Greenwich's Long-Listed Luxury Homes Are Finding Buyers Faster

(Bloomberg) -- Home sales in Greenwich, Connecticut, declined for a third straight quarter, but a few rays of sunshine managed to pierce the gloom. Some of the town’s priciest, hardest-to-sell properties found buyers, and quicker than they used to.

There were 152 single-family home sales in the three months through June, down 11% from a year earlier, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The median price of those transactions climbed 9.5%, the biggest quarterly jump since the end of 2017, to $2.03 million.

Sellers across all price points are still adjusting to a new reality in the wealthy New York suburb, where homes continue to pile onto the market. Those who succeed are the ones who have loosened their grip on lofty price goals and come around to the notion that it’s better to just make a deal.

“Sometimes you’re catching them at exactly the right moment, when they say ‘You know what? We’ve been on for a certain amount of time, we’re ready to play ball, and this feels like a real buyer,’” said David Haffenreffer, the manager of Houlihan Lawrence’s Greenwich office, which released its own report on sales in the quarter.

Oversized Estates

Luxury homes -- the top 10% by price -- spent an average of 214 days on the market before finding a buyer, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman said. That’s down from a year earlier, when it took 327 days to move such properties.
The section of town north of the Merritt Parkway -- featuring oversized estates, far from the downtown shops and train station -- turned in the strongest sales growth in the quarter, climbing 39% to 18 completed deals, according to Houlihan Lawrence.

“This is just an indication that pricing got to the point where buyers begin to sniff value,” Haffenreffer said. “And water finds its level.”

The priciest deal in the quarter was north of the parkway, a 12,368-square-foot Georgian Colonial on 5.7 lakefront acres at 33 John St. It was first listed for sale in 2017 at $17.95 million and sold in April for $14.875 million.

There are still some headwinds for Greenwich. The supply of available single-family homes has climbed for five straight quarters, according to Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. Buyer contracts, a more-current gauge of demand than closed sales, fell 14% to 103, Houlihan Lawrence said.

“We’re seeing a modestly performing market,” said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel.

--With assistance from Sydney Price.

To contact the reporter on this story: Oshrat Carmiel in New York at ocarmiel1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Debarati Roy at droy5@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus, Rob Urban

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