Greenwich Neighborhoods Mostly Similar, Except When They are Different
By Mark Pruner
Some Greenwich neighborhoods have been doing nothing but getting tighter in the Covid era. Few things are more dramatic in Greenwich real estate than the drop in inventory in an area like South of the Parkway, the area from the Merritt to the Post Road. In August 2022, we had 197 single family homes listed. By August 2022 that number had dropped steadily to only 57 listing. This year even as the national market softened the number of listings there dropped to only 52 listings in November of this year. The percentage drop is even more dramatic in Cos Cob where we went from 48 listings in August 2019 to only 11 listings at the end of November 2022. No neighborhood in Greenwich has more listings now than in 2020 or 2021.
The value of houses in Greenwich have appreciated steadily in Greenwich since 2019 and this was happening before Covid, but Covid really spurred demand and hence appreciation in Greenwich neighborhoods. Since August of this year, appreciation has slowed and even reversed slightly. In the last 3 months as the Fed jacked up rates and we saw the drop in the stock market, particularly in the FANG tech stocks our average price per s.f. has slightly dropped in Old Greenwich, Pemberwick and Byram. In Riverside, South of the Parkway and Cos Cob there continues to be a small amount appreciation. Only in Cos Cob, Glenville and South of the Parkway have we seen the average price per square foot go up and there by only a little. Of course, we are looking at a 3 month period. It will be interesting to see where price appreciation for the whole year over year comparison ends up.
Our last pre-Covid year was not a good year for sales in Greenwich, when you at look at months of supply. Every neighborhood just about had more than 6 months of supply, the dividing line between a seller’s and buyer’s market. North of the Parkway we had over 2 years of supply in 2019. Covid drastically changed that, dropping months of supply North of the Parkway to 6.3 months of supply in August 21. We have seen our backcountry months of supply creep up slightly as the over $10 million has been the one slow area of our market. Meanwhile in Pemberwick, South of the Parkway and Riverside months of supply dropped dramatically and has stayed down in 2021.
Every neighborhood in Greenwich followed a somewhat similar pattern. August 2019 was not a good year for sales in Greenwich with the exception of Old Greenwich and South of the Post Road and to a lesser degree Riverside. Conversely, every neighborhood had excellent sales in 2021. In 2022 sales dropped from the records set in 2021, but that drop varied from neighborhood to neighborhood. We saw big drops in Riverside and Old Greenwich and not so much in North of the Parkway, Cos Cob and Glenville. The hot neighborhoods of 2021 had further to fall in 2022 and also saw very tight inventory.
Mark Pruner is a Realtor with Compass. He can be reached at 203-817-2871 or mark.pruner@compass.com
