New waterfront market report covering Fairfield and Westchester Counties finds significant sales gains in 2014
Fairfield County, Conn. and Westchester County, N.Y. – October 30, 2014 – A report detailing market results for high-end Long Island Sound-front sales in Westchester County, N.Y. and Fairfield County, Conn. through the end of the third quarter of 2014 has just been released by William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty, the company announced today.
The impetus for the report was the question of how the waterfront segment has performed in the face of overall market improvements in recent years, which the company has detailed in its regular quarterly Market Watch reports. The report found that in Fairfield and Westchester County’s upper end shorefront housing markets, comprising direct Long Island Sound-front single-family homes priced over $1 million, both unit sales and dollar volume experienced year over year increases from the first three quarters of 2013 to the same period of 2014.
The company stated that it believes one of the major factors contributing to the surge in waterfront activity is the effect of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, which has made flood insurance easier to obtain for most buyers. While a previous bill had removed subsidized insurance rates for older waterfront homes, the new bill restores those earlier discounted rates, while also reinstating the ability for a seller to sign over an insurance policy with its current rate to a buyer.
In Fairfield County’s shoreline markets of Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, Westport and Fairfield, a 73.1% overall year-over-year increase in sales volume occurred, while unit sales jumped ahead by 46.8%. Greenwich saw the most dramatic improvement, with dollar volume 294.6% and units 166.7% higher than the prior year. In Westchester County’s shoreline markets of Rye, Larchmont, Mamaroneck and New Rochelle, unit sales increased by 33% from 2013 to 2014 while sales dollar volume grew by a substantial 44.2%, largely driven by sales activity in Rye and Mamaroneck.
“We know that our housing markets overall have performed exceedingly well in 2014 and 2013, yet the question of how the waterfront segment in particular is doing, especially in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, has gone unanswered—and, indeed, unasked,” said Paul Breunich, President and Chief Executive Officer of William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty. “We are excited to find that shorefront sales in the towns we serve have made a strong comeback this year, particularly in the high end.”
The Shore Report is available to view online here.
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About William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty
Founded in 1949, William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty manages a $3.3-billion-plus portfolio with more than 1,000 sales associates in 26 brokerages spanning Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Westchester County, New York. William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, combined with partner firm Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty, is the largest Sotheby’s International Realty(R) affiliate globally and the 28th-largest real estate company by sales volume in the United States. A full-service real estate firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty provides ancillary services including commercial services through its affiliation with Building and Land Technology, a second-generation development company based in Stamford, Connecticut; William Pitt Insurance Services; and an award-winning global relocation division. For more information, visit the website at williampitt.com.
Sotheby’s International Realty’s worldwide network includes more than 15,000 sales associates located in 720 offices throughout the United States and 52 other countries and territories.
William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty Contact:
Andrew Wood
Director of Content
(203) 644-1938
