NORWALK, Conn. – Westport’s real estate values have rebounded from the recession, while Norwalk and Wilton are lagging behind, with Wilton perhaps not doing as well as Norwalk, according to real estate broker Michael Church. Darien is in the middle, not as hot as Westport, not as bad as Wilton, but better than Norwalk; New Canaan isn’t doing quite as well as Darien.
Church, in being questioned by the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) recently, said that 603 Norwalk properties sold in 2007, 627 properties sold in 2013 and 595 sold in 2014. “We are in healthy place as far as transactions go. It was very difficult when you were having 400 transactions a year,” Church said.
The crux of Church’s visit, BET member Anne Yang Dwyer said, was the intersection of real estate values with real estate taxes. “The percentage one pays in real estate taxes is a big driver of why someone wants to live in a particular town,” Yang-Dwyer said. “I think people leave Norwalk for it being the value equation of living in Norwalk is more problematic, because of the relatively high real estate taxes. … We have to maintain discipline on where we are in real estate taxes.”
“I think all the elected officials in Norwalk would agree with you,” Mayor Harry Rilling said after Yang-Dwyer’s prolonged questioning on the matter. “I don’t know the point, but I think we all understand that. I think the interesting point is the home sales. People like to say, ‘Well, they’re moving out of Norwalk.’ Here you’re going back up to 627 units and 595 units and you’re finding, yes, some people are selling their homes or maybe staying in Norwalk, of moving out, but people are buying homes in Norwalk. People are staying in Norwalk and they’re moving to Norwalk, based on what you’re seeing right here.”
Rilling went on to say that the city would make an effort to market the positive side of Norwalk Public Schools, to reach potential home buyers.
Church, who was born and raised in Norwalk, is a real estate professional with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty. He sold more than 100 properties last year, with more than half in Norwalk, he said. He was the listing agent for Summerview Square and is a preferred relocation agent for Diageo, Xerox, Nielsen and GE.
“We are pretty much at the 2003 sales level as far as median sales price,” Church said. “We are still down about 27 percent for closed units, compared to the 2003 level anyhow. However, prices rebounded since our low in 2012.”
Yang-Dwyer asked how the relatively high taxes hurt Norwalk real estate sales.
“It’s difficult to quantify without polling everybody who is moving out or buying and chooses a different town to say exactly how much it affect Norwalk buyers,” Church said.
People moved to Fairfield County in the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s because the taxes here were so much lower than Westchester County, Church said. But that value has dissipated. The trend now is to consider Westchester in preference of Norwalk and its surrounding towns, because the tax benefits have narrowed, and it’s less of a distance for commuting, Church said.
Yang-Dwyer wanted to know about the higher end of real estate properties for sale, many of which Church represents. The homes worth more than $1.5 million pay the bulk of Norwalk’s taxes, she said, wondering how Norwalk could get more homes that valuable.
There are people who would rather live in a smaller house in Greenwich because the taxes are lower, and taxes don’t go away, while a mortgage will eventually be paid off, Church said. Westport has a lot more inventory, with nothing worth less than $500,000, so the statistics are skewed, and like attracts like, which is why there are so many hedge fund managers in Greenwich, he said.
“I don’t know if that would be to Norwalk’s benefit to cater to that consumer,” Church said.
Asked what draws people to Norwalk, Church said, “It’s a very diverse section, depending who you are talking to. You can have country living up in Cranbury or Silvermine. You can have water living in Rowayton or East Norwalk, depending on what is your cup of tea. They also like the value of what they get in a house compared to a Westport, value per square foot, that type of thing.
“The difficulty generally relates to the taxes and the school system,” Church continued. “I try to, when speaking with folks, allay the fear that they have based on just looking on a website … of how those schools are ranked because it doesn’t tell the whole picture of what our schools offer and how good things are in the school system.”
Church said he has seen the success Norwalk schools can bring, as he and his brother went through them and his brother went to an Ivy League school.
“I actually would prefer this school system over the surrounding towns for diversity reasons, amongst others, the opportunities it offers.”
Rilling said he had had a meeting with real estate agents in his office, where the need to publicize the “real strides” the school system has made was discussed. The idea is to provide Realtors with handouts with a bullet-point list of the positives, he said.
BET member James Feigenbaum asked Church about Stamford.
Stamford has many dynamics – a downtown condo market, Harbor Point and North Stamford, “which would be our Wilton,” Church said. But as a broad stroke, “It has all the development that we’re just starting to see. It’s been going on there for years. It’s a little ahead bit ahead of us, as far as development. As far as the recovery, North Stamford is lagging. Shippan is doing fairly well,” Church said.
Commercial real estate was also touched upon. Those buyers are worried about their carrying costs, which are passed on to customers, so they naturally compare Fairfield to Westchester, he said. The big impediment for Bridgeport is the amount of taxes paid versus the return for the money in terms of benefits, he said.
Economic Development Director Elizabeth Stocker also chimed in.
“Norwalk has a really solid commercial base,” Stocker said. “I have conversations with folks who are Realtors of commercial properties. They talk to me all the time about how much properties are going for per square foot and what they have to charge their tenants, etc. We are really bumping up on that ceiling. It’s starting to get noticed. You are wise in recognizing that, in that we have to keep our taxes down to continue being competitive across the board.”
“Owners of commercial property can only pass so much along to their tenants because of vacancy rates in their area,” Church said. “It becomes a losing proposition, you can’t pass it along.”
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