  By John Engel We are facing an existential threat in New Canaan. No, I’m not talking about the annual drumbeat of laws from Hartford which strip away local control of our zoning and of our schools. I am talking about shutting down the New Canaan Multiple Listing Service. The

By John Engel Today I am speaking on a panel on industry changes. I am noticing more pressure on buyer’s agents from a number of directions. Sellers are asking if they can eliminate or reduce offers of compensation, probing for a better deal.  Buyers are approaching the listing agent directly.

By John Engel It is as if we began the Fall Season with a starter pistol on Labor Day. Buyers and sellers are feeling a newfound urgency to enter the market. Last week we listed an in-town renovated antique for $2.5 million. Over 30 groups made appointments last weekend and

By John Engel Homes for Sale. For the third month in a row the amount of inventory fell in New Canaan and continues to drop around Fairfield County. Darien and Wilton see single family home inventory consistently below 50 homes since late 2022 while New Canaan has been below 75

By John Engel We are at the long-awaited inflection point where the Fed reverses course and lowers rates. The stock and bond markets rallied this week on the news. A survey of big banks predicts 30-year rates between 6.5% and 6.7% in the fourth quarter. 15-year adjustables, already in the

By John Engel This week’s column is not really about showing a house. I am being both literal and metaphorical, relevant for those of you in another line of work. It’s about being purposeful in everything we do. I’ll begin with a story from the Army. Sergeant Cornelius had previously

By John Engel Pool construction is down 49% since peaking during the pandemic, 2021. And searches in Google for “swimming pool cost” is also down 40% since 2020, now at their lowest levels in a decade. Pool Corp estimates that the cost of a new pool nationally has risen 72%

By John Engel We looked at the stats for the first 6 months, comparing towns of similar size and wealth head to head in order to add some context. When we quote a number, it is a comparison with this time last year. These figures include houses, condos and co-ops.

By John Engel This week we’ll discuss discount points and assumable loans as two creative ways to approach your next real estate purchase. Purchasing discount points becomes more popular during periods of higher interest rates. It’s a strategy everyone should consider in this “higher-for-longer” environment. According to Zillow, nearly half

By John Engel New Canaan – There are 73 single-family homes for sale, a -15% drop since last year. Last year we peaked in May with 86 and two years ago we peaked in June with 95, a steady decline. The median sold price was $2.02 million across May’s 18

By John Engel This is a lost art. I am referring to the property description field on the multiple listing service. The New Canaan MLS limits agents to 500 characters while the SmartMLS allows 1500. Letting agents say three times as much does not seem to be making much of

By John Engel As we approach the end of the Spring market this is the point of the year when we appear to have the most amount of inventory, the crest of the inventory sine wave. That is because everything that is coming on is on, and those properties that

By John Engel Head-to Head Comparison Here’s a head-to-head comparison of the current real estate market conditions for Q1-2024 between Westchester County, NY, and Fairfield County, CT. Fairfield: Average Sales Price: $915,665, a slight decrease from the previous year Average Price Per Sq Ft: $422 Median Sales Price: $545,000, a

By John Engel Median Sales Price (Single Family) New Canaan: The median sales price stands at $2,161,000, showing a modest quarterly growth (+1.9%) and a year-over-year increase (+7.7%). Greenwich: Surpasses New Canaan with a median sales price of $3,000,000, indicating a more pronounced quarterly surge (+60.3%) and a significant year-over-year

By John Engel Closed Sales New Canaan had 32, up from 31 while Darien had 22 down from 32 a year ago. Wilton had 42 sales, up 55% from a year ago while Westport had 45, down -15% from 53 a year ago. New Canaan sales were flat despite lower

By John Engel Manhattan Market Report Manhattan first quarter sales fell, down 11.3% annually, now below two thousand (1,988), the lowest level in 3 years. Prices slid year-over-year, 17.4% below pre-pandemic levels. Inventory went lower due to the “lock-in-effect”. Mortgage-purchases dropped 26.7% annually. The percentage of cash sales has reached

By John Engel Many of us are wondering how long it will take until the pendulum swings. How long before the seller’s market becomes a buyer’s market? There are many factors at play, but the favorite term being bandied about on talk shows and cocktail parties is “Lock-in effect”.  This

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“Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O’Hara, that Tara, that land, doesn’t mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.” That quote from Gone With the Wind

New Listings. Westport wins with 47 new listings, an 88% rise. New Canaan had 16 new listings in January, a -24% drop from the previous January. This 20% decline in new listings was about typical among towns in our peer group. Darien is also lagging with only 13 new listings,

A dead cat bounce is a temporary recovery from a prolonged decline or bear market that’s followed by a continuation of the downtrend. In other words, it’s a false optimism. Cats don’t bounce. I was wondering if that is what we are really experiencing in the housing market when we