By Mark Pruner
Dashboard Editor
In most towns outside of Fairfield County the high-end market starts at $1 million, which is less than Greenwich’s 2015 median sales price of $1.85 million. If you narrow the high end market to $2 million plus then you end up with some pretty interesting comparisons between Greenwich, Fairfield County and the rest of Connecticut.
In all of Connecticut outside of Fairfield County we have a total of 278 listings over $2 million. These properties are located along Long Island Sound, the Interstate 91 corridor in central Connecticut and in Litchfield County. In 2015 only 41 properties over $2 million sold in Connecticut, while in Greenwich we had 288 properties sell for over $2 million dollars. (I’m very aware of these numbers, because I have high-end listings in four towns outside of this area where you can get a very nice waterfront property for $3 million. 🙂
Now, the Fairfield County market outside of Connecticut is a place where you do find a lot of high end listings. Outside of Greenwich, Fairfield County has 447 listings over $2 million compared to 339 listings in Greenwich. So there are about a third more $2 million plus listings in the rest of the county than we have just in Greenwich. If you look at 2015 sales though the difference narrows. Last year Greenwich had 288 listings sell for over $2 million dollars while the rest of the county had a few more sales at 316 sales.
If, however, you look at sales volume, the total value of the properties sold, Greenwich sold $1.45 billion dollars in single family homes over $2 million dollars while the 316 sales in the rest of Fairfield County totaled $969 million about a third less.
When you go even higher up market to over $5 million you have 55 active properties in Connecticut outside of Fairfield County with a concentration in Litchfield County. Greenwich had 139 listings over $5 million, while the rest of Fairfield County had 65 listings so you get twice the number of options in the over $5 million market in Greenwich than you get in the rest of Fairfield County or the rest of Connecticut.
Last there were no sales in Connecticut over $5 million. The highest sale price outside of Fairfield County last year as reported on the Connecticut MLS was only $4,500,000. Fairfield County minus Greenwich had 16 sales over $5 million as reported by Greater Fairfield County MLS, while just in Greenwich we had 64 sales.
Many people (including me) had been bemoaning the weakness of our sales over $10 million of which we only had 7 in Greenwich last year, but our sales in $5 – 6.5 million range actually did pretty well with more than half of the sales over $5 million.
We are very lucky to live in Greenwich. It is a very unique town with a lot of benefits; low property taxes, great municipal services, good schools, nice beaches, and a wonderful library. All of these benefits are nice, but what I have always liked about Greenwich is the people. As I once overheard someone say, who had done very well in life, is that what he liked about Greenwich is that “No matter how much money you had, someone in town always had more.”
I think the corollary to that is most of the people in our town get along. It’s not about the money it’s about who you are.
THE LOWEST TAX RATE IN THE STATE?
Low property taxes are a Greenwich hallmark. Ask any Realtor in Greenwich who has the lowest property tax rate in the state and 99% are going to tell you that Greenwich does, but according to the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management they are wrong. In the very northwest corner of Connecticut the Town of Salisbury Connecticut beats Greenwich’s mill rate 10.70 to 11.27.
Salisbury, Connecticut is a town of only 3,700 or so citizens. They are surrounded by towns with significantly higher mill rates than Salisbury tax rate so how do they do it. I was curious so called up to Salisbury and spoke to someone who knows why this is. What I learned is like Greenwich, Salisbury benefits from many high end weekend houses. They also only have one elementary school, but their per education is still expensive for a small town with few property owners to spread their budget costs. Their education budget for all grades is 60% of their budget compared to roughly 40% in Greenwich.
What I was told made the difference between Salisbury and other towns in the area is minimal bonding, a willingness of their elected officials to work in a collegial manner for the good of the town, and making, and sticking to, long range plans. This seems to have earned them the enviable title that most Greenwichites thought they held.
Mark Pruner is with Douglas Elliman in Greenwich, CT.
Mark Pruner, Realtor
203-969-7900
mark@greenwichstreets.com
www.greenwichstreets.com
