Agents: Home sales ‘off the charts’

Numbers lag for now, but sales finalized after end of Q2 will swell summer stats

A late-May surge of New York City dwellers interested in the suburbs did not result in Connecticut home sale gains for the second quarter of 2020, but real estate agencies say sales are now being completed that will swell the summer numbers as contracts are finalized.

Statewide, sales of single-family homes in Connecticut dropped 13 percent — to just under 9,100 — in the second quarter from a year earlier, as reported by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties.

But in a signal of what could come, home sales were up in Gold Coast towns like Greenwich, Darien, Westport and Wilton, a trend driven by what agencies say is a continuing wave of buyers looking to escape elevator buildings in New York City amid the stubborn COVID-19 pandemic.

And sales currently under contract are running 30 percent higher than at last year’s levels, with banks showing continued willingness to issue mortgages, albeit with some tightening of credit terms.

“The pending (sales) are off the charts,” said Candace Adams, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties. “If you look at certain pockets of the market, they are up even more. I would say that is pent-up demand and a lot of New York migration . ... I think our spring market is going to go right through the fall.”

In its own analysis of homes under contract that had yet to close as of late June, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty found that New York City buyers triggered roughly a third of transactions in Fairfield County and Litchfield County; and more than 40 percent of the pending closings in neighboring Westchester County, N.Y.

The market remained dormant through the third week of May, then went into overdrive, according to Paul Breunich, CEO of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, which has its main office in Stamford. He added that 20 percent to 30 percent of homes on the market are triggering multiple offers, five to six times the level of recent years.

“In 30 years, I’ve never seen a market like this — and it is because of the New York City population looking to move out,” Breunich said. “I don’t think it’s a shortterm, ‘panic’ buy. I really think we went from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market ... and we went to escaping to the suburbs. Those two things happened overnight.”

Greenwich has been among the immediate beneficiaries, with June

home sales up 23 percent to about 75 transactions, nudging the town into positive territory for the second quarter compared to a year ago.

In Darien, New Canaan and Wilton, new listings came in at well over double their totals of June last year.

Berkshire Hathaway agent Mark Pruner said an increase in the state’s conveyance tax for houses priced above $2.5 million may have frontloaded some of those Greenwich sales — he noted 12 closings occurring on June 30 alone to get in ahead of the change. But the market is sustaining into July, with another 170 homes under contract to be transferred, as tracked in Pruner’s Greenwich Streets blog.

“COVID buyers are activating the local buyers,” Pruner said in an email. “Our more perceptive Greenwich buyers are seeing that prices will likely be going up in backcountry and mid-country and they are actively looking and buying [and] I assume in places like New Canaan and Ridgefield that they are also seeing this.”

Home to the first documented case of coronavirus in Connecticut, Wilton saw home sales go up by more than half in June, while Westport transactions closed at more than 20 percent above the volume of June 2019. Neighboring Weston saw sales soar 140 percent in June, with new listings flooding the market at triple the numbers of a year ago.

Adams said Fairfield County could see an even bigger rebound, but for a limited supply of new listings despite the June increases in some towns.

“Listings are coming on now, but ... are still significantly lower yearover-year,” Adams said. “If you plan to sell your house in the next year, do it now — do not wait. This is the time to put your house on the market.”