It took more than two years for Katherine Tenney and her husband to sell their 16,000-square-foot house in Greenwich, Conn. The couple needed far less time to decide that their next home in town would be a condominium.
“The upkeep was exhausting,” Tenney said of the 4-acre (1.6-hectare) property she lived in for 11 years before her grown children moved out. “You get hit every month with your landscaping, pool, electric. Our heating bill for that house was ridiculous.”
Her new 5,000-square-foot (465-square-meter) condo at the Harbor at Greenwich complex is “easier,” she said.
The Tenneys aren’t alone in trading a sprawling house for apartment-style living. Condos are making up a larger share of the property market and outselling luxury homes in Greenwich, a suburb about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Manhattan known for its mansions housing the financial elite.
The town -- home to some of the country’s largest hedge funds, with residents including Point72 Asset Management’s Steve Cohen and Starwood Capital Group Chief Executive Officer Barry Sternlicht -- is seeing a pile-up of luxury houses on the market as a real estate rebound spurs more owners to try to sell. Those who do find buyers often seek something smaller afterward, and are competing with first-time purchasers for Greenwich’s more limited condo offerings, said Mark Pruner, a local broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
“A better economy is motivating those two principal condo- buying groups to pull the trigger,” he said. “It’s a busy, active market that many people don’t know we have.”
Rising Share
Condos accounted for 26 percent of home sales in Greenwich in the first quarter, the largest market share in five years of record-keeping, according to data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and Douglas Elliman. The median price of those deals climbed 11 percent from a year earlier to $775,000. For single- family houses, the median price fell 18 percent to $1.78 million.
A report due later this month is expected to show similar trends for the second quarter, said Jonathan Miller, the president of Miller Samuel.
“We’re seeing greater acceptance of luxury condominiums as a competitor or alternative to a traditional house,” Miller said. “The luxury, high-end market is not performing.”