I received a request from Forbes.com to comment on our high end market and how the rate of foreclosures are affecting real estate sales. Forbes did pick up on a listing of mine which is a bank owned high end property listed for sale at $3,250,000. It is located on Lukes Wood Rd and has a website called
http://www.newcanaancountryestate.com/Evelyn Rusli interviewed me this morning at the property before the public open house that was scheduled. The property was videotaped and the video clip will appear on Forbes.com this week. The focus of the report will be on the current state of the real estate market in lower Fairfield County.
I am unsure of the outcome of this video however the points I wanted stress about this property was that it's former sellers had a very long troubled history that went back far before the current crisis. They had gone into preforeclosure almost 2 years ago and originally listed the home with me for $4,000,000 in January of 2007. It was subsequently reduced to 3.8 million over the following 16 months but the former sellers mostly refused to have the property shown. The bank ultimately held a public auction in May of this year and purchased the property for the amount of their loan. They even very generously allowed the sellers until mid July to vacate the property. The bank is now acting like any other seller and then relisted the property with me at a deeply discounted price of $3,250,000. All the fat has been cut out of this property and it is receiving extremely high interest. The bank will consider serious offers. I am holding open houses for the public on Sunday afternoons in October including this afternoon.
It is a beautifully built stone colonial with a wood roof. The house was built in 1997 and is on over 7 acres on Lukes Wood Rd. It has 8,000 sq ft and has 6 bedroom, 5 full and 2 half baths, 5 fps and a full finished lower level with entertainment center, office, gym, rec room, bedroom and bath. The web site for this property is
http://www.newcanaancountryestate.com/Regarding the state of the real estate market in New Canaan, there are 242 homes on the market currently. We have had 149 homes sell this year versus 219 during the same time period in 2007. That represents a 38% decline in the number of transactions; however the average price of homes that sold this year is $2,190,000 versus $2,291,000, only a 5% decline and the median price only dropped 2% from 1.8 million to $1,765,000. Compared to the rest of the state a 2% decline in the median price is good versus an 8% decline statewide. The time on the market remains relatively stable with no increase from last year at 181 days and the list to sell ratio is 95% of asking price. The market here is certainly not dead, it is just more of a traditional market where the home is a place to live rather than an investment. My current inventory of listings is $38,358,500 with $11,000,000 sold or in contract.
How hard is it to get loans?
Mortgage money is available. Banks are requiring verifiable income rather than stated income or non verifiable income. They want a 20-25% down payment, credit scores of 680-720,
2 field appraisals if property is over 1,500,000 and if the property has some other unique attribute then a subsequent review appraisal
Money is available the key is to be able to verify income and Wall St bonuses to come is not considered verifiable income.
If you are a seller, keep in mind these tips as incentives to finding a buyer for your property.
Consider a mortgage abatement program where the seller pays the mortgage of the new buyer for period of 6 months to 1 year or a mortgage rate buy down incentive where the seller can buy down the interest rate of the new buyer below the current rate for a specified period of time. For example, 1 year, 2 years or 3 years.
Foreclosures
There are 15 preforeclosures somewhere in the chain in New Canaan. With 242 homes on the market that is only 6% of the homes for sale. Some of these homes will actually not be foreclosed on because some owners will find ways to come out of the situation.
To sum up, when real estate goes down, New Canaan goes down less. Even statewide, Connecticut is in much better shape than other states.
