Real Estate Information, Fairfield County Real Estate Information, Real Estate Market Statistics

In today's economy, homeowners are watching their money more closely and going out of their way to give their home a fresh look by working with what they already have.

As a Member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, I have access to many great home improvement resources. Home decorator Lee Evanwood offers the following advice for homeowners who are looking to decorate while staying in budget:

Rub down and stain or repaint old wooden furniture. Take advantage of that old furniture you have sitting in your basement. Simply add new drawer or door handles to achieve a new look.

Choose rugs. If the floor is already in good shape, you can get it refinished or try area rugs instead of carpeting. Not only are they chic and stylish, but they cost less, too.

Paint with a plan in mind. Try a neutral color on three walls, with a splash of color on the fourth. That splash of color can give you a starting point for further decorating.

Go with soft goods. A few new pillows or cushions that pick up the color on your accent wall can transform the look of a room. Add some inexpensive curtains, draperies or valances to help tie it all together.

Add some accents. Give a room a homey look by using baskets, vases and other small accessories to hold books and magazines, fresh flowers or craft projects.

Finish with artwork or mirrors. A pretty, framed print or two can help finish a room. Keep in mind that a mirror of any size on one wall can add depth and make the room appear larger.

These are just some of the many ways you can transform your home while staying in budget. Feel free to contact me for more ideas and please forward this on to anyone who can use a few inexpensive ways to create a new look in their home.

There may have never been a better time to buy a home than right now. Earlier this month, interest rates dropped again -- the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.79% from 4.93%, according to LoanRateUpdate.com-- and there is still plenty of inventory, keeping home prices relatively low in our area.

Those positive factors, however, are often offset by tighter lending standards, causing many to shy away from applying for a mortgage. As a Member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, however, I have learned that it really boils down to four main factors that will impact a lender's decision:

• Your ability to make a down payment - usually between 3% and 20% of the purchase price -- of course, the larger the down payment, the better your odds of securing the mortgage.
• Two years of steady employment - at the same job or in the same field.
• Good (but not necessarily perfect) credit score - these days, around 660 may do it.
• Monthly income between two and three times the estimated monthly mortgage payment.

I have had many clients, however, who have qualified for a mortgage without completely meeting the above criteria ... so don't rule yourself out too soon. There are several other steps you can take to secure a mortgage, such as these ideas from BusinessWeek:

• Meet with a lender anyway. You may find out that you qualify after all, and if not, the lender can tell you exactly which areas to focus on in order to qualify in the near future.
• Ask your real estate agent if they work with a particular lender or mortgage broker. An experienced agent works with many lenders and may even offer in-house mortgage services.
• Get a co-signer. This isn't easy, because if you default on a loan, the co-signer will be responsible for paying it. But if you know someone with good credit who has great faith in your ability to pay, a co-signer could be a workable option.
• Plan for the future. If it turns out you cannot qualify for a home loan right now, have your real estate agent help you map out a plan for improving your credit qualifications over the coming months. If you make homeownership a serious goal, you should be able to qualify in the not-too-distant future.

For more information about applying for a mortgage, please feel free to contact me.  And be sure to share this email with family and friends who might also be considering a home purchase -- this market is just too good to miss out on!

Moving Schedule

The weeks before moving day can be very hectic. In an effort to help your move transition smoothly, I have compiled a list of tasks to be completed before the moving day. Keep this schedule close by during your move to help you stay organized and minimize stress.

Eight Weeks before Moving Day

• Contact a moving company and reserve a van and team of movers
• Take a mental inventory of the items in your house and decide what is coming with you to your next home and what is not
• Schedule a tag sale and contact a tag sale professional for help.
• If there are items you have decided to keep but not store at your new home, select a storage facility and start moving these items.
• If you are moving out of the area, research and select new service providers and request that your personal records be transferred to the new providers medical records to your new doctors. 

Six Week Before Moving Day

• Secure insurance for new property
• Organize, prepare, and price items for moving sale

Four Weeks Before Moving Day

• Begin Packing items you will not be using over the next month
• Arrange the transfer of utilities and Services into your name effective the day of closing
• Register children in school  and request transfer of records including medical records, as required
•  Post notices and Place ads for moving sale   

Three Weeks Prior to Moving Day

• Hold moving sale
• Send change of address card to the Post office  or change online 
• Contact moving company to confirm arrangements
• Continue packing  
• Schedule electrician to remove any light fixtures which are not staying and plate the wires. (pre-arranged with REALTOR®) 
• Set aside rugs, mats, runners, towel to wipe feet on moving day in the event of wet weather
• Make small basket of paper towels, tape, markers, toilet tissue, hammer, paper, pens, coffee/tea etc for moving day in both houses.

One Week Before Moving Day

• Transfer bank funds to new account
• Obtain certified check for movers  and obtain some cash which might be needed for tips
• Schedule special garbage collection to take away incremental, hazardous and large items
• Schedule cleaning to coincide with last removal of possessions
• Remove hooks and nails and patch walls, painting where necessary) coordinate with your REALTOR® ) 
• Set aside paper plates, napkins, cups for lunch on moving day
• Order moving day lunch

As a successful REALTOR^® here in Westport, I am often asked by prospective sellers, “How long should it take for my house to sell?”

Many sellers are looking for a specific time frame as an answer to their question. The 'average' is not the best answer.  There are many factors that affect how long your house remains on the market. These factors include market conditions, condition of the house, location, the availability of your house for showings, and perhaps most importantly, price.

Your local REALTOR^® can pull market data for you to determine how many homes are on the market within the same price range and how many homes have sold within that price range during the past 6 months. This will give you an idea of the ‘absorption rate’ of homes in your price range, in your town.

Typically, buyers are more attracted to homes that are in ‘move-in condition’ than those that need more work. Before you place your home on the market, ask your REALTOR^® what improvements you can make to your property so that it will show well the first time and every time a buyer sees it.

It may be ‘common sense’ but one of the factors that affects how long a property is on the market is “Can it be easily shown?” If a buyer is available to see your home during a specific time frame of one day of one week, and your home is not available at that time  or you need longer notice, the buyer will move on to the next house on the list. In this market, there are a lot of homes on the market and it is very important that sellers make every effort to have their home available to buyers.

If you have done all things imaginable to help your house sell (cleaned ,  painted,  de-cluttered, neutralized, mowed the lawn, trimmed the bushes,  repaired  the crack in the ceiling,  made  your home available for every showing  as requested) and your home is still on the market, then odds are your problem is price. Before I meet with sellers, I do a thorough analysis of the market and how it relates specifically to their property. When I meet with sellers I explain what the market says the value of their house is and I walk them through (electronically) the comparable sales. The market has proven time and again that the closer the list price is to market value, the faster that property will sell. The more time a property sits on the market at a price that is too high, the lower the final sales price will be. In short, it is best to list a house at the right price the first time.

Please contact me for more information on what you can do to get your property sold at the highest price possible in the shortest amount of time.

During this time of seasonally low real estate market activity, sellers often ask, "When is the best time to list my house for sale?"  Due to the beauty of our spring season here in New England, most sellers pick the spring months to list their house for sale. The flowers are blooming, the grass is green, and the house is light and bright with the spring sun. Many buyers begin their home search in the spring with the hopes of being settled into a new home before the start of the following school year.

Although your home may look its best during the blooming season, spring sellers  do face some disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is the increased competition on the market. The bottom line is, you are not alone in thinking that your home shows the best in the spring and summer months.

My advice to most sellers is, "The best time to list your house is as soon as you have decided it is time to sell". There may be fewer buyers searching for homes during the winter months but typically the buyers who venture out in the cold, snow and icy season are very serious buyers. Less inventory means less competition for your home. This does not mean however, that you should list your home on the market before it is ready to be shown. Having your home ‘show ready’ the moment its hits the market is very important. It is important to talk to a REALTOR® who can help you stage your home for sale before placing it on the market.

If you are thinking about selling your home, I would love the opportunity to meet with you and further discuss the market and how it directly affects you and your sale.

January is my favorite month for Fairfield County real estate market statistics because we get a clear view of how the real estate market over the past year compared to the year before which can be an indication of what to expect in the upcoming year. In 2010 we saw some very positive activity in the real estate market. Single Family sales on the Greater Fairfield County Consolidated Multiple Listing system were up by 11% from 2009 and the median sales price of single family homes was up by 9%. Those numbers translate in to great news for our market!

The most impressive change from 2009 to 2010 can be seen when we look at sales among the upper price brackets. Sales over $2MM increased by 35% and sales over $3MM increased by 49%.

We currently have a seasonally low active inventory of 5,742 single family homes on the Greater Fairfield County Consolidated Multiple Listing System with a median list price of $479,900. There are 305 single family homes with accepted offers and 829 homes with fully executed contracts just waiting to close. The median list price of homes with accepted offers is 20% higher than the median list price of those homes with fully executed contracts. This can be predictive of the latest market trend. From this the educated guess would be that the median sales price will be slightly higher over the first few months of 2011.

Now is a great time to contact a REALTOR for real estate market statistics specific to your town and neighborhood and for advice on when to list and buy. I encourage you to call me at 203-341-0100 or email me at Cheryl @csdgroup.com.

Unfortunately, with the economy’s slow recovery and still-high unemployment rates, many homeowners continue to confront difficulties in making their mortgage payments. If you’re one of these homeowners, know that you’re not alone and know that there are several options to explore prior to foreclosure, such as a short sale. A short sale occurs when the outstanding loan(s) against a property are greater than what the property can be sold for.

As you’ve probably heard, however, short sales can be a drawn out and complicated process. Here are five tips to help you create a successful short sale:

1. Get comparable sale prices and an estimate of expected closing costs to help verify the current market value of your home.

2. Determine the amount of all loans against the property. Subtract the total amount you owe on the property from the estimated proceeds of the sale.

3. Contact your lender or lenders. Insist on speaking with someone in authority about a short sale. Remember that you are asking the lender to accept less than the total amount you owe, so be firm but cooperative.

4. Be prepared to submit the necessary documentation, including a letter of authorization giving the lender permission to talk with specific interested parties about your loan. Include your name, address, the loan number, and your agent’s contact information.

5. Include a hardship letter describing how you got into a financial bind, and provide proof of your assets and income. You also may wish to include recent bank statements, with an explanation of any unusual deposits or withdrawals, and your broker’s competitive market analysis.

The short sale process requires patience—even after you find a buyer. But for many homeowners, it was well worth it. Be sure to work with a real estate agent who has experience in short sales.  As a Certified Distressed Property Expert, I have had extensive training in the area of short sales. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have.  

Copyright© 2010 RISMedia, The Leader in Real Estate Information Systems and Real Estate News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be republished without permission from RISMedia.

As an experienced REALTOR in Fairfield County, I know that selling a property during the holidays can be a stressful event, and most families do need to continue living in their property during the marketing process, holidays or not! So in order to help them enjoy the season, and still have their property staged to sell, we recommend a couple of thoughts before decorating:

We stress that less is more and encourage our sellers to choose a couple of their favorite holiday pieces instead of all of them and be sure they display the ones in really good condition.  No matter how well loved or how much sentimental value there is, tacky decorations won’t help the sale of the property.

It is equally important that the home be available for showings.  Getting qualified buyers into a property when there are many competitive properties in the marketplace is challenging enough, so we sure don’t want to miss an opportunity to show a property during the season.  We say they can ask for at least an hour notice, but we know for the most part, buyers at this time of the year are serious buyers, so we try to accommodate them when possible.

As for buyers - when we first counsel our buyers before they begin their house hunting activities, we help them to focus on the features of the property they are viewing that best suit their needs.  It is way too easy to get seduced by the warmth of holiday decorations that may distract them from what they really need in a property after those decorations are taken away.

As an example: Exterior Lighting is usually added during the holiday season, and that won’t be there when the season is over.

Another example is with interior lighting.  Soft holiday lights on trees and around hearths may distract from the standard lighting that lights the home.  The rooms may look darker and smaller after these additional lights are removed.

Often we counsel our buyers to visually “subtract” personal items when they walk into a property.  In order for the real property to show through, we help our buyers to “subtract” the garland and extra ornaments to try to visualize the property without a lot of extraneous decorations.  We try to help them to actually “see” how the property really looks. If buyers can’t see beyond these things, then they will have difficulty evaluating the property for their needs.

There are some great opportunities in the real estate market this time of year. If you are interested in finding out your home’s market value or viewing homes for sale in Fairfield County, please let me know. I would be happy to help.

There is a healthy, active inventory of 7,016 single family homes on the Greater Fairfield County Consolidated Multiple Listing Service. To date, we have had 6,360 closed sales.  This represents a unit sales increase of 16% vs. the first ten months of 2009. The result is an 11 month supply of homes currently on the market. The median selling price county-wide is $411,250 which is an over-all increase of 9% from last year. This is not the case in every town and can be calculated for each specific town so it is important to talk to a REALTOR® about the advantages of buying or selling in your particular town and price range at this time.

Although sales in the upper price brackets have slowed down in the past two months compared to the first eight months of 2010, the number of sales is up significantly over 2009. The number of units sold over $2MM has increased by 44% and the number of sales over $3MM has increased by 62%! There are currently 650 single family homes on the market over $2MM and 340 over $3MM.

County wide, there are 937 properties with fully executed contracts waiting to close.  There are 448 properties with accepted offers.  The median list price of those with accepted offers is $410,750, 4.5% lower than the median selling price for the properties that have closed so far this year. I report these numbers each month because they can be predictive of the latest market trend.  In this case it looks as though the median sales price is stabilizing and will be either flat or slightly lower during the last couple months of 2010.

I encourage our readers to contact me for the market statistics specific to their town and neighborhood as they may vary greatly from town to town and even neighborhood to neighborhood. If our readers wish to receive market statistics monthly electronically, they can email me at Cheryl@CSDGroup.com.

Starting in 2011, there is a new tax requirement for landlords. All landlords who receive $600 or more in rent for the year must send a 1099 to all service providers that the landlord paid $600 or more during the year (such as plumbers, carpenters, yard services, and other repair people).

The new requirement applies to owners of both residential and commercial property. Prior to 2011, this requirement had only applied to those involved in full-time property management, but now the requirement covers all types of landlords. Landlords will need to gather federal tax ID numbers from service providers in order to file the 1099s. Failure to file the 1099s with the IRS can result in fines of $50 per 1099 not filed with the IRS. In 2012, these requirements will expand to cover providers of good to landlords.

Call or email me for more information!