A Few Thoughts On 2009 Fairfield CT Real Estate

In 2008, 521 single family homes sold in Fairfield.  In 2009, 464 sold.  In 2008, the average sale price of a single family home was $781,750.  In 2009, it was $706,654.  In 2008, the average number of days on the market for a single family home in Fairfield was 99 days.  In 2009, it was 100 days.

What does it all mean, though?

I have always compared Fairfield, from a Real Estate standpoint, to a portfolio of stocks that has some variety.  The market here is broad.  There are many levels to it, and it is the variety of it that has found us, as a market, in not so bad shape.  Sure, the market is down, but, compared to other towns, it hasn’t been punished as badly. 

 

One stat that I found interesting was number of days on the market.  It’s about the same, and I think there’s a simple reason for this.  If you’re going to put your home on the market today, you had better be serious about it.  Fewer people are dropping a line in the water to see if they get a bite.  The importance of pricing a home at the beginning of its time on the market was key as there were usually so many other homes to compete with.  Those that were priced right sold.  Those that weren’t ended up chasing the market; always one step behind.

I’m not one to dwell on the past and don’t wish to spend too much time on the year that was.  We all know that it was tough.  Few of us were sorry to see it go, but some good things happened in 2009 that I hope we remember.  We realized, some of us the hard way, that our homes are not a bank.  They’re a place to live; a place to raise a family and call home.  We got back to basics.  I, for one, became a much better Realtor.

I don’t think many of us will forget the feeling of the beginning of 2009.  So many of us wondered where all of this was going to go.  So many of us took hits of any sort of variety.  Some lost jobs.  Some lost large sums of money.  Some, sadly, lost their homes, but we’re still here.  We made it!  We may have gotten banged up a bit, but guess what?  The sky didn’t fall!  Life went on.  I still saw plenty of people looking for their first home and plenty of people that were getting cramped in the homes they lived in, looking for the next place.

So that’s it.  Those are my thoughts on 2009.  The market was down here in Fairfield but, in the scheme of things, not so bad.  It could have been much worse.  Are we out of the woods yet?  Probably not.  Is the hysteria over?  It would seem.  Is 2010 going to be a better year?

You bet!