Discounts in Greenwich coax buyers back

Greenwich, Conn.
Greenwich, Conn.

It’s been a bit sleepy in Greenwich, Conn.. High-priced homes just weren’t moving. But in the first quarter, buyers, hungry for suburban bliss, returned.

Home sales in Greenwich jumped 29 percent from a year earlier to 126 deals, according to a report by Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman Real Estate. So what accounts for the sudden change of heart? Discounts. According to Bloomberg, sellers offered discounts averaging 7.9 percent off the last asking price.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

“Buyers are now realizing, ‘OK, I’m watching these properties and I’m going to make a play for it,”’ Scott Durkin, chief operating officer of Douglas Elliman, said in a statement. “‘Let me see how negotiable they are.’”

Last year, billionaire Barry Sternlich maligned Greenwich’s housing market as possibly the worst in America, according to Bloomberg. But now sellers are done holding out. There were 48 deals for $1 million to $1.99 million in the quarter, a 37 percent jump from a year earlier. Meanwhile, transactions for $2 million to $2.99 million more than doubled, to 27. [Bloomberg]Christopher Cameron