Coronavirus Brings Best, Worst Of Times To Ridgefield Real Estate

RIDGEFIELD, CT — You've heard that real estate sales were down, because nobody has any money and everyone is afraid to even attend an open house. You've also heard that New Yorkers and others from states where the coronavirus pandemic took a heavy toll on the local lifestyle were scooping up Southwest Connecticut properties like jujubes. Both of these things can't be correct. Or can they?

We put that question to Raquel Martin, a realtor with Keller Williams in Ridgefield, who said that, yes, in fact, they can.

When COVID-19 dropped in March everything came to a standstill, in the housing market just like everywhere else. But anything that was in contract pretty much closed, Martin said, so the cash registers rang while the pandemic was gearing up. Only then did the phones get awfully quiet.

"Real estate agents were considered essential, so we were still able to view houses, and do tours, but people were still too afraid to come out especially with everyone being quarantined. Nobody wanted to go anywhere," she said.

Property sales tanked in April and May, according to Martin. "But by end of May everybody started getting antsy, you had a lot of people from the city feeling like they had to get out because they really couldn't go anywhere. So our traffic increased."

Agents in Connecticut were allowed to show houses, but their counterparts in New York were not, and that helped push a lot of the buyers anxious to leave NYC over the state border.

"And there were so many people who came!" she said. If a house was in "move-in condition," it was not uncommon for bidding wars to break out during the first showing.

Martin told Patch she'd never seen anything like it, and she's seen more local real estate shenanigans than most. Prior to being a realtor, she was a paralegal specializing in real estate, handling property closings. Before that, Martin, who lives in Wilton, handled property management for a rental community.

"June and July were just crazy," she said. Last year, buyers would want to see a house several times before making any offer. But in the Age of COVID, buyers submitted offers on their first visit to a home.

Just who are these anxious-but-loaded house shoppers? Martin said most of her new clients hail from NYC, and say they are leaving the city because of the pandemic restrictions.

"And they wanted more space. Living space, because a lot of them were coming from apartments, and they wanted a yard for their kids, they were tired of being cooped up."

The influx of city buyers bearing briefcases filled with cash into the Connecticut suburbs has driven the market prices up "a little bit," Martin said, with sellers often ending up with more in pocket than they initially listed their homes for. The time from first showing to contract has accelerated incredibly, almost comically.

"There's still inventory," she said, but it's not the same as it was last year at this time.

The giddy sellers' market is inspiring some local homeowners to want to list their houses with inflated price tags, but Martin said that's a no-no. The houses can't be overpriced when listed, she said, as the listing price must be derived from what has closed in the past three months.

Most people still need to get their house appraised, and it's probably not in as great shape as they think it is.

"If your house has been maintained and is somewhat updated, it's a great time to list," Martin said. "If it hasn't — and it's something of a 'fixer-upper' — you can still list but you won't get top dollar." Her advice for sellers who want to take advantage of antsy buyers is to make sure their house looks move-in ready, as the buyers are more likely to pull the trigger if they can envision themselves just walking in, and not a having to do a lot of work.

Martin said she doesn't see many people coming to flip houses. The want a "really nice, move-in-ready, somewhat updated house, so they can just come in and live their life, go to restaurants, and not do any major renovations."

The virus has had another peculiar effect that neither builders nor marketers could have predicted. Home offices have gone from a "nice to have" to a "need to have" for many buyers, whether displaced from NYC or moving in from another suburb. "A lot of businesses are planning to allow their employees to work from home indefinitely," Martin said.

How long all this will last is a topic on the mind of everyone, and even the epidemiologists can't find a consensus. Martin does not expect the virus and the risks it presents are going to go away anytime soon, and she believes that will ultimately be good for business. The end of year holiday season is normally a slow time in her industry, picking back up in February and March, but she believes real estate could stay hot from now straight on through next spring.

Keller Williams Realty is located at 404 Main Street in Ridgefield.