Fairfield County”™s housing market recorded its fifth consecutive annual increase in median sales prices and eighth consecutive year-over-year decline in listing inventory during the first quarter of 2018, according to new data released by Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
The days on market was 145 for the first quarter, up 12.4 percent from the 129 days in the fourth quarter and up 22.9 percent from 118 days in the first quarter of 2017. Listing inventory in the first quarter totaled 4,609, up from 3,839 in the first quarter but down from 5,044 in the previous year.
Among property types, the average sales price for a single-family Fairfield County home in the first quarter was $751,434, down 7.3 percent from the $810,272 price in the fourth quarter and down 0.5 percent from the first quarter of 2017 price of $755,483. The median sales price in the first quarter was $466,500, up from $457,000 in the previous quarter and up from $450,000 one year earlier. A total of 1,484 single-family homes were sold, a 28.2 percent drop from the 2,067 level in the fourth quarter and a 4.5 percent decline from the 1,554 in the first quarter of last year.
The average sales price for condos was $318,388, down from $346,941 in the previous quarter and down from $328,911 one year earlier. The median sales price of $250,000 was lower than the fourth quarter”™s $258,500 price but higher than the $245,000 in the first quarter of 2017. There were 537 condos sold in the first quarter, compared with 676 in the previous quarter and 538 one
year earlier.
In the luxury market, the average first quarter sales price was $2.6 million, down from $2.9 million in the fourth quarter but only 1.5 percent below the $2.64 million in the first quarter of 2017. The median sales price of $1.9 million was below the $2.2 million in the previous quarter and the $2.1 million in the first quarter of last year. Sales activity also slumped, with 234 properties sold in the first quarter, slightly below the 237 properties sold in the fourth quarter and well under the 195 level from one year earlier.
Among the Fairfield County submarkets, Green-wich recorded the highest average sales price for a single-family home at $2.71 million, down from $2.8 million in the previous quarter and up from the $2.5 million one year earlier. Greenwich also had the highest average sales price on condos at $875,570, a 21 percent drop from $1.1 million in the fourth quarter and a 12.2 percent decline from $997,741 in the first quarter of 2017.
Scott Elwell, Douglas Elliman”™s senior executive regional manager of Westchester and Connecticut, was satisfied with the market”™s performance. “Prices are high and there are plenty of buyers trying to find homes,” he observed. “We have a very high demand at several price points.”
Elwell forecast that the Darien submarket, with its average first quarter sales price of $1.4 million, could become a major center of sales activity during the course of 2018. “Darien is having a strong market,” he said. “The lower price points are going exceedingly fast.”