The luxury property market in Greenwich, Connecticut, one of the country’s wealthiest towns, saw signs of improvement in the second quarter of 2017. The median sales price grew 16% year-over-year to $5.8 million, though the number of sales remained flat, according to a report released Thursday by brokerage Douglas Elliman.
In the last three months, 21 luxury homes were sold, making up the top 10% of sales, with a threshold of $4.25 million. The volume remained the same as last year, and just four more homes were sold this quarter compared to the first quarter of the year.
"Sales, inventory and price conditions in the Greenwich luxury market showed relative stability, which in itself is an improvement over conditions a year ago," Scott Durkin, chief executive officer of Douglas Elliman, said in the report.
More:Rare Waterfront Retreat Hits Market in Greenwich for $49 Million
The luxury market in Greenwich and broader Fairfield County has been stagnant over the past couple of years, with many top-tier properties lingering on the market unable to find a buyer. Over the past three years, only 39 homes in the county sold at $8 million or higher, compared to 148 sales at that price level during the three years from 2006 to 2008, according to Zillow data prepared for Mansion Global for an earlier story.
As owners realize their high-priced homes can’t sell, expired listings are not thrown back to the market, which leads to a significant reduction in luxury inventory in Greenwich, said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel and author of the Douglas Elliman report.
During the second quarter, there were 211 luxury homes available for sale in Greenwich, down 21.3% from last year’s 268.
However, luxury homes are taking longer to sell. On average, they stayed on the market for 319 days before finding a buyer, 101 days longer than the same period last year. And sellers conceded an average 6.5% of their asking price to meet the buyers’ offers. By comparison, sellers gave bigger discounts, averaging 8.2%, a year ago.
More:Click to Read About Connecticut Luxury Real Estate News on Mansion Global
County-wide, the top 10% of home sales had a median price of $2.145 million, increasing 18.1% from a year ago, according to the Douglas Elliman report.
Similarly, the overall market in Fairfield County picked up speed in price appreciation during the second quarter. For all property types, the median sales price reached $445,000, increasing 23% from a year ago. Compared to the first quarter, it was 17.1% higher.
| SNAPSHOT OF GREENWICH LUXURY MARKET | ||
| METRICS | VALUE | Y-O-Y CHANGE |
| Median sales price | $5.8M | 16% |
| # of Sales | 21 | 0.0% |
| Days on Market | 319 | 101 |
| Listing inventory | 211 | 21.3% |
| Entry threshold | $4.25M | 6.3% |
| SOURCE: DOUGLAS ELLIMAN | ||
Greenwich, a 40-minute train ride from midtown Manhattan and thus home to many New York-based business executives, is ranked the wealthiest town in Fairfield County by Douglas Elliman. Other popular towns in the so-called Connecticut Gold Coast, the southernmost area in Fairfield County, are Darien, New Canaan and Westport. Homes in those three towns sold in the second quarter at median prices of $1.395 million, $1.465 million and $1.325 million, respectively.