Real estate market stays hot into 2021
Realtors: NYC residents still fleeing to Greenwich
GREENWICH — When COVID-19 hit last year, people started to flee New York City and headed for the Nutmeg State. As a result, Greenwich real estate sales shot through the roof in 2020.
And local real estate agents say the new residents are here to stay — and even more are coming.
“I think people had thought that as soon as the vaccines started coming you would start to see the pause button being hit or at least a little bit of an easing off the gas pedal in Greenwich, but it’s not to be,” Robin Kencel, a Realtor with Compass, said of the local home market.
“That’s a great testament to Greenwich. What it says to me is that as people have moved here for a very unusual reason, they are finding out how special we are,” Kencel said. “There is, dare I say, a renaissance in Greenwich. I almost want to say that at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, which I don’t want to do.”
BK Bates, a Realtor with Houlihan Lawrence with more than 40 years of experience, said the Greenwich market is “absolutely insanely busy” this winter.
“People came out in a panic during the pandemic — and they’ve not only stayed, but they’ve told their friends and they want to live out here,” Bates said. “It’s a great lifestyle (in Greenwich), and people have discovered it. Especially if you are staying home with your family, there’s a lot to recommend. Out of a terrible, terrible thing like COVID, there have been a few good things and one of them is that families have been able to spend more time together.”
Mark Pruner, a local Realtor and real estate blogger, said he has seen a 60 percent increase in sales in town. In the last five months of 2020, home sales hit record levels, even continuing into the winter, which is typically a slow time.
“The market continues to be very hot,” Pruner said. “Our big issue right now is our inventory continues to set record lows week after week. … A lot of the people who rented are now buying. Many of the people who rented are re-renting until things are fully back to normal in New York, which may not be for a while.”
Kencel added: “It is prolonged and real — and it is steady.”
Sticking around town
Another driver in the market, Pruner said, is what he called “intra Greenwich buyers.” Those are people who already live in town and who choose to remain in town by purchasing another home in Greenwich.
Instead of downsizing or perhaps moving to warmer states, residents with families are purchasing bigger homes because of the pandemic, he said.
Residents find they don’t have to commute on a daily basis, Pruner said, but they want need space when working from home. Families who are engaged in digital learning from home also want more space, he said.
“People now need two or three offices and multiple homework areas for virtual schooling,” Pruner said. “People within Greenwich are upsizing. We still have a fairly standard number of people downsizing, many of whom become snowbirds. But we have demand that is being pushed from multiple areas.”
Backcountry benefits, too
The surge of home sales has also been a boon to the backcountry, real estate agents say.
In recent years, sales had shifted away from the backcountry, with its large homes and high property values. Buyers moved away from the rural areas north of the Merritt Parkway and wanted to live closer to central Greenwich.
But there are recent gains in the backcountry and the midcountry, Pruner said.
“Backcountry already started to recover in the third quarter of 2019 because the price per square foot had gotten so low. But all of a sudden the pandemic pushed it up to being the kind of premier location it was before,” he said.
“We’re seeing lots of people who are staying there. Our inventory is down and the demand is up substantially,” Pruner said. “Midcountry has actually done a bit better than backcountry as people like having the space of 2 acres there and they like living closer to town.”
Without a daily commute, the backcountry doesn’t seem so far away anymore, he said. The office is 20 feet away, he said, not a 30or 40-mile drive.
Bates backed up that assessment, saying, “Backcountry did have much more activity than it has seen in quite a while.” Overall, the demand is everywhere in town, she said.
“There’s no part of town that no one wants anymore,” Bates said. “There’s a demand for almost everything these days. There’s multiple bids on many, many properties.”
Kencel said she had observed a little hesitancy about buying in downtown Greenwich at the beginning — given the density of the area and the buyers’ desire for space and distance — but even properties there are moving.
“Backcountry is coming back, and there have been some high level sales all over town,” Kencel said.
Roseann Benedict, a Realtor with William Raveis, said shortterm rentals of Greenwich homes were “flying off the market” last June.
Home sales and the town’s value
According to Town Assessor Lauren Elliott, most of the town’s real estate value is in District 10, in the northwest part of town, and District 11, in the northeast portion of town.
In looking at the town’s Grand List, District 10 makes up 19 percent of the town’s value and District 11 makes up 18 percent, giving the two districts combined more than a quarter of the town’s real estate value, Elliott said.
Her analysis of the Grand List, which is compiled every October, found the total value of backcountry properties at $4,976,566,900 in 2020, up nearly $23 million from the 2019 total value of $4,953,629,400.
That could grow even further because sales have kept rolling since last fall..
She recently told the Board of Estimate and Taxation’s Budget Committee that she had noticed many transfers of sale for backcountry homes and is curious to see what spring, which is when sales usually rev up, would mean for that part of town.
The sales bring in conveyance taxes for the town, as well as fees from permits because as Elliott told the committee: home improvements tend to go hand in hand with home purchases.
“When people purchase property, they’re apt to do work on it as well,” Elliott said.
When the surge in home purchases and rentals first hit last summer, swimming pools were in demand. That hasn’t changed in 2021. “Pools have become very important,” Bates said, and backyards are also highly sought. The more time that people spend at home, the more they want activities and space that their family can enjoy.
“Backyards, extra space in your house and nice neighborhoods are all very positive things,” Bates said. “It’s created a great demand for housing in Greenwich.”
More data on the changing real estate values will be determined in the coming year, with the revaluation of all town properties taking place in 2021. Revaluation, when all town residential and commercial properties are inspected and reassessed for their value, takes place every five years. It was planned for 2020, however, it was delayed by the pandemic.
When the revaluation is done, the town know what the impact on Greenwich real estate and on sale places, Elliott said.