Fairfield County recorded its highest second-quarter home sales in more than a decade, according to the latest report from Douglas Elliman, the largest residential real estate brokerage in the New York metropolitan area and the fourth-largest real estate company in the U.S.
Second-quarter sales in the county rose by 30.9 percent from second-quarter 2015 to 3,944, with single-family home sales up 34.9 percent to 3,082 and condominium sales up 18.4 percent to 862.
The Elliman report credited New York City renters and homeowners being priced out of that market as contributing to the surge, noting however that housing prices have not risen in step with the sales increase. The median sales price for the quarter was $360,000, a decline of 16.5 percent from the $431,000 median price in the second quarter last year.
Price indicators across towns skewed toward the high end were hit harder than those in more modestly priced locations. The luxury median sales price, representing the top 10 percent of all sales, fell 26.4 percent from $2,466,000 in the second quarter of 2015 to $1,815,700 for the same period this year.
In Greenwich, single-family and condo price trend indicators fell, while sales declined and inventory expanded; in Westport, single-family and condo sales increased while price trend indicators were down for single-family and characterized as mixed for condos.
For Darien, Elliman found that single-family price trend indicators were mixed, with sales down as inventory grew; the average condo sales price in the town dropped by 34 percent. In New Canaan, single-family and condo price trend indicators fell, with sales declining in both sectors.
Elsewhere, single-family median and average sales prices in Stamford reflected stability, with single family sales falling as inventory surged and condo price trend indicators moving higher while both sales and inventory rose sharply. Wilton”™s single-family and condo price trend indicators slipped, with single-family sales and inventory up and condo sales and inventory unchanged.
Ridgefield”™s single-family price trend indicators were higher, with sales and inventory increasing; condo price trend indicators remained mixed with sales down and inventory up. For the Fairfield/Southport market, single-family and condo price trend indicators remained mixed, with single-family sales and inventory down and condo inventory increasing while sales declined.
