Ever wish there was one place to go and find out about all the open houses for the upcoming weekend? Look no further!
Just click the image to go to raveis.com for the best open house search tool around, and find out what’s open in every town in all these states:
Connecticut Massachusetts Rhode Island Vermont New Hampshire New York
You can also set filters for your choice of neighborhood, property type and price range to get to the results you are looking for quickly. So check out the open house search tool, send it to your family and friends, and let me know how you like it in the feedback form below! Feel free to use the same form for questions or to request a private showing.
Remember, I’m here to help you with your next move, near or far. Whether your move is out of town, out of state or overseas, I can work with you directly or place you with another excellent agent almost anywhere in the world.
Here’s a previously featured open house:
286 Old Stratfield Road in Fairfield, CT listed for $369,900.
Cool Cape with private fenced yard, two driveways and many updates
Word on the Street: Fairfield, Westport & Weston 2013 vs. 2014
Just checking in with a quick report on the real estate markets in July before joining the masses and taking a little vacation-
We would expect the housing market to be seasonally slower in the months of July and August as people are in full summer mode and focused on enjoying the warm weather. However, this July appeared to be slower than last July in Westport and Fairfield. Weston was singing a different tune though-
In Fairfield, unit sales were down almost 43% from 122 to 70 last month. The median (midpoint) sale price was also down 9% to $577,500. The average time on market was up 9% to 97 days. All this is good news for the buyers out there though since it affords them more bargaining power. One measure that favored sellers was a 5% increase in the price per square foot from $290 to $305 of homes that sold.
Sales were also slower in Westport with a 6% reduction and 44 July closings. The median sale price was $1,225,000, down almost 2% from last year. Market time increased 37% to 101 days. Yet the price per square foot increased 11% to $436.
Sellers take note: Weston rallied last month with numbers in your favor! Unit sales were 24% higher this July with 31 compared to 25 last year. The median sale price was up 6% to $820,000. Giving some leverage to buyers was market time up 40% to an average of 137 days and price per square foot down 3% to $257.
So that’s the quick scoop for now. Check out the charts with more numbers and print this report following the link below. I assume there will not be much change in pace next month, but I’m anticipating a rally in September and October when everyone works on making their moves before the holidays and cold weather take over.
The journey was long for Eric, Roberta and their young son and a new puppy. Of course, it would be a big lifestyle change from an apartment in Manhattan to a house in the suburbs. First of all, when you could routinely have any nationality of cuisine delivered to your doorstep within 20 minutes, anything less seemed quite inconvenient. Add to this the perspective of coming from a classic doorman building on the Upper West Side near parks and subways with magnificent pre-war details and 11-foot ceilings, and you were starting with high expectations… as you should! There was no pressure to move, but it was time for a new experience, a home to spread out in with a yard, an active town, and excellent public schools.
Roberta was drawn to the open space and pastoral scenery in upper Westchester County, New York. Eric wanted a town with direct train service to Grand Central to make the commute to his Park Avenue office as painless as possible. The family began their search in Westchester, but after evaluating the homes, amenities and property taxes there decided that Fairfield County Connecticut would be a better fit.
So they set their focus on Westport and rented a summer house there to get to know the town. Their wish list included a neighborhood with a country feeling and a location on a quiet street, but not too far from the train. The home needed to be something special- an older house with charm and good bones, or maybe a new construction with timeless style. There needed to be at least an acre of property with bucolic surroundings. The ceilings had to be high, and the flow had to be practical as well as aesthetically pleasing. The architecture had to be true to its form and consistent throughout. High-quality details such as wide plank wood floors and large windows for ample natural light and pretty views were key. A front porch was a plus, and so was a pool. Last but not least, the chemistry had to be there.
So we looked. And we looked. Over time, we found that the Greens Farms and Old Hill neighborhoods had the location and feeling that Eric and Roberta were looking for. We saw many, many homes that had many great features. But finding the perfect blend was not easy- as a typical suburban home would not do. See what Eric, as well as other clients, thought about the process.
Finally, after two an a half years, the winning home was found! It was gorgeous. It was custom built and designed by talented architect, John Fifield. It had the special combination of flow, uniqueness, proportions, elegance and setting. It had a romantic wrap around porch and a pool. It had the chemistry!
And that’s how the story begins. A family’s quest leads to their new castle in Old Hill.
What is a castle? In its most basic form, it’s a place that gives us security and privacy.
Home Sweet Home. It’s the place we cherish, where we feel safe and sound, sometimes happy, other times sad; where we celebrate, gather together, share, work, create, cook, decorate; where we can love and be loved; where we live, grow, rest, dream, and at times sort through the chaos that life often throws at us! After all, there’s no place like home !
Home is a most important place and a most significant asset. This is why I love to join my clients in the chapter of their lives when it’s time for their next castle. It is a critical business transaction and a complex process, but most important, it’s an emotional, exciting and monumental time! I am honored to share this time with my clients, buffer the anxiety, guide the course and share the joy!
As this week of perfect beach weather continues, it seems like a great time for an update on shoreline housing in Fairfield and Westport.
Direct beachfront property! Click for more pics.
Today, there are 80 single-family homes for sale in Westport in the coastal neighborhoods of Compo Beach, Saugatuck Shores and Hillspoint. Twenty-seven of these properties are on direct waterfront. Asking prices range from $525,000 to $12,985,000. One listing has an accepted offer.
In Fairfield, there are 121 active listings in the Beach area and Sasco. Thirty-three of the homes are directly on the water or beachfront. Asking prices run the gamut from $260,000 to $62,000,000! Sixteen of these listings have accepted offers.
For additional housing information or to request a showing, please inquire below.
Spring came slowly and went fast this year! So let’s take a look at our local Fairfield, Westport and Weston markets compared to last year, January through May. If we compare the inventory, numberof sales, prices and the ratio of selling to asking price for single family homes, we can see some consistency across the three towns.
Rare beachfront property with summer cottage. $1,395,000
The inventory (number of homes on the market) was up across all three towns with an increase of 13%, 11% and 4% in Fairfield, Westport and Weston respectively since last year.
The median sale price was also higher at of the end of May compared to last year in all three towns. The median sale price is the price where half the homes sold for more and half sold for less. It gives an idea of the mix of price points without being skewed by an extreme high or low sale as would result with an average. The median sale price in Fairfield was $549,500 at the end of May, up 4% from $529,500 last May. The median price was also 4% higher this year in Westport moving to $1,335,705 from $1,285,000. In Weston it was up 11% this May at $791,500 from $712,250.
Unit sales varied among the towns. Fairfield sales increased almost 7% from 216 to 230 this spring. However, Westport sales volume fell 20% relative to the end of May last year, from 162 to 130. Weston sales were also down 8% from 48 last year to 44 this year, but the town was showing a strong come-back during the month of May with a 33% increase year over year from 12 to 16.
Fairfield: Inventory Up 13%, Sales Up 6.5%, Sale/List Ratio at 95%
Westport: Inventory Up 11%, Sales Down 19.8%, Sale/List Ratio at 97%
Weston: Inventory Up 4%, Sales Down 8%, Sale/List Ratio at 97%
The sale-to-list ratio indicates how close to the asking price a property sold for. The average at the end of May was between 95% and 97% in the three towns. There was little change in Fairfield for this metric, as it shifted from 96% last year to 95% this year. The ratio had been lower last year in Westport and Weston, at 92% and 94% respectively, but they both increased to 97% this spring.
In summary, seller confidence seems to have been strong given the higher inventory levels. More homes in higher price points entered the market and sold this year as indicated by the higher median sale price. Sales volume was down in two out of three towns and up somewhat in Fairfield, raising questions about the momentum of the spring market. These unit sales numbers could have been a residual effect of the harsh winter causing a delayed spring market. In the sales that closed, the high ratio of sale- to-asking price indicated that buyers and sellers were of a similar mindset on value. Overall, this market snapshot positions us with a nice window of opportunity to make a move this summer- before the masses escape to Vacationland!
Cool Cape with central AC, private fenced yard, two driveways & many updates. List Price: $379,000 Open Houses: Thursday July 29 10 AM-1 PM & Sunday August 10 1 PM-3 PM
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1284 Fairfield Woods Rd, Fairfield CT Sold for $445,000 on September 17, 2013
It’s safe to say that our local single family housing markets have been doing well this year compared to September 2012! Sales and prices are up, and inventory is down.
In Westport, the number of homes for sale through September decreased 11% from 364 last year to 324 this year. Sales jumped 29.4% from 279 to 361homes sold this year. The median sale price increased 3.5% from $1,225,000 to $1,268,000 at the same time this year.
In Fairfield, we also saw inventory down from 501 last year to 482 this fall, a reduction of 3.8%. Unit sales were up 18.4% from 479 to 567 homes sold. And the median sale price was also up 4.7% from $549,000 to $575,000. Take a look at the chartfor more detail.
Please contact me with questions, comments or new business opportunities!
We sure have been hit hard with winter extremes since the New Year with everything from sub-zero temperatures to multiple blizzards and some freezing rain mixed in for good measure! No doubt the weather has been keeping our spring real estate market at bay, but how did sales look in our neighborhood markets in January after the holidays?
Let’s take a look at a few measures across three towns, and see how they relate to last year. Comparing the number of homes on the market, total sales and the average market time in January, we see some promising numbers. View or print charts here.
In Weston, Westport and Fairfield inventory of homes for sale was up between nine and twenty-two percent suggesting stronger seller confidence in the market this year. Sales in fact, were way up in Weston (50%) and Fairfield (42%) compared to January 2013. Westport sales were down twenty-two percent, but there had been a big spike in the December sales. The average days on market was way down (-40%) in Westport, though up a bit in Weston and Fairfield (5% and 12% respectively).
Overall, the increased inventory and sales in addition to average market time as low as 80 days in Westport, suggest to me that there is pent up demand on both the buy and sell sides of the market. It would be great to see the market jump up to the pace noted in my post from last June. I expect to see a flurry of activity in the housing market instead of snow as soon as Mother Nature decides to get the weather under control!
Fairfield and Westport CT Real Estate Guide 