VIDEO: Susan Engel and the "Mad Men" Style of 62 Moriarity in Wilton

https://www.halstead.com/propertv?wm_video_id=fo06fdd7a15m3i

VIDEO: Matthew and John Show the Active Side of 16 Ravenglass Drive in Stamford CT

Lakeside, set in 74 acres with pool and tennis court, this charming Hampton Shingle style home exudes relaxation. Sit on your generous wrap-around verandah looking across sweeping lawns to the lake. Walk the dog on a nature trail or in cooler months enjoy your crackling fire, this 4 bedroom, 1 year old home is exactly what you need to enjoy life. In an exclusive gated community, you are minutes from an historic tavern, country market, country club and the Merritt.


https://www.halstead.com/sale/ct/stamford/16-ravenglass-drive/house/99140235#

VIDEO: Matthew and John Show the Active Side of 16 Ravenglass Drive in Stamford CT

Lakeside, set in 74 acres with pool and tennis court, this charming Hampton Shingle style home exudes relaxation. Sit on your generous wrap-around verandah looking across sweeping lawns to the lake. Walk the dog on a nature trail or in cooler months enjoy your crackling fire, this 4 bedroom, 1 year old home is exactly what you need to enjoy life. In an exclusive gated community, you are minutes from an historic tavern, country market, country club and the Merritt.


https://www.halstead.com/sale/ct/stamford/16-ravenglass-drive/house/99140235#

The June Market Report - Real estate is a tug of war...

Richmond Hill Condo $754,000 new listing, under $1mm 29 Maple Street condo  $799,000 high-style, new wow price      Pride's Crossing $888,000 walk to town, under $1mm  108 Toby's Lane $1.295    NEW PRICE riverfront retreat 151 East Avenue $1.368   new listing, top-flight condo Windermere On the Lake $1.649 private 80 acre gated community  7 Canaan Close   $1.68 temporarily off the market 76 Sturbridge Hill Rd $1.599 2 acres, 5 beds, pool, new price The Noyes-Graf House $1.780  as seen in WSJ Mansions section today, to be featured in the New York Times 106 Logan Road   $1.799 NEW PRICE, beautiful 242 Wahackme Rd. $3.40 Nantucket style and great pool 31 Deacon's Way $3.88 superb new listing 227 Lambert Road  $4.780 a romantic estate, new price! 31 Deacon's Way rental $16,000 2 acres next to Country School, new listing: $1,000,000 Fellow real estate fans, Real estate is a tug of war between the buyers and the sellers. Sometimes the sellers give in and the market drops. Sometimes they hold out and buyers get tired of waiting pull the trigger. We are in the middle of that tug of war right now. Sellers are stubborn. Buyers are looking, but they are waiting. That is why we have so much inventory in a market with solid volume and strong prices. The New Canaan Advertiser asked me this week to comment on their statement, "Buyers are highly selective but things are moving. Sellers need to be on their game with a home priced right and or turnkey ready." Ok, we've taken each of those comments and reflected on it below. "Highly selective" is a function of ample inventory. Buyers think with choices they should be able to drive a bargain. That isn't necessarily so. On average prices are holding up. Volume is steady. If you look at the graph below you see that houses are selling 96% of their final asking price, and 93% of their original asking price. I have been involved in 3 bidding wars this season ranging from below $1 million to nearly $4 million and in every case the buyers needed the affirmation of other buyers to inspire confidence and stimulate bidding action. In the cases where there is no second bidder we see buyers lose interest and move on.     "Things are moving" is also true. New Canaan's volume of sales (68) is exactly the average of the last ten years sales (68.9) of single family homes. The same is true for condos. We've sold 17 condos this year vs. 15 last year and 20 two years ago and the average over ten years is 17.3   "Home priced right" is key. Many of the currently listed homes were priced "fairly" based on tax assessor, Zillow, and other available date. But, in this market it takes a house priced sharply to cut through the clutter. There are roughly 15 houses for sale in the $1.5, $1.6 and $1.7 million categories. 5 of each of these will sell this year. To be one of those sales you must have a scarce feature or be priced under the market. I ask my sellers "how badly do you want to be one of those 5 sales this year?"   There are a few sales this year that dramatically illustrate that point. One, beautifully built in 2006, sold then for $5.6 million. It was listed for that same $5.6 million in 2014. After two years on the market it was just reduced to $3.995 and sold this month for $3.3 causing many to say this was a great bargain. That's 59% of its high, but 80% of where the tax assessor had it pegged. "Home priced right" is sometimes a function of how much time you have to wait for the market to come back. Should we evaluate the market based on the 2007 high? The average sale price in New Canaan for the first 5 months is $1,875,000, a dip of only 1.7% versus $1,908,000 for the first 5 months of 2015. However, Average can be manipulated with a few large sales. Taking the more reliable Median pricing over the last 10 years we see that New Canaan is actually climbing fairly steadily, up 30% since the dip in 2009. Finally, "turnkey ready" is also important. Many of our buyers are coming from New York and beyond and often don't have the time, the additional financing, or the experience to take on major renovations right away. They are focused on easing the transition into a new community, not wringing the last ounces of value out of a "fixer-upper". In a seller's market buyers are sometimes willing to take on a fixer-upper. Or, when banks were able and more willing to lend against improvements we saw home equity and construction loans. Now, those improvements are a seller's burden. Some of my motivated sellers are adding central air conditioning and replacing aged heating systems anticipating these objections. At least two of my sellers hired a building inspector before putting their houses on the market in order to repair any defects and not lose a sale over condition. New Canaan single family home inventory has increased 4% from 332 to 346. We had predicted a June peak of 370 in our February Market Report but that might be too high because while pending sales are down the number of new listings has also slowed to only 58 from a more typical 92. Let's break it down... Fairfield County Sales: The number of sales is up 7.4% across the county with four out of six town posting gains. Wilton remains flat for the year with 65 sales and New Canaan is the only town down, -8.1%. Prices are flat everywhere with only Westport, (-9.5%) posting a change of more than 2.4%.  New Canaan Pending Sales: is our best forward-looking indicator. Looking at the first quarter we saw the beginning of a decreasing trend in Pending Sales from 43 to 34. That number should be rising to 68. Looking only at the month of May we saw a 37% decline in Pendings which brought us to a five month decline of 44%. This remains concerning and something to watch.  Below is a link to the New Canaan June Market Report. If you would like to discuss the report, or if you have any other questions, feel free to contact us at 203-247-4700 (John) or 203-247-5999 (Susan).   Best regards,           John and Susan     Pioneers of Design and Architecture in New Canaan: Eliot Noyes, Brad Verbryke, Ernest Bevilacqua and Bob Graf in an internal meeting to discuss Mobil Oil, c.1968. This week we have listed Bob Graf's own home, designed in 1966.  click here for the market report \

The May Market Report - Sales are Up, Even With Last Year, But Pendings are Starting to Slow

34 Urban Street  $739,000 new listing, 3 rental units, wow!  Orchard Hills Condo  $754,000 new listing, under $1mm Pride's Crossing #9  $888,000 walk to town, under $1mm 29 Maple Street condo  $799,000 high-style, new wow price    108 Toby's Lane $1.350    private riverfront retreat   151 East Avenue $1.368   new listing, top-flight condo 285 Havilland Rd $1.389 new listing, gone, already sold it!  289 New Norwalk Rd   $1.68   the best condo at Canaan Close 16 Ravenglass Dr.   $1.649 privacy, a gated community 76 Sturbridge Hill Rd $1.599 2 acres, 5 beds, pool, new price Eliot Noyes  and Bob Graff,  two of the greatest industrial designers. The Noyes-Graff House   $1.78 106 Logan Road   $1.799 great value, pristine   1094 Ponus Ridge $2.08 reduced 20%, wow price!!! The Willis Mills House, 1956 gone, two offers. rented it!! (another modern coming on this week, email for pictures) 242 Wahackme Rd.   $3.40 shingle style and great pool 227 Lambert Road  $4.780 a romantic estate, new price! 31 Deacon's Way $3.888 superb, new listing this week! tour the party barn on Lambert 1271 Oenoke Rdg.   rental $4000   tour this lakeside colonial 309 Park Street $8000 gone, rented both long-term 477 Main Street $7000  gone, rented both long-term video tour by Susan Engel

Friends, How's the market? Everybody is asking. First, some data. 20 houses were sold in April, up from 15 and the most in April since 2007. It allowed us to catch up to where we were last year. Its been a late Spring market. After 4 months we have 51 sales versus 49. We are not in a recession. This is solid sales volume.  The average sale price decreased 14% since this time last year, down from $2.228 million to $1.908 million. This is a result of more sales at the low end of the market.  We have had zero sales over $4 million this year. Zero. That part of the market is struggling. Last year we posted 3 super-sales in the first 4 months. Sales at $11 .7 million and $5.1 million were attributed to large sub-dividable lots while the $4.2 million sale was a beautiful newer home on 4 acres. Instead, this year we've seen 7 sales between $3.0 and $3.75 million, up from 2 at this time last year. New Canaan single family home inventory has increased 37% from 260 to 332. As of the writing of this market report two weeks later that total has climbed to 347. We had predicted a June peak of 370 in our February Market Report and we stand by the prediction because pending sales are down 41% from where they were last year year. Instead of looking forward to 61 sales in the next two months we are on track to sell only 36. Let's break it down... Fairfield County Sales: The number of sales is up 10% across the county with four out of six town posting big gains. Wilton is flat for the year with 43 sales and New Canaan is only up 4.1%. Prices are flat everywhere with no town posting a change of more than 5.6%.  Fairfield County Inventory is up only 4.6% with the only large gains being posted in New Canaan (+21%) and Wilton (13%) While a 4.6% increase does not sound alarming, it is an 8.6% increase in inventory over 2 years which translates to nearly 500 houses. Expect this increase in inventory to have a lagging effect. New Canaan Pending Sales: is our best forward-looking indicator. Looking at the first quarter we saw a 21% decrease in Pending Sales from 43 to 34. That number should be rising to 61. Looking only at the month of April we saw a 37% decline in Pendings which brought us to a four month decline of 41%. This is concerning and something to watch.  Below is a link to the New Canaan May Market Report. If you would like to discuss the report, or if you have any other questions, feel free to contact us at 203-247-4700 (JE) or 203-247-5999 (SE).   Best regards,           John and Susan The inventory is spread across all segments of the market, geographically distributed across all prices, in every style. 20 sales this month, and 51 for the year.  Better than 2015 We will see sales volume peaking at normal levels of $60-$70 million per month in June and July again. Is it surprising that we see normal levels: 120-300? Five years ago we ranged from 141 to 289 days. The absorption rate shows normal house sales rates (243 per year) but an excessive number of listings. Five years ago the graph peaked twice at 15 months. Around 94% is normal. The divergence indicates a buyer's market where seller's are chasing offers. Susan admires the wallpaper at the Noyes-Graff House