‘Buying before they’ve been constructed’
City sees uptick in suburban residents, dip in SoNo
NORWALK — Between 2019 and 2020, South Norwalk saw more people leave the area, while the city’s suburban areas saw an influx of residents, according to United States Postal Service address change data .
Most areas of Norwalk, which consists of five ZIP codes, have seen an increase in residents, while the SoNo region has experienced an exodus in recent years.
SoNo’s data, however, may be affected by the federal public housing unit Washington Village housing complex, Chief of Economic and Community Development Jessica Vonashek said Wednesday.
Washington Village was refurbished using federal grants, necessitating relocation of the complex’s residents for a period, Vonashek said. The project was completed in phases and began in 2016.
“There are more units of development there, but in order to be able to do that some folks relocated for a temporary time period to be able to have housing units be built,” Vonashek said. “We invited all residents back to
live in the new buildings. Those numbers may be skewed because that was such a large number of apartments coming in at a higher rate because the apartments completed at that timeline.”
Multiple large projects are in the final stages, including Washington Village, Harborside on Water Street and 1 Chestnut, a mixed-use residential building, she said.
Households file a single changeof-address form for all family members sharing the same last name, with anyone in the household having a different surname filing an individual form. That leaves open the possibility of the gross numbers including multiple individuals from the same household.
From 2019 to 2020, the number of people moving into the SoNo ZIP code 06854 decreased by 5 percent and the number of people moving out of the area increased by 4 percent, according to the USPS data.
About 2,200 people moved into SoNo in 2020, while more than 2,800 people moved out of the area. Three hundred more people left SoNo in 2020 than in 2019, the data showed.
Meanwhile, other areas in Norwalk have seen growth, particularly the northern region of the city, which includes the Cranbury neighborhood, under ZIP code 06851. The number of residents leaving that ZIP code stayed virtually the same year-over-year, with 2,249 and 2,247 moving out, respectively.
However, the area experienced a 17 percent bump in people moving there in 2020, according to the data.
Within the 06851 area, a cluster of new single-family homes are in the process of being built on Aiken Street, drawing high bidders before construction has begun, Vonashek said.
“From what I heard, they’re selling in $800,000s before the shovel has hit the ground,” Vonashek said. “People are buying before they’ve been constructed.”
About 17 homes are scheduled to be built in the development.
Both Rowayton, which falls under 06853, and West Norwalk and Silvermine, which fall under and 06850, remained relatively steady in their new resident and former resident numbers. The East Norwalk neighborhood did see a spike, moving from 665 new residents in 2019 to 815 in 2020, according to the data.
Another likely cause for the increase in 06851 residents is the shift to remote work, with people who formerly needed to be near their New York City-based office now able to work from home, many have been seeking singlefamily homes in the Norwalk area, Director of Business Development and Tourism Sabrina Church said.
“For people moving into Norwalk, our housing market is really hot right now,” Church said. “Our single-family homes are selling within a 60-day turnover period, which is very quick. You’re seeing people getting over asking price the majority of the time as well.”
People moving to denser areas, such as SoNo, are more likely to live in apartment buildings or multifamily homes, while those moving to the more suburban areas of the city are purchasing single-family homes at high prices, Church said.
“Comparing ZIP codes are different demographics,” Church said. “There’s the more millennialesque SoNo area but then we’re getting families and more middleaged folk moving into single-family homes in the other ZIP codes.”
The coronavirus pandemic, along with forcing many people to shift to remote work, has led to an influx in construction and developing for the city as well, Vonashek said.
In 2020 the cost of construction the city saw was $296.3 million, and in 2021 the city is expected to hit $319.3 million, Vonashek said. Additionally, 322 businesses were registered in the city in 2020, and the city is slated to get 350 new businesses this year.
The SoNo Collection received 13 new tenants since March 2020, SoNo Collection Senior General Manager Matthew Seebeck said. The mall has seen the addition of various types of retail, food, entertainment/experience, home furnishing and decor shops.
He said the increase in people shifting to the Fairfield County area is a positive trend.
“The recent demand on residential real estate in the Fairfield County area, that we hear is due to the pandemic, is a welcomed optimism for all Norwalk businesses in the coming months and years,” Seebeck said. “We hope this continues and brings a positive trend to all our fellow Norwalk businesses.”