M4B | Friday, May 3, 2019 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.NY

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The change is causing havoc with realestate trends in New York’s WestchesterCounty and Connecticut’s FairfieldCounty. Estates and stately homes thatonce gave these areas cachet languish onthemarketwhile buyers,mostlyNewYorkCity couples in their 30s and 40s, want ac-cess to the area’s excellent schools andquaint communities without the hassleor great expense.

“They want a simpler lifestyle,” saysJeff Kelly, a vice president of HoulihanLawrence Real Estate. “They want to liveclose to town, near schools and trains.The large back-country estates are notcommanding the interest they used to.”

NEW KITCHENS, BATHROOMS ANDCHICKEN COOPS

“Nine out of 10 buyers want a home inmove-in condition,” says Holly Giordano,a real estate agent based in William PittSotheby’s Darien office. “Today’s buy-ers are all looking for the same thing —homes with less square footage and nowasted space. No formal living rooms, forexample. Large bedrooms with customluxury closets and new or newly reno-vated bathrooms and kitchens with high-end appliances. In Connecticut, a white

kitchen will sell your house.”A chicken coop may as well. Giordano

says sustainability, including producingyour own eggs, is hot with some buyers.When the current owner of a 1790 housein Norwalk that was once owned by a fa-mous celebrity updated it to sell, she re-furbished the chicken coop, too.

Zef Camaj, a brokerage manager whoworks from the Yorktown, New York, of-fice of Houlihan Lawrence Real Estate,calls this the “home improvement tele-vision phenomena. People who watchhome and garden television shows,” hesays, “believe every dwelling canbe trans-formed into the perfect, pristine house.They want to come in, put their clothesin the closets and start enjoying theirnew lives.”

“It’s a Catch-22,” says Mary EllenGallagher, a member of the KMS realestate team for Compass in Westport,Connecticut. “Empty nesters and otherswanting to downsize are also looking fornew or updated dwellings, but they haveto sell their large, older homes first.”

BUYERS LEAVING HIBERNATIONThe slump in sales at the high end of

the market is depressing real estate sales

across both counties. Sales by dollar vol-ume are down by 13% in WestchesterCounty this year compared to the firstquarter of 2018 and sales by dollar vol-ume are down by 13%, according to the“First Quarter 2019 Market Watch” reportpublished by William Pitt and Julia B.Fee Sotheby’s International Real Estate.Sales volume decreased by 17% in nearbyFairfield County, the report says.

If you remove those “super high-endproperties” from the mix, however, thetrends are a lot more positive, Giordanosays. “In fact, starting April 1, sales havebeen on fire here. We’ve had multiple of-fers on the same houses.”

“We’ve had bidding wars over housesthat are priced right,” says Karen Scott ofthe KMS Compass team, “especially inthe competitive under $1 million market.We also just had three offers for a housepriced over $2.5 million.” Her KMS col-league, Kim Harizman, adds, “I just hada buyer pay full price — $1.575 million—for a newly listed house in Westport. Thatbuyer had been shopping formonths andknew the house was a good value.”

Fiona Dogan, an agent in the Julia B.Fee Sotheby’s International Realty officein Rye, New York, says she too is seeingan uptick in buyer interest in Rye and itssurrounding communities. “I think themarket is just warming up after our longwinter. Houses on the market that havenot had showings for a couple of monthsare now getting two or three a week. It’sas if buyers are coming out of hiberna-tion,” she says.

Dogan adds that about 60% of the pro-spective buyers she sees are young fami-lies coming fromManhattan or Brooklyn;another 10% to 15% are transfers fromother parts of the U.S. or international lo-cations, and the balance are locals fromnearby communities who are downsiz-ing. “And they are all looking for a bar-gain,” she says.

The home improvement TV show syn-drome is even working at the upper end.Compass agent Dawn Knief, who spe-

cializes in the high end of the Scarsdalemarket, says that six multi-million-dollarestates went under contract in the firstfour months of 2019, compared to justfour in the previous 12 months. “Theywere all luxury homes with historicalsignificance,” says Ari LeFauve, manag-ing director of Compass for Fairfield andWestchester counties, “and all were turn-key ormove-in ready.”

SEEKING THE ALMOST-PERFECTKnief points out that Millennials are

house-shopping later than their cohortdid a decade ago. They enter the marketat about age 30, she says, “and are moreparticular about what they want.”

Jessica and Matt Bennett, who hadlived in Manhattan before a six-year stintin Hong Kong, have been renting a homein Darien for almost two years. “We lovethe great schools, the proximity to the cityand beaches, and the fact that Matt hasfamily here,” Jessica says.

But in the year-and-a-half she’s beenworking with an agent from the localWilliam Pitt Sotheby’s International of-fice, the right house within their pricerange has not appeared. “We’d like tohave something that’s move-in ready,”she says, “with four bedrooms and amudroom for our two boys. It doesn’t have tobe perfect, but it should be close.”

While some shoppers are willing towait until their perfectly priced home be-comesavailable, other are creatinghomesthemselves. LauraO’Connor andher hus-band, two young daughters and dog arestill living in Greenwich Village until thehouse they bought inWestchester Countyis ready for them.

Laura says her agent, from HoulihanLawrence, showed her a few houses,“but the property taxes were crazy orthe locations lacked charm. Instead, wefound a 1957 ranch house on the cuspof Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, nestlednear the top of a valley with a view of theHudson River. We hired a local contractorto redo the kitchen and bathrooms, and

we expect to move in by theend of July.”

Still other buyersare starting with every-thing brand-new. FormerManhattan resident ElanDanon says he spent over ayear looking for a suburbanhome, “but I wanted some-thing very specific; the ame-nities of a house withoutany outside maintenance,likemowing a lawn.”

Last Thanksgiving,Danon, his wife and twoboys were the first residentsto move into Kingfield, aSun Homes communityunder development in RyeBrook, New York. When fin-ished, Kingfield, says direc-tor of sales Josh Rogull, willhave 110 single-family andattached homes on 31 acresthat will feature walkingtrails, a clubhouse, fitnesscenter and outdoor pooland spa. The homes are alloutside maintenance-freeand are selling from $1 mil-lion to $1.85million.

“This is exactly what wewere looking for,” Danonsays. “Now several of ourcity friends are hoping tomake a similar move.”

For centuries, the tony suburbs of NewYork City

have been a haven for the rich, who bought

luxurious estates on sweeping acres. But many

of today’s home buyers, no matter how wealthy, seek the

opposite — smaller, smarter houses on compact lots that

are ready to be moved into.

by Julie Bennett

Westchester | Fairfield Properties

Gilded Age Luxury toHome ImprovementShowMentality

TheWall Street Journalnews organization wasnot involved in thecreation of this content.

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