2005 a Good Year for Darien Real Estate Market By Susan Chaves Dec 28, 2005 Despite a slow ending to 2005, realtors still feel it was a strong year for the housing market in Darien. “It’s been a great year for real estate in Darien,” David Epprecht, owner of Realty Quest, said. “Darien is still an excellent investment and a nice place to live.” He said some people in the industry have characterized the past 12 months as being “down” because a majority of the sales happened during the first half of the year. Also, roughly 350 houses sold in 2005, a drop from the 400 sold the year before. Similarly, the units took on average about 68 days to sell this year compared to 61 days in 2004. Although the volume dropped in 2005, both the average and median selling prices were up nearly 10 percent over the previous year. The average price of a house was $1.625 million and the median price was $1.3 million in 2005, while the average and median house prices were $1.465 million and $1.1 million, respectively, in 2004. Neither the limited number of available units nor higher prices had a negative impact on Epprecht’s company, which saw a 20 percent rise in sales. “But we’re a growing company that’s constantly adding new clients and associates,” he said. “Plus, the houses we sold in Darien were very high-end homes — $3 million or $4 million houses or more.” Realty Quest, which serves upper Fairfield County and New Haven County in addition to the very southern portion of the state, did a majority of its business outside of Darien such as in Bridgeport and Stratford. “The people who come to us are looking for a nice place to live, know how much they want to spend and want advice on where they can go and we help them get there,” Epprecht said. “It’s healthy for us. It allows us to work with a broader customer base. I like that. It makes me happy to help people on all different levels.” All the people he and his agents have helped, whether they were first-time buyers or repeat ones, seemed unaffected in their decisions to purchase a home even with an increase in interest rates, which started off in the 5 percent range and crept up to 6, near 7, percent. As of last week, a 30-year fixed mortgage was at 6.8 percent. Courtney Wojnarowski of CT Mortgage Group thinks mortgage rates will hold steady. “I don’t think we’re going to have a big jump to 7.5 percent,” Wojnarowski said. “I think the most it will be is one-quarter to a half of a point.” Even then, she does not think that will deter people from buying a house. “Part of it is that buyers are getting a heck of a deal as far as interest rates go. They’re spoiled,” Wojnarowski said. “A few years ago when I got 8.75 percent, I was thrilled. Getting 6 or 6.5 percent for 30 years, people are happy with that.” That is good news for Epprecht, who is predicting that 2006 will pick up where this year leaves off with a reasonable increase in home values and the number of sales consistent with those in 2004 and 2005. Having heard that significant bonuses are being handed out on Wall Street means that people will have the money to buy a house, he said. "In Darien, it’s sometimes hard to move up because the price differentials are so huge,” said Epprecht, noting that the most expensive house in town is $16.9 million and the least expensive is $535,000. “If you have an $800,000 house, the next step is $1.5 million and after that, it’s 2.5 million. That’s a lot of dough.” With an improving economy as well as good bonuses, Geno Kelly of Kelly Associates is banking on people parting with some of their dough to make the upcoming year another good one for the real estate market in Darien. “It’s been a very robust market for over 14 years,” Kelly said, whose company had a quiet December after a ‘very good’ November. The only thing that could dampen the market is a continued rise in interest rates, but he does not see that happening, especially since people look at a 6 percent rate as low rather than high. Besides, he thinks Darien has and will remain a popular place for people to live. “People want to keep their kids in the school system, they like Darien and they like what it has to offer,” Kelly said. Over time, he said he has seen more and more young couples from the metropolitan New York area moving into town, even if the husband and wife grew up elsewhere. “Young people tend to go back to where they were raised,” Kelly, a 66-year Darien resident, said. “It’s a testament that it’s desirable to live here. Real estate here isn’t cheap, but if you ask why they are coming here, a lot of people will say it’s about the quality of life and the quality of people here.” Holly Hawes, a partner at Prudential Wheeler, agrees that “this wonderful community” with its nearness not only to New York City and Stamford, the latter of which she described as a ‘financial Mecca within itself,’ will keep on drawing people in. That, in turn, makes her optimistic about next year. “I think it’s going to be a very positive year and I think it’s going to be very steady,” Hawes said. “This year was also a good year. If anybody looks, they will see that our sales were steady.” Tom Vozzella, manager at Prudential Connecticut, has high hopes for 2006. “Prudential is very optimistic about the future of real estate,” Vozzella said. “It’s a great market, a great town, a great place to live and a great time to buy real estate. I think it will continue to be that way in 2006.” However, he thinks more buyers will enter the market early next year and continue to do so through April. This, he said, will help get rid of the carry-over from 2005 (currently there are 109 houses available). “This is a more normalized market and sellers need to be aware that the frenzy is gone,” Vozzella said. “Interesting” is how he characterized the market in 2005, which he said “started off with a bang” and then plateaued at the end. Part of the reason, he said, was that there were a lot of buyers the first half of the year, but not a large selection of inventory. He said more units became available during the latter half of 2005 and prices stabilized as well, resulting in fewer multiple offer situations. That had little impact on Prudential. Vozzella said his company did a tremendous amount of business in Rowayton, where it currently leads in the number of unit sales. “We lag behind in Darien,” he said. “Buyers are more savvy. They look for deals and there’s not as much motivation to get into a house as in years past. Even so, this area has the greatest real estate market I’ve ever seen.” Back to News Articles