Greenwich Housing Market Has Gone From Bust To Boom As Buyer’s Now Guaranteed To Overpay

A few years ago, the Greenwich Housing Market was in free fall as the 1% abandoned sprawling mansions in favor of tiny apartments in Manhattan and (certain parts of) Brooklyn. Now that COVID has caused the urbanization trend sweeping the US to lurch into reverse, buyers hoping to settle down in Greenwich (a town long synonymous with the hedge fund industry) are virtually guaranteed to overpay.

According to data presented by Bloomberg, in Q22021, the share of single-family homes that sold above asking has set a new record not just in Greenwich but across all of Fairfield County.

In Greenwich alone, 28% of home purchases were for more than the seller had sought. That was the largest share in data going back to 2017.

Source: Bloomberg

In Greenwich and other nearby Gold Coast towns like Darien and Westport, 54% of home sales were above the asking price. This new record far surpassed the previous high of 37% set just in the first quarter of this year.

One factor magnifying the bidding wars: High prices have made people less willing to sell their homes since buying a new home would offset the higher profits from the sale. As inventory remains slim, bidding wars have become a consequence of the area’s plummeting supply of houses on the market. At the end of the quarter, the listing inventory in Fairfield County was down 40% from a year earlier to 1,681. In Greenwich, listings dropped 42% to 341.

And with COVID cases climbing aggressively in NYC once again, we suspect the pressure to move to the ‘burbs will continue, especially once more Wall Street bosses have capitulated to employees’ demands for ‘flexible’ work arrangements.