Market Tightest Ever
In 2024, we saw the highest volume of condo and co-op sales ever with $256 million in total sales. So far this year, we have sold $78 million of condos, which annualized comes out to $201 million. Our year-end number will likely be higher since our first quarter traditionally has the lowest number of sales.
Last year, we had the highest sales price to original list price at 101.3%. This year we went down to a still high 99.2% of sold price to original list price. This compares to our 25-year median of 94.1 of SP/OLP. Condos are almost always tight in Greenwich. We had the highest sales price per square foot and the highest average sales price at $1.33 million in 2024.
So far this year we are blowing those records away. Our average price is $1.46 million, up 9.8% from last year. Our average price/sf is $808/sf, up 16.6% from last year. Part of that big jump is a change in the mix in what is selling this year with 9 sales over $2 million this year.
Our cumulative days on market dropped to an all-time low of 61 days on market last year and they went down even more this year to 58 days on market. The reason it was even this high was we had 3 sales that had been on the market for over 200 days. The median days on market was a very low 30 days from listing to binding contract, almost the same as last year.
All of this is attributed to our very low inventory. As of the third week of May we only have 35 condos on the market. We have already sold 53 condos and have 31 contracts waiting to close. At this point, it looks like low inventory may lead to lower sales this year, but we will have more sales in the second half of the year than in the first half of the year, if historic seasonal sales pattern applies. Our condo sales were spread out all over front country, where properties are zoned for multi-family. Most of sales are in central Greenwich, Pemberwick, Glenville, and Byram on the west side of town and also in Cos Cob on the east side of Greenwich. Of our 31 contracts, 23 are pending, i.e. non-contingent and only 8 are contingent. These 8 contingent contracts represent about 25% of all the contract, which is a little higher contingency percentage than we see in single family home contracts.
We see more contingent contracts for condos than we do for single family homes, because of the lower price point and buyers that don’t have the $3 million of cash it takes to buy the average priced house in Greenwich. Still if you are looking to buy a condo, it’s a good idea to bring cash. If you don’t have the $1.46 million to buy the average condo in Greenwich, you really, really want to get a good mortgage broker and get underwritten pre-approved. If sellers know that if you only need an appraisal to close, that a slightly higher offer may be as good as cash. (Sellers nearly always think their house will appraise for your offer price.)
The condo market is tight at every price range. We have less than 3 months of supply from $600,000 to $3 million. We have no MoS above $4 million, since we have no condos listed in that price range. (We do have one listing at $6.59 million, but it’s actually 2 condos in a duplex, which are separately listed for $3.295 million each.) Our team has 9 condos listed for $11 million, but they fall under the multi-family category in the Greenwich MLS since they are rental/investment properties.
Our highest condo sale this year was on Oneida Drive for $6.53, nearly matching last year’s record of $6.75 million also on Oneida Drive. This year’s sale was on the market for 46 days. Over $3 million we have 7 listings and 5 sales so far this year and 5 contracts waiting to close.
The large majority of condo sales are under $2 million, this is up from the majority of sales being under $1.5 million last year. The only price category that has anything close to decent inventory is under $600,000 where we have 8 listings, but we also had 9 sales and 10 contracts this year, which means only 2.3 months of supply.
On average, just about any month is a good month to sell a condo. We do have a slight peak in June with 22 sales last, but we don’t see the big late spring/summer spike that we see in Greenwich house sales. Then again, if you don’t have to list in January or February you may want to wait for the spring market, but feel free to list away in November or December.
Overall, the condo and co-op market is tight in Greenwich, but then it always is. It’s the place to go if you want to get into Greenwich for less than a $1 million. So far this year, we have had 24 sales and 22 contracts for condos under $1 million. We also have 15 condos in inventory. On the single family home side we have 2 sales and 10 contracts, 9 of which were listed between $800,000 and $1 million.
If you are looking for a newly built condo ready to move in to, we don’t have any. We have 2 listings that are under construction and our next newest condo was built in 2019. We did have one lucky buyer who bought a 2024 build.
We are at the lowest days on market ever so be ready to move, when you see the condo or the co-op that you want.
Mark Pruner, with his brother Russ, and Dena Zarra were co-founders of the Greenwich Streets Team at Compass Connecticut. He can be reached at 203-817-2871 or mark.pruner@compass.com.
