New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
New Yorkers seek safe haven, more space
Nobody will ever mistake the area around the New Haven Country Club for New York’s Upper West side neighborhood.
But in age of the coronavirus, that’s a good thing, according to New Haven area Realtors and a Hearst Connecticut Media analysis of change of address request forms from the United States Postal Service. Between March and June 2019, there were just 37 change of address requests from outside Connecticut to Hamden.
This year, there were 325 change of address requests during the same period.
And of those 325 change of address forms, 193 came from the New York City zip code 10025 to the 06517 zip code in Hamden, the town’s Whitneyville neighborhood.
The 10025 zip code area, once known as the Bloomingdale District, it is now known as the Manhattan Valley section of the Upper West Side and includes a part of Central Park West as its eastern boundary.
According to data from the USPS, nearly 10,000 New York residents requested change of addresses to Connecticut between March and early June this year, compared to about 1,200 requests filed during that time in 2019. Requests from New York into New Haven County increased from 241 to 1,058 during that span.
None of this comes as any surprise to Michael Barbaro, the owner/broker of Huntsman-Meade Partners in New Haven.
“We are seeing a hot market, regardless of the town,” Barbaro said. “It’s booming. We’re seeing multiple offer situations for homes all over the area (involving people leaving New York City).”
Fairfield County remains a favorite destination for New Yorkers trying to put that city that never sleeps in their rearview mirror. But because of its proximity to Metro North commuter rail service as well the Connecticut shoreline, Barbaro said New Haven County makes an equally strong choice.
“It’s truly a desire to get a better quality of life,” he said.
Many of the Connecticut homes that the first wave of New Yorkers are closing sales on began earlier this month, according to Barbaro.
He described the situation of one of his clients, a couple who until recently lived in Brooklyn. The wife had a business in Brooklyn that was shut down when the coronavirus hit New York City and the husband works in Manhattan.
“They just wanted some more room,” Barbaro said of the couple, whom he declined to name. “They didn’t want to be cooped up in an apartment.”
Now, the husband telecommutes and his wife tries to figure what the next step will be for the business, Barbaro said.
The other New Haven County locales that New York City residents listed on their change of address forms between March and June 2020, and the number of households listing those Connecticut communities are:
⏩ The neighborhood surrounding Lincoln Center to West Haven, 136.
⏩ Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood to Woodbridge, 114.
⏩ Greenwich Village/Soho to Guilford, 70.
⏩ Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood to Madison, 63.
The numbers don’t necessarily reflect new homebuyers coming into the state and include both individuals and entire family units. Short- or long-term renters, or those who own multiple properties and are shifting their primary residence, may also request a change in address.
Hamden Mayor Curt Balzano Leng said he has not heard of any specific instances of people moving into into Hamden from New York City.
“I have listened to some real estate agents who have expressed that there’s a Connecticut market for people exploring moving out of the New York City experience,” Leng said.
“My concern as a mayor would be traveling folks, who might come in from other locations temporarily, especially from any locations with COVID numbers increasing or experiencing any level of outbreak,” he said. “Keeping to cohorts now is important and that stretches to the state, town and even neighborhood level.”
Much further down on the change of address list is
Cheshire.
The town actually had a Cheshire address listed as the new address 73 change forms requests in March through early June 2019. During the same period this year, there were 51.
But upon closer examination, 43 of the 51 change of address requests during that period this year were from people leaving West Point, N.Y., as well as Queens and Manhattan.
Town Council Chairman Rob Oris said he’s not personally aware of people relocating to Cheshire because of the coronavirus. He’s not worried about the impact any new arrivals would have,though, because the town’s public services are based in part upon the level of housing stock, according to Oris.
“Our infrastructure, public schools and safety, can handle it, ” Oris said. “If anything, it (having people relocate) would be a good shot in the arm for our property values.”
Guilford First Selectman Matt Hoey said it’s hard to tell at this point whether there has been a surge in people moving to the Shoreline town from New York City or whether the USPS data just reflects individuals who already had second homes in town.
“I can tell you we’re seeing a lot more out-of-state license plates in town much earlier than what is normally the summer season,” Hoey said.
“So it could be a case where people who normally only spend a week or two every summer are coming up and planning to spend the whole summer here living and working remotely,” Hoey said.
Area Realtors, he said, “are having trouble keeping up with the demand for homes in the $350,000 to $600,000 price range.”
“I think we’ll have a better idea whether this a trend later in the summer once we get a look at school enrollment numbers,” Hoey said.
Thus far, Guilford has not seen an influx of families from New York registering their children for classes in the fall, according to Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman.
But that doesn’t mean school districts around New Haven County won’t see a last minute surge.
Sherry Peterson, branch vice president and manager for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Branford, recently completed a sale of waterfront property that was in excess of $1 million to a New York couple with two children.
“They haven’t decided what they’re going to do yet,” she said referring to where the children will attend school.
The issue could become even harder for districts to determine easily as Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has released his plan to have the state’s public schools have students return to in-person learning in the fall. One scenario has students staying in their classrooms and teachers moving from classto-class when each period ends and a new one begins. Parents and educators have raised concerns about the ability to social distance when students return to school.
Peterson’s oversees Coldwell Banker’s territory east of Interstate 91 and she said much of Friday’s meeting with Realtors who she supervises was devoted to the rush by New Yorkers to relocate to Connecticut.
“We’re seeing it at all prices points and all types of living arrangements,” Peterson said.
Sam Pisacreta, a broker at Monroe-based Realty ONE Group Connect, said the market has heated up even in communities such as like West Haven, not traditionally a destination for higher end out-of-state home-buyers.
But now they’re coming “in busloads,” he said, and “buying anything and everything.”
Cities such as West Haven are more attractive now because buyers can get more for their money.
“You could put a home on the market on a Friday and it was sold by Saturday,” Pisacreta said. “It’s out of control. And typically we’re over asking (price).”
But Donald KlepperSmith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, said the said its easy to misread the USPS change of address information.
“This is a dynamic market that is in a state of flux and we’re living in a time where there is no point of reference,” Klepper-Smith said. “The nature of work is changing as well. So this is a pandemic with economic consequences.”
One of those consequences, he said, is an increasing “economic polarization.”
“There’s the people being bailed out on Wall Street and there’s people being left behind on Main Street,” Klepper-Smith said. “Personal safety trumps economic growth and right now people feel less safe in New York and are trying to find a safe haven in Connecticut. I also don’t think there is a lot of long-term planning going on.