As part of your prime homeownership experience, you want to have some great getaway options that are not too far away, right?
Living in Fairfield Connecticut, one of my favorites is Okemo Mountain in Ludlow Vermont! It’s just about two and a half hours away and it always refreshes your body and soul. You can leave home in the afternoon and check into your condo rental early evening, just in time for a glimpse of the slopes and a bite to eat in town. Then wake up and hit the ski trails. The beauty and peacefulness of the mountaintop views is just what the doctor ordered!
Finally, after a fun few days of fresh air and exercise, be sure to stop in at the Vermont Country Store as you head out of town. It is scenic, quaint, and super charming! Here are some snapshots of the full experience. If you would like to look into a home in the Fairfield or Westport Connecticut areas as well as homes near Okemo, DM me today. We have offices in each of these locations!!
If you would like to look into a home in the Fairfield or Westport Connecticut areas as well as homes near Okemo, DM me today. We have offices in each of these locations!!
Did you know there 35 points of negotiation in a Fairfield real estate sale? These terms can go your way…or not.
As a home buyer, you likely feel it’s a challenge to find a home in this market. As home seller, you may find it daunting to prepare your home for the market and you want to ensure your home is priced, presented, and marketed strategically so that you get the highest return and the best terms. Your trusted agent will help you accomplish both monumental endeavors.
Yet the process from contract to close can be the most challenging and vulnerable phase of your transaction.
Your agent must navigate and negotiate all the details and variables, both the anticipated and the unexpected, when working toward your successful sale.
There are 35 points of negotiation!
Price
Proof of funds, pre-approval
Timeline
Possession
Occupancy
Deposit money
Appraisal
Financing
Contingencies
Deadlines
Inspections
Repairs, remediation, or credits
Closing agency
Closing costs
Title search results
Survey
Permits
Property lines
Fences, trees, sheds
Easements, wetlands
Elevation certificate, elevation
Personal property
Insurance, property, flood
Home warranty
Other warranties- roof, mechanicals, builder
Water systems
Septic or sewer systems
Utilities
Prorations- oil, water, taxes
System or service leases- solar, water heaters, pest treatment
Assessments
Associations
Property disclosures
Walk-through
Closing!
There are many things that can go your way or not in your Fairfield real estate sale! You don’t want to pay the price without getting the value. With more 80 online testimonials and over $73M in sales, rest assured I will work tirelessly for your successful move just as I have done for all my other clients. Reach out to me today, and let’s discuss your plans.
Finally, the home you love just came on the market and you want to buy it.
But your existing house won’t be closing in time for you to make a competitive offer. In this market of tight inventory you need to be able to act quickly and come in with a complete and solid offer for the new home that you want to buy.
Did you know you can secure your mortgage pre-approval before you close on the sale of your home? Here’s a great tip you should know about!
If your dept-to-income ratio doesn’t allow for you to carry two houses, but you have an accepted offer for the sale of your house, this could be good news for you!
Have your downpayment ready.
Get the contingency-free loan commitment letter from the buyers for your house.
If the buyer for your house is financing and will give you their contingency-free loan commitment letter, you may be able to get your mortgage pre-approval to buy before you close on your sale.
With your buyer’s contingent-free loan commitment letter, your lender does not have to include your existing mortgage debt when figuring your debt-to-income ratio for your new loan. All you need is your down payment, and you are good to go.
It’s January 2023 and you are wondering, are home values falling? As a potential home buyer or home seller, you want to know where the values of your Fairfield County house are now and where they are likely heading.
I will keep you abreast of Fairfield County house values in Fairfield and Westport each month here on the blog. Reach out to me for values in additional towns.
Below is a comparison chart for each town showing the year-to-date change and an estimated forecast to address the question, “are home prices falling”.
As you can see, we are still in a seller’s market. Home values are up 12-25% in Fairfield and Westport at the end of 2022 compared to 2021. Inventory and new listings are down, and market time is down year over year.
Yet, in favor of buyers, unit sales and contracts are also down. And months of supply was up in December in both towns (data not shown). So this offers some opportunity for buyers to possibly have a little more time, choice and negotiating ability in the coming year. This leverage is on a case by case basis though. Due to the tight inventory, many homes are still selling very quickly and some still with multiple offers. So buyers should be prepared with a mortgage pre-approval or proof of funds so they can make an offer quickly if they see a home that they like.
On a national note, the experts have not projected home prices falling in 2023. They expect to see prices remain relatively flat followed by continued appreciation beginning in 2024. So more equity should be there for the taking for home buyers this year!
Reach out to me anytime with your questions about the market and to talk about your plans.
Below is November’s Local Housing Data for Westport, CT. Click the image to open the interactive report.
With the report open, use the menu in the upper left to search different towns and pull up more reports…like the Market Forecast tool! This is a screenshot of the expanded menu view:
Reach out to me anytime with questions about the market and your plans.
What’s going on in our local Connecticut housing markets as 2022 comes to a close? What’s UP, what’s DOWN? Join me in following this weekly update of what happens in Fairfield and Westport, and you will know first hand!
FAIRFIELD Single-Family
Nov 28 – Dec 4
Dec 5 – 11
Dec 12 – 18
Dec 19 – 25
Dec 26 – Jan 2
NEW
6
REDUCED
2
ACCEPTED OFFERS
3
SOLD
17
AVG % OF ASK
99%
YTD MEDIAN SALE PRICE
$820,000
WESTPORT Single-Family
Nov 28 – Dec 4
Dec 5 – 11
Dec 12 – 18
Dec 19 – 25
Dec 26 – Jan 2
NEW
5
REDUCED
6
ACCEPTED OFFERS
2
SOLD
7
AVG % OF ASK
98%
YTD MEDIAN SALE PRICE
$2,011,000
Source: SmartMLS
DID YOU KNOW that people move all year long and in every market?
Last year in November and December of 2021, 195 people successfully bought or sold a single-family home in Fairfield and Westport, and in 2019 there were 159 single-family sales during these two months. So you shouldn’t feel like you have to wait around for spring if you want to be in your ideal home now.
The best time to sell is when the timing matches your life goals. You can absolutely do it any time of year and in any market!
If you’re feeling concerned about the market conditions but wish you could move on to the home that truly matches your needs and lifestyle, reach out to me now, and let’s have a conversation.
Our fabulous communities are what draw people to our towns from near and far and what keeps people here sticking around and moving locally. That’s why I like to help support our local communities.
This week I met with Fairfield’s new Conservation Director, Tim Bishop to talk about how I can help homeowners in town learn how to protect our precious wetlands. Tim is an excellent resource for our town and truly wants to collaborate with homeowners to help them get their home improvements done while protecting our fragile natural resource, the inland wetland areas.
Most people are not aware of the importance of protecting wetlands and that doing so is critical to controlling flooding and stormwater run-off, maintaining our water quality, and preserving natural ecosystems that need still (vs. flowing) water to breed and live. Healthy wetland areas hold onto water which enables a natural cleaning process to occur and provides the environment necessary for wildlife, while controlling flooding. Many people don’t know they have wetland areas on their property. They don’t realize that their actions may be permanently destroying this critical natural resource, and they don’t realize that what they do in their yard impacts other people. So I will be working with Tim and others from the Greater Fairfield Board of Realtors on a plan to get the word out!
After meeting with Tim Bishop, I went to Bridgeport and helped to assemble 600 meal bags in preparation for Thanksgiving. This was part of a larger program to support 7,000 families.
The next day, it was time to vote!
And last, but not least, I launched a new Weekly Housing Update to enable you to track the market on a weekly basis and see what’s going on in Fairfield and Westport. You can find the Weekly Update here on the blog.
If you are thinking of making a move within one of our fabulous communities, within the next 12 months, now is the time to reach out to me so we can proactively put your plan in motion.
What’s really going on in our local Connecticut housing markets? Does it all boil down to supply and demand? Join me in following this weekly update of what happens in Fairfield and Westport, and you will know first hand! (Click each image below to view a quick Reel on Instagram.)
FAIRFIELD Single-Family
Oct 17 – 23
Oct 24 – 30
Oct 31 – Nov 6
Nov 7 – 13
Nov 14 – 20
Nov 21 – 27
NEW
14
14
8
8
8
1
REDUCED
11
12
7
11
7
2
ACCEPTED OFFERS
11
11
9
9
6
12
SOLD
22
9
13
6
9
9
AVG % OF ASK
98%
97%
98%
97%
98%
97%
YTD MEDIAN SALE PRICE
$810,000
$810,000
$820,000
$817,000
$815,000
$815,000
WESTPORT Single-Family
Oct 17 – 23
Oct 24 – 30
Oct 31 – Nov 6
Nov 7 – 13
Nov 14 – 20
Nov 21 – 27
NEW
8
9
15
6
5
1
REDUCED
4
5
3
5
4
1
ACCEPTED OFFERS
4
6
4
2
7
2
SOLD
3
5
8
1
6
4
AVG % OF ASK
98%
94%
96%
95%
98%
99%
YTD MEDIAN SALE PRICE
$2,050,000
$2,032,500
$2,050,000
$2,050,000
$2,050,000
$2,015,000
Source: SmartMLS
Nov 28: No one made a move in the middle of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, right? Actually they did! 27 happy parties made a big move with 14 accepted offers and 13 sold homes last week! Sale prices averaged 97% in Fairfield and 99% in Westport, so homes are selling close to asking price. Take a look at my quick video update.
Nov 21: Nothing happening the week before Thanksgiving, right..?
Observations: There was actually an UPTICK in accepted offers last week! The median sale price has been pretty steady in both towns in the last five weeks. It’s actually UP a bit in Fairfield from five weeks ago. Sale prices have been averaging 98% of asking, which is what we typically see in strong markets. New listings have been trickling in though.
So my takeaway is that we need more new listings!
DID YOU KNOW that people move all year long?
Last year, in November and December 2021, 195 people successfully bought or sold a single-family home in Fairfield and Westport, and in 2019 there were 159 single-family sales. So you shouldn’t feel like you have to wait around for spring if you want to be in your ideal home now.
The best time to sell is when the timing matches your life goals. You can absolutely do it any time of year and in any market!
If you’re feeling concerned about the market conditions but wish you could move on to the home that truly matches your needs and lifestyle, reach out to me now, and let’s have a conversation.
Oct 13: Observations: The biggest things that jump out at me right now are the price reductions and the ratio of the sale price to the asking price.
We saw ZERO price reductions for quite some time, but in the last four weeks we saw some. I still think these happened when sellers priced too optimistically versus pricing conservatively with comparable sales in the current market.
At the height of the frenzy, the sale/list ratio ran between 103% to 105%. In the last four weeks this ratio moved to the 95%-97% range which is closer to what we see in a more balanced market. Buyers had some opportunity to negotiate again in some cases. However, keep in mind there were still multiple offers and sales at and above the asking price as well.
The median sale price has been fairly consistent in both towns over the last four weeks.
The final result was better than she had ever imagined, but it took some serious soul searching, intense preparation, and full collaboration with her agent.
For years after she retired from her career as a flight attendant, Linda wanted to be with her friends who purchased homes in Florida and frequently traveled together from there. However, the responsibility of being the sole caretaker of her now 97-year old mom, Dolly required her to stay-put. Her family lived in upstate New York where her mother also owned a home. So the interim plan was to move back with Dolly to her New York house where her family could help with her care.
Preparation started by meeting with her agent to create a plan, and then it was time to start packing up her house.
Once she decided to sell, the job of emptying the home she had lived in since 1995 began. There are services to help a homeowner clear out their house quickly and easily, but Linda (Linda L, not me!) wanted to dig into this process herself.
William Raveis offers Raveis Refresh, a service that removes the homeowner’s burden of preparing the home for sale, and there’s no out of pocket expense to the seller until the closing.
But Linda felt the need to go through everything in the house and give away as much as she could. She accomplished this the old fashioned way, through networking and many trips to Goodwill! I believe that this process was also important for Linda because it was part of the emotional transition. It was not easy to leave the neighborhood she loved for so many years.
Part of our plan was to meet with a stager and determine the strategy for how to present the house to get the most money out of it.
We were all in agreement that the darkish yellow walls did not support the beachy vibe we wanted to go for in the beach area. Even the white ceilings needed refreshing after so many years since being painted. Several light fixtures from another era needed to be replaced and the exterior needed some touching up as part of the freshness strategy. And because Linda planned to get rid of almost everything in the house, the rooms needed furnishing. It was hard, even for us, to visualize the transformation that was soon to take place.
As Linda emptied the house, she gained momentum.
Linda called contractors to have deferred maintenance items attended to and had anything that was broken fixed. Gradually, she got rid of everything and made some key improvements like replacing the wood deck with new maintenance-free composite, installing some new appliances in the kitchen, and swapping out several light fixtures.
Fresh paint in the right shade yields the highest ROI. Staging creates the magic.
Then the painting began, and as the rooms became white, the natural light was reflected and uncovered a beautiful etherial feel that was dormant before. Even the basement got a paint refresh! With the home now a glow, it was time for the stagers to add the final magic. In one afternoon, they had the living room, dining room, study, and two bedrooms beautifully furnished, and the whole house accessorized. Linda’s house went from cluttered, dim, and tired, to light, bright, and magazine worthy! When she returned after leaving the house to the stagers, she could not believe it was the same house! She had the same reaction as the buyers who came to see it! Excitement!
The plan, effort, and collaboration paid off!
The house went on the market on a Thursday morning in time for the broker tour. Many agents came through with positive feedback. A number of agent showings took place from Thursday through the weekend. The showings in combination with a Saturday and Sunday open house brought 56 people through in four days! Multiple offers were received above the asking price, and by Monday, the new homeowner was on board!
If you would like to discuss your dream of the home that matches your needs and lifestyle, reach out to me below. If you’re curious what your home is worth in this market and would like an instant estimate, click here. Not ready yet? Keep an eye on the market with the monthly WHAT SOLD reports and Weekly Updates on the blog!
September 2022 housing numbers are in! How does September compare to the prior month, is there a slow down, and WHAT SOLD?? Curious what your home is worth?
Find out what happened in our local markets by downloading your free WHAT SOLD report with everything that sold in Fairfield and Westport in the previous month here. If you would like the report for another town, send me a request in the form below, and I will get it to you.
So, what are the numbers, Linda?
In Fairfield, September unit sales were down by 25 from August. The ratio of sale price compared to the list price was down two percent since August. The median sale price was also down, but the median days on market was the same.
In Westport, unit sales were down by 14 from the prior month. Sale price-to-list-price ratios averaged two percent lower than in August. The market time was up by 4 days compared to August.
Comparing September vs August,
Both towns saw fewer sales and sale prices closer to the asking price in September compared to August. The median sale price was lower in Fairfield and higher in Westport in September vs August.Market time was unchanged in Fairfield and longer in Westport.
Comparing September 2022 vs 2021,
Comparing September year over year, unit sales were down in both towns this year. The median sale price is still up from 2021. Market time was down in Fairfield and a few days longer in Westport.
Quick scoop on market status
FAIRFIELD – September 2022 vs August
Single-Family Homes
Units Sold: DOWN, 55 (vs 80)
Median Sale Price: DOWN, $853,000 (vs $908,000)
Average Sale vs. Asking Price: DOWN, 101% (vs 103%)
Median Days on Market: SAME 32 (vs 32)
Fairfield 2022 vs 2021
Units Sold: DOWN 27% (55 vs 75)
Median Sale Price: UP 4% ($853,275 vs. $820,000)
Days on Market: DOWN 25% (30 vs. 40)
WESTPORT – September 2022 vs. August
Single Family
Units Sold: DOWN, 34 (vs 48)
Median Sale Price: UP, $2,002,500 (vs $1,949,500)
Average Sale vs. Asking Price: DOWN, 101% (vs. 102%)
Median Days on Market: UP, 39 (vs 35)
Westport 2021 vs 2022
Units Sold: DOWN 17% (35 vs 42)
Median Sale Price: UP 41% ($2,080,000 vs $1,475,000)
You may also be wondering if prices will be coming down and if you should make a move now. For monthly charts showing more market parameters in your towns of interest, take a look at the Raveis Local Housing Data, and contact me to discuss the market and your plans.
If you’re thinking of making a move in the next 12 months or have any questions, call directly or send a note to Linda Raymond below.
options that are not too far away, right?
It’s just about two and a half hours away and it always refreshes your body and soul. You can leave home in the afternoon and check into your condo rental early evening, just in time for a glimpse of the slopes and a bite to eat in town. Then wake up and hit the ski trails. The beauty and peacefulness of the mountaintop 
views is just what the doctor ordered!
as you head out of town. It is scenic, quaint, and super charming! Here are some snapshots of the full experience. If you would like to look into a home in the Fairfield or Westport Connecticut areas as well as homes near Okemo, DM me today. We have offices in each of these locations!!
Fairfield and Westport CT Real Estate Guide 