In the midst of the most bizarre, scary time of our existence, and with economic repercussions that will likely match those of the Great Depression (or exceed), most people have been ordered to 'Stay the F+@& Home'. These now ubiquitous terms: 'social distancing', 'essential', 'non-essential', 'the peak', 'the curve', etc, have permeated our worlds.

But, we want to focus on the essential versus the non-essential, as these terms create an implied inherent value in a human being's profession. Or not. They mean, your job isn't something that is needed during this time, so you cannot work. While another may be deemed 'important' enough to work. We are not writing this to get into the semantics of that argument in general, because it opens a can of worms into politics, religion, and many other topics we don't want to discuss.

It’s come to that point in the year where a dramatic market shift is occurring as I write this, and it’s important to convey to potential buyers, sellers, and in between.

Here is brief 24 Month Real Estate History in Fairfield County for single family homes (for price points within 20% of the median sales price):

Holidays of 2017 into 2018: Bullish, real estate market is rising, VERY low inventory, buyers couldn't find homes (Our Message: SELL, SELL, SELL!);
Spring Market 2018: Average market time was days (especially for ‘normal’ homes), inventory remained low, prices were rising quickly (Our Message: We Need Inventory!);
Fall into Holidays 2018: Market remained robust (Our Message: The same);
Spring Market 2019: The market slowed, inventory came, but buyers weren't buying as quickly, only the best properties were selling quickly (Our Message: Sell before you can't anymore!);
July/August 2019: Dead markets, where usually only August is dead due to Vacations (Our Message: Only sell if you have to);
After Labor Day, 2019: Huge increase in inventory, lack of demand (Our New Message: For the first time in over three years, it's a buyer's market).

Dr. Lawrence Yun visited Norwalk CT on May 22, last Wednesday, and gave the Realtors of this area some insight into what the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and their economists were thinking about the state of the market and economy at large. Dr. Yun is the Chief Economist for NAR, a lobby organization for Realtors. In essence, he is the main spokesperson for the state of the real estate market across the country.

Here, I have summarized the presentation for our followers, or those who are curious about the state of the market, and that of the market in Connecticut. I have also given his conclusions, as well as my own conclusions at the end of this (long) blog post.

Cutting to the conclusion, Dr. Yun has indicated that he doesn’t believe the real estate market will take a serious hit and doesn’t predict an economic recession, especially as hard-hitting as the 2008 recession. I believe that this analysis was done in a vacuum and doesn't factor larger current events that will affect these conclusions.

Here is the presentation from my notes, with some of the slides as aids. Note that my commentary is in GREEN.

"Market time is the average number of days properties that sold during the month were on the market."

Some consider real estate agents the 'keykeepers' and otherwise do a lot of nothing when working with our clients, but that is where we let our clients tread into dangerous territory. If your Realtor is doing their job, they should be anticipating problems and heading them off before you even know they were a problem - RISK MITIGATION!

A lot of this effort is thankless, and many times the client doesn't know it was done, unless it is needed at some point in the process in order to put out a fire - we have been using that term a lot lately. Instead of thinking of Realtors as fire-fighters, for a second, think of us as the smoke alarm that goes off before the fire starts. Let's jump into the practical, real-world application of this as it pertains to real estate.

There is never a perfect answer to that question. These costs vary greatly depending on the type of mortgage, the attorney's fees, the price and size of the home, and with the lender (and your state/town/county). They can range from 2% to 5% of the purchase price of the property for buyers, and upwards of 5-7% for sellers.

When you have set your mind to downsizing your home, you know with just a look around that you’ll face a period of intense nostalgia and hard decisions to make in the deep decluttering of your home.

​However, the task must be done without fanfare if you’re to move on to your new home or assisted living residence. The key to finally embarking on this difficult task is to focus on the joys of living unencumbered by the burdens of owning too large of a home, and all that cumbersome clutter.

Here are a few home downsizing tips to get you started:

The title sounds dire, but this situation warrants a warning like this. I would rather, despite the saturation of this in the news, you hear it again than not hear it at all. Read on...

The real estate world gets a bad reputation at times, unless you have been graced with a Realtor that works hard for you. That is why this announcement excites me--Chris brings a fresh approach to many things. More importantly, he is a model for what a Realtor should be, and brings the average of Realtors in Fairfield County up. That has always been our goal at Hanson Realty Group, and adding another able, competent, and diligent agent will keep us on top of Norwalk and Lower Fairfield County real estate.

Chris is coming into this business with an edge, due to his almost 18 months learning how to invest in real estate, with our business Blast REI.
​He is now an accomplished property manager, learned more than I know about managing the back-end of a business, and has become proficient in dealing with new clients, and bringing their transaction to a close.

Now he can take his approaches full-time to help anyone in the real estate world! He comes in with his own experience, and behind him, a team with over 40 years of real estate work in the TOP 5%, since 2002.

Over this weekend you will start to see our website, www.seenthensold.com (where you are reading this blog post), our Facebook Page, and other social networks transform to include Chris as part of the team. 

Hanson Realty continues to dominate the business in Lower Fairfield County, and Chris joining us cements our legacy. In 2016, our team sold over 17.5 million in real estate, or almost 40 transactions and over 20 rentals. The Group is on its way to surpass those totals in 2017.

Read more about him on the About Us Page, and feel free to reach out if you have questions.