March 21, 2009 · 6:05 am

No one’s going to steal my house! New Canaan edition

I learned from a client (well, a client if I can find him something here in Greenwich) that he recently bid 75% of the asking price on a New Canaan property, cash, no contingencies, and the seller responded by dropping his house $5,000. In January, exactly zero houses sold in New Canaan – not a single one. Unless market conditions improved dramatically up there in February and March, that seller is not going to be moving for a long time. Which is fine, but, just like some homeowners here in Greenwich, I ask, why is he tormenting himself with listing his house for sale at all? This is not the time to stick your house on the market with a “here’s my price – take it or leave it” price sticker and see what happens. Because nothing will. Come back in a few years.

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7 responses to “No one’s going to steal my house! New Canaan edition”

  1. SizeBuyer
    March 21, 2009 at 8:22 am

    If I am not mistaken there are 11 pending homes in new canaan and not one sale.

    Let’s see how many close.

    I was told the same thing in new canaan. “don’t think you’re going to steal this house”…this was back in december/january (can’t remember) and the house is still for sale.

    new canaan is a lovely place however with the exception of offering more house for your money, the town itself (not the downtown) offers nothing compared to what you get in greenwich or westport.

    westport’s negative is it is too far up i-95. Maybe when they add 3 more lanes on both sides of the highway i’ll consider it.

  2. Front Row Phil
    March 21, 2009 at 9:46 am

    Chris — I have to believe the mentality of many pie-in-the-sky sellers is simply this: “I don’t really have to sell my house now, but if some dumb schnook is willing to come close enough to my asking price then I will. But I’m not desperate enough — yet — to be realistic.”

    In time, more and more sellers will experience the gift of desperation and will be forced to accept the new reality of the marketplace. Obviously, we ain’t there yet.

  3. SizeBuyer
    March 21, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    It doesn’t matter if these sellers who purchased in the bubble don’t want to budge on price the reality is every year seniors sell and move away and they have been here long enough that they will see a profit and at the same time set the new benchmark to which other sellers will be forced to move to.

    So let them sit on it.

  4. rob lupo
    March 22, 2009 at 6:31 am

    While I agree that inflexibile sellers are wasting their time in a declining housing market, I do not agree with the Size Buyer comment above that New canaan has nothing to offer compared to Greenwich and Westport.

    1. New Canaan public schools are far superior to Greenwich and Westport–see all published test scores and state test results. Greenwich starves its public school system, since a good 40% of rich white Greenwich residents send their kids to private school.

    2. New Canaan also has lower real estate property taxes per house than Westport.

    3. New Canaan has a beautiful town center and the residents support the local stores, so ther are fewer chain stores than the other towns.

    4. The commute on the New Canaan spur line has less crowded trains. Greenwich is definitely closer to NYC and has the BEST train service. Westport is too far out, especially if you need to get to airports or work late at night and take a car home.

    5. New Canaan does not have I-95, Route 1 and the Metro North main train line that criss cross and ruin Greenwich and Westport. These are noisy, dirty and unattractive.

    6. New Canaan has a very nice public pool, good private clubs, a wide vareity of churches, nature center, great nursery schools, great private schools.

  5. anonymous
    March 22, 2009 at 9:45 am

    New Canaan is nice but it just can’t hold a candle to a town like Greenwich. Greenwich has it all, great schools, shopping, dining, beaches, hospital, library, and location to NYC…It just offers so much more. It’s beautiful in all seasons. It’s the best in the East!

  6. pulled up in OG
    March 22, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    “It’s the best in the East!”

    Thirty or forty years ago. Just a half-way decent, convenient place to live nowadays

  7. anonymous
    March 24, 2009 at 9:41 am

    Greenwich residents have pride in their town. It’s clean, beautiful, safe. It’s a great place to raise a family if you can afford it. If you can’t go to Stamford, Norwalk and even New Canaan (where you get so much house/land for your money).