The purpose of this brief overview is to provide you with a snapshot of the current real estate market within the Fairfield County, Connecticut town of Norwalk. In a word, we are “growing”. Considering our new shopping mall under construction, the new Marriott Hotel under construction and the vast amount of new Condominium and Apartment buildings being built in both the West Ave and Sono areas we are clearly a town in transition. But, what about the residential real estate market and is purchasing a home in Norwalk a good investment
Statistics of Performance
Over the past five years, the Median Value of a Norwalk Single Family home has hovered around the $430,000 -$440,000 range. However, this has now changed because in 2017 we have now reached a growing pinnacle of value at $463,500. This represents an annual rate of 5.3% growth year over year from 2016 and a growth of 7.0% from five years ago. In short, our growth rate over the past year represents 76% of our growth from our five year total. This is promising and should make our Norwalk homeowners feel cautiously optimistic about future growth. This kind of growth is glacial in nature and represents a sustained growth over time.
Still another important rate of performance is the List Price to Sale Price Ratio which tells us how close to the list price did the Buyer actually pay for the property. The closer to the list price will indicate if we are getting closer to a Seller’s Market or are we moving away to a Buyer’s market. Norwalk is clearly moving closer to a Seller’s Market because we are now at a 97.6% ratio and continuing to improve. This is more good news for homeowners. Historically we were at a 96.8% ratio five years ago and now show a steady incline improvement as represented in the attached graphic. A real estate performance statistic that goes hand-in-hand with the List Price Ratio is the Average Days on Market. This statistic measures how long it takes on average to actually sell a single-family property. Specifically, it measures from the day the property goes on the market to the day that the Buyer and Seller sign a Sales Contract. In 2017 the length of time in Norwalk averages at 112 days or 3.7 months. The trend is another long-term improvement since in 2013 we were averaging 161 days.
The final statistic that will be covered is the total Months of Inventory. If the inventory were to stay dormant and the
the current rate of property sales was to remain static then this statistic measures how long it would take to absorb the inventory. If there were 0-5 months of inventory the market would be considered a Sellers Market. If there were between 5-7 months of inventory then the market would be considered in transition. If there were over 7 months of inventory then economically the market would be considered a Buyer’s Market. At the moment the town of Norwalk is at one month of inventory making us a strong Seller’s Market, which again is more good news for homeowners. Please check out the trend in the attached graphic.
Summary
If you are a Buyer looking to purchase a residence in Norwalk, don’t wait. As shown very clearly the aforementioned statistics taken directly from our local Multiple Listing Service, the longer you wait the higher you will pay, the tougher it will be to negotiate price, terms and conditions and the fewer choices you will have to purchase. It’s that simple. For more information concerning Norwalk residential real estate, please reach out to me at 203-858-2241, or visit my website at http://www.fairfieldcountyhomefinder.com. Platinum Property Realty is a local Norwalk independently owned and operated real estate company and is a proud affiliate of the Homes for Heroes Program.