You can't win at basketball, football or baseball without a solid team. Likewise, a winning real estate transaction relies on a team of professionals working together on your behalf. And just like in sports, it's important to pull your team together before the game begins. Buyers and sellers alike rely on the various players to provide professional real estate services. When starting to think about making a move, the first thing to do is to hire your team manager, the real estate agent. Your agent will coordinate all aspects of the transaction and can help you fill out your team before you …
Things are better in Ridgefield real estate—better because homes are selling, prices have stabilized and people are moving forward with their lives. At least that's how things look today. Tomorrow is anybody's guess. And I really mean that it's a guess. Everyone wants to know if the worst is over, if values will start rising again, if the pace of sales will pick up to 2005 levels. We all see the papers, websites and TV news reports. And just like the weather, every day the forecasts change. Prices stabilizing, prices rising, prices falling, foreclosures will double, mortgage rates will rise, …
Have Ridgefield home prices hit bottom yet? I sure hope so! But the reality is that nobody really knows. Lots of homeowners hoping, many pundits predicting and you… well, you don't know what to think. Just this week America's foreclosure scorekeeper, Realty Trac Inc., reported record US foreclosure filings for the second quarter: 269,962. It's now expected that 2010 will see the most foreclosures ever. In Connecticut, Fairfield County is only second to New Haven County in current foreclosure filings. And if you think this is bad, 2011 could be worse, as another wave of repossessions is …
Whew! The first half of 2010 is in the can, and the Ridgefield real estate market is, well… it's holding its own. My office has been very busy with closings lately, many of which were facilitated by the homebuyer credit offered by Uncle Sam to income-qualified buyers. To receive the $8,000 credit (first-time homebuyers) or the $6,500 credit, the deal needed signed contracts by April 30. These transactions are closing now. By all accounts, this incentive (combined with incredibly low mortgage rates) has fueled recent market activity. All of the realtors, real estate lawyers and mortgage …
When thinking about the real estate market, most people think about prices—prices going up and prices going down. There's average price, median price, listing price, sales price. But there's so much more to real estate stats than just price. Here are some statistics and benchmarks we use to further understand what's going on these days in Ridgefield's real estate market: Inventory refers to all the properties currently available for purchase. Ridgefield has 267 single-family homes for sale as of this writing. This is pretty consistent with inventory levels for the last four years. Continue to…
Click, click... "Oh, so that's what the town assessor thinks my house is worth!" With no more difficulty than a Google search, you can see exactly what's on the tax assessor's field card. Whether you're buying, selling or just want to see how much tax your neighbor pays, you can check it out 24/7 on the Ridgefield town website. Once you look up any address, the field card provides all the public information for that parcel: acreage, zoning, year built, square footage, bedrooms, baths, construction materials and more. These are all the factors used in determining your tax assessment. By law, …
Ridgefield's real estate recovery could be underway! Spring is traditionally the most active time of the year for local real estate sales, and the numbers from the start of 2010 through today are showing some promise. Let's not get too excited yet, but things are looking like the worst might be over: 53 percent more homes have changed hands year-to-date than in the same period in 2009. That's a major uptick in sales. Prices have stopped declining and are virtually flat vs. 2009. Prices must flatten and bottom-out before we can see price appreciation. Mortgage rates are still at historic lows…
If you've ever purchased a home or are in the process of buying one, then you know that great feeling of "this is the one, it just feels right." But once you've made that decision and worked out the price and closing date, you still need to make certain that this particular house is all that it appears to be. Most purchase agreements allow some time for the buyer to perform his due diligence on a pending purchase, otherwise known as "inspections." This is the time that you hire a professional home inspector to take a closer look under the covers and make an objective evaluation of the home's…
The spring real estate market here in Ridgefield is taking shape and, like the bulbs that breed optimism this time of year by blooming into daffodils, the market appears to be budding. Let's take a look at some current market data. Year-to-date, 29 percent more Ridgefield homes have sold this year compared to 2009. This great start is being fueled by pent-up demand, low interest rates and the homebuyer tax credit. These market dynamics are very attractive right now for first-time buyers and folks looking at the middle price range. Luxury homes are still lagging in sales: 90 percent of all …
We all know that over the past 10 years, real estate has taken to the Web like a fish to water. And in that sea of real estate Web sites, none stand out more than zillow.com. Zillow's main conceit is the use of available databases and a computer model to estimate the value of nearly every home in the country. This includes all of our homes in Ridgefield and throughout Fairfield County. Zillow's computer cycles through all the data, churns through its programs and compares each property to every recent sale. It then presents its often-quoted-but-misunderstood "Zestimate." What got me …
Real estate activity in Ridgefield is seasonal, and the winter is usually the slowest season. We would expect January and February to be dead and, in 2009, they were. This year, however, has been another story altogether. Let me show you what's different this year and why. First of all, our local Ridgefield real estate market is getting back to a more-balanced state. Compared to this time last year, available inventory of single family homes for sale is down 11 percent. This number reflects both a rise in home sales and a number of unsold (expired) listings that have not been renewed, …
Most of the recent sales in town have been older homes, many in need of remodeling and renovation. The houses' new homeowners are wondering what to do with their '70s Carol-Brady style kitchens and the green and pink bathrooms that were oh-so-stylish 50 years ago. After making a great investment in purchasing their Ridgefield homes, owners are wondering which home improvement projects provide the best payback when it comes time to sell, wanting to make certain to maximize their homes' values. Exterior improvements that enhance curb appeal have the highest payback. Dollar for dollar, replacing…
Like the sun coming out after weeks of clouds and snow, real estate buyers are making their presence known in Ridgfield. In the five weeks since New Years, I have seen more buyers interested in making a move than I had in the last several months. The market is heating up, and it is fueled by pent-up demand and the homebuyer tax credit. Spring is our busiest season and, this year, spring is coming early to Ridgefield real estate.In the past three months, 55 single family homes have sold in town (versus only 30 in the same period a year ago!) and 82 percent of those sales were under $800,000. …
January in New England, brrrrr. It's cold and windy outside. But why is it freezing inside too? If your home is more than 15 years old, chances are that its heat is leaking out and cold air is blowing in. Connecticut Light & Power offers a great Home Energy Solutions Program that helps homeowners throughout the state optimize their energy usage, saving money along the way. I recently had a crew of energy experts in my Ridgefield home and, for a $75 fee, they literally saved me thousands of dollars! I signed up at the CL&P Web site and the company assigned me a local authorized contractor. At …
Thank goodness market prognosticators are a lot like weathermen: they run their models, examine the trends and make predictions that are only partly accurate. The 2009 real estate market was supposed to be an absolute disaster—and in several U.S. markets, it was. In Ridgefield, however, there were some disappointments, but by and large our housing market took its lumps and is moving on into 2010. The recession's most-felt effect on the market was lower home prices. We saw the median price for a single family Ridgefield home decline about 14 percent to $645,000 in 2009, the fourth straight …
Rob Gutman joins the Ridgefield Patch to report on local real estate. His contributions will include a monthly market trends report as well as additional stories covering various topics of interest. The experience and knowledge he brings to Patch include several years of selling Fairfield County real estate. He is a full-time professional based at the Keller Williams Realty office on Main Street in Ridgefield. Rob has been closing deals for more than 20 years and his sales career has taken him (literally) from Wall Street to Main Street. His resume includes a Finance MBA from The Stern School…
