Who Are the Buyers Now? The Evolving Face of the Greenwich Real Estate Market

There are a number of reasons for people to be buying single-family homes, condominiums and co-ops, and multi-family homes now. Rental inventories are building a little as those renters were finally able to buy homes. Some rental listings needed small price reductions.

Investors: are buying because Greenwich has always been a great long-term investment. A well-maintained property with upgrades along the way can produce a nice little income with a steady, long-term increase in property values. Some are possibly owned, but are currently used as an investment property, by baby boomers to rent out now, but will possibly become their primary home in their later years.

Young families: are moving to Greenwich. Many have to rent first because of our continued shortage of inventory under $2.5MM. Many of those properties sold at shocking over-asking sales prices, with the competition still high. Many of our agents have called those “what will it take to get it” prices. Some families had bought what they could get at that time in the last 6 years, so they are already living in town. Now they are simply trading up to a more long-term property as their needs change. The media is talking about how the median age for a first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. It had been in the mid-30s for a long time. Rising prices have upped the need for higher cash down payments, and mortgage rates are still over 6%. This has created a greater need for higher salaries and bonuses, as well as people needing to draw down savings and other investments. Many baby-boomer parents, if they are able to, have had to step up to help their family make that first purchase. After the New York City elections, we have been getting lots of calls asking whether we are seeing an increase in the number of buyers wanting to leave the City. In Greenwich and surrounding areas, we have not seen a slack in new clients wanting to move here; we see a drastic decline in inventory levels.

Baby-boomers: are also making decisions, while they can, whether to sell and downsize to a one-story property with lower maintenance costs, or to ‘age-in-place’ and make comfortable adjustments to their current homes that will be more handicap accessible and energy-efficient to lower long-term carrying costs.