Market Tightest Ever
August finally looks like a good month for condo sales after they had been below our average monthly sales compared to our 25-year average. We’ll end the month with 21 condo sales, the same as last year. Overall, the poor sales in the earlier months this year, except for our shortest month, February, means that through August we have sold 110 condos and co-ops (all references to condos include co-ops) in Greenwich. This compares to 135 condo sales last year and our 25-year average of 134 condos.
Like our single-family homes, we have lower sales due to lower inventory. Right now, we only have 34 condo listings on the market. Of those 34 listings, all but 2 of them are under $4 million. Interestingly enough, the two condos over $4 million are really 4 condos.
The first of these very high-end condos is 148 E. Elm St. which is composed of units 1 & 2. These are both newly built units. Combined you get 8 bedrooms, 8 full baths and 3 half-baths, but only 1 fireplace, in 8,567 sf. The list price for the two combined units is $7,800,000. At one 1 Home Place you can get two combined units for only $6,590,000. You get 4 bedrooms: 4 full baths and one half bath, but still only one fireplace if you buy both units A and B. (BTW: If you want to check these units out, Home Place is off of Davis Avenue, just south of the Bruce Park, near the pond.)
Last year, we had the highest sales price to original list price at 101.3%. This year we went down to exactly 100.0% 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 and demand is good. Last year, we had the highest sales price per square foot at $693 and the highest average sales price at $1.33 million.
This year we are blowing those records away. Our average price is $1.42 million, up 6.8% from last year. Our average price/sf is $769/sf, up 10.0% from last year. Part of that big jump is a change in the mix in what is selling this year with 17 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 50 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.
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 $156 million of condos, which annualized comes out to $212 million.
All of this is attributed to our very low inventory. We have 34 condos on the market. We have already sold 110 condos and have 22 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, provided historic seasonal sales pattern continue.
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 22 contracts, 12 are pending, i.e. non-contingent and 10 are contingent. These 10 contingent contracts represent about 45% of all the condo contract, which is a much higher contingency percentage than we see in single family home contracts, where only about 16% of our contracts are contingent.
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 $1.81 million to buy the average condo listing 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, then only a slightly higher offer may be as good as a cash offer for many sellers as. 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. We do have 7 sales over $4 million this year, but no inventory until you get above $6.5 million where we have inventory, but no sales. Our team has 9 condos listed for $10 million at 147 Holly Hill, 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 at the Modern, next to Greenwich Town Hall for $6.2 million. Over $3 million we have 7 listings and 10 sales so far this year and 4 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 the $1.0 – 1.5 million where we have 9 listings. More listings led to more sales in that price range with 24 sales and 6 contracts this year, which means only 2.9 months of supply
On average, just about any month is a good month to sell a condo. We do have a slight peak historically in June with 22 sales last year, 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.
The condo and co-op market is the place to go if you want to get into Greenwich for less than a $1 million. So far this year, we have had 55 sales and 11 contracts for condos under $1 million. We also have 12 condos in inventory. On the single-family home side under $1 million, we only have 16 sales and 6 contract, most of which were bunched at the top of the range 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. Our team has 147 Holly Hill listed for $9.999 million. Mark can be reached at 203-817-2871 or mark.pruner@compass.com.
