Buying a Home in NYC’s Connecticut Suburbs? Expect to Overpay

(Bloomberg) -- Competition for homes in New York’s Connecticut suburbs is so fierce that more buyers than ever are agreeing to overpay.

In the second quarter, the share of single-family houses that sold above the asking price set records in Greenwich and all of Fairfield County, as bidding wars erupted for a dwindling supply of listings.

In Greenwich, the wealthy town favored by many Wall Street executives, 28% of purchases were for more than the seller sought, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. That was the largest share in data going back to 2017.

In Fairfield County -- including Greenwich and towns such as Darien and Westport -- 54% of home sales were above the asking price, the firms said. That was also a record, and far surpassed the previous high of 37%, set just in the first quarter of this year.

The bidding wars are a consequence of the area’s plummeting supply of houses on the market. At the end of the quarter, the listing inventory in Fairfield County was down 40% from a year earlier to 1,681. In Greenwich, listings dropped 42% to 341.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.