Snow Falling on an early Spring Market in Greenwich

As I sit to write this, it's a snowy February day. The Greenwich public schools are on holiday and the private schools have a snow day. It's a day that gives me a chance to catch up on paperwork, website updating and to think about how busy it's been in the last 90 days or so. If you look at the 2007 stats, it was a strong year in the Greenwich real estate market. Average prices rose 12% to nearly $3,000,000 while median prices gained 8% to $2,100,000. But that's not necessarily how it felt because average Days On Market expanded 16% to 180 days. A longer marketing period resulted in more price cuts which appears to be bringing buyers out early this year before the influx of new Spring inventory.

Who are the buyers out now? The smart ones, I think. They smell opportunities in the tired listings of last year while hoping to pit them against the new listings coming on for the Spring market. The bidding from the buyers I'm working with is starting about 15% - 20% below current listing prices and, happily, the sellers are willing to talk.

What's changing? Well, I think the low interest rates appear to be giving buyers more confidence to bid even if the bid is a low-ball offer. As agent, I always believe it's our job to foster a conversation between the buyers and sellers so this is all good news.

Are you seeing or feeling the same in your market?