Renting or Selling your property in a COVID 19 World

Greenwich Homeowners – Renting or Selling your property in a COVID 19 World As a Greenwich broker, I’m optimistic about the future of the Greenwich real estate market. Here are some current details regarding Greenwich residential listings and sales. There are approximately 800 listings on the Greenwich with a median list price of 1.9M and a sold median list price of $1.1M. Compared to the same time last year we have a slight increase of active listings of 7% and an overall increase of sold listing in the $4M to $7M category of 120% and a 43% jump for homes listed from $1 to $2M to date. Over all we have a 31% increase in sold listing across the board. The average sale price in Greenwich is currently $1.6M with 170 days on the market. I’m aware of some devious groups of individuals who are making cash offers to property owners and not necessarily in the back country where sales are not as numerous as let’s say in Old Greenwich and Riverside. Typically these groups are attempting to take advantage of older folks who have had their home on the market for many months are want to take advantage these disastrous times that many feel they are in. Some senior citizens who want to enjoy their remaining years are concerned that if they don’t sell now they will be stuck with the property for many years to come. What is interesting in this time of the coronavirus pandemic is a justifiable desire for residents in New York City to leave for the suburbs over the last several weeks as a direct result of the virus, I’ve noted an increase in rental transactions as well from New York City residence. My conversations with New York City brokers, many of which are not affiliated with the larger brokerage firms and work with the high end property owners are actively looking at Greenwich and the Greenwich real estate market in earnest. The potential renters and buyers are folks who have young children and are concerned about their susceptibility to COVID 19 and who best to distance themselves from the heavily populated environment in New York. For those of us who have a second home and many of us who have experienced the closing of schools and businesses, this is a great time to plan to move out of Greenwich and rent their primary residence. There can be provisions in the lease that will allow for the owner’s lease to have the tenants to pay for a thorough cleaning etc. If you think about it, there will be a pent-up demand for homes either rentals or for sale in Greenwich when the virus is conquered. For now, we will have to wait it out the best we can keeping in mind that a return to normality will be here in the near future. James B. Hoffman, Managing Broker Greenwich Connecticut Properties, LLC Jim@greenwichconnecticutproperties.com Former Connecticut Real Estate Commissioner, State of Connecticut 203-273-1759