The most important feature according to NAR's 2007 profile of buyers'  Home Features Preferences looks at the features buyers most desire and will pay more for in a home.  The most important Central - Air conditioning, A garage with space for two or more cars followed other features were walk-in closets in the master bedroom.   a backyard or play area, cable or satellite TV readiness and high-speed Internet access.  Over-sized garages are the "New Big Thing".  What buyers would pay more for - Of those who purchased a home without a particular feature, 65 percent said they would be willing to pay extra for central air conditioning , a median of 1,880. The biggest change from2004 -2007 was in over-sized garages 6 percent in 2004, 56 percent in 2007. ASK Jennifer Ruspini  203-410-9484 or e... 05/04/2008

 When comparing the snapshot of the market of Single Family homes in Stamford taken on November 23 and the one taken today, we can conclude that Active Single Family Homes have seen Median Listing Price increased by 1.15%, and homes under contract today have a Listing Median Price 28.53%  higher than those under contract on November 23.On the other hand, those shown today as "Price Reduced" have a Median Listing Price of 29.82% lower than those under the same status on November 23. New Listings today have a Median Listing Price of $937,000 vs. $729,000 for the same group on November 23, or a 5.13% price reduction. 12/15/2007

 As you can see in the first chart below, representing the median selling prices in November 2007, 2006 and 2005, we found that:sales in November this year were better than last year and better than 2 years ago. in all types of properties, median selling prices this year were higher than in November2005 and November 2006.only Co-Ops did better in Nov. 2006 than in Nov. 2005.  In the chart below we see the number of units sold. We saw a decrease in terms of units sold this year compared to 2006 and 2005. Less properties were sold, but those sold produced a Median Selling price higher than those observed in 2006 and 2005. Now, isn't it a sign of a strong market in Stamford?   What do you think? How is your local market doing? NESTOR N. ROMEROWWW.HOMESBYNESTOR.COM  12/02/2007

   Click on Logo to go to RuthmanRE.comCurrent Market Analysis - Stamford Connecticut Condo/CoOp  For September 28 to November 28, 2007  StatusClassTypeAreaNo. of ListingsDollar VolumeAverage PriceMedian PriceAverage DOM                  Active Listings284$143,217,627$504,287$410,00083Listings Under Contract43$18,601,822$432,601$414,521134Listings Sold 2007115$49,317,683$428,849$408,000123         ACTIVE         Condo/Co-op         Condo         STAMFORD226$113,364,939$501,615$427,00088Sub Total226$113,364,939$501,615$427,00088  Co-op         STAMFORD6$1,164,900$194,150$166,50032Sub Total6$1,164,900$194,150$166,50032REDUCED PRICE         Condo/Co-op         Condo         STAMFORD9$3,815,700$423,967$429,00074Sub Total9$3,815,700$423,967$429,00074  Co-op         STAMFORD1$168,000$168,000$... 11/28/2007

As you can see in the table below, Prices paid (median price) for Single Family homes in Stamford (3 or 4 Bedrooms, between 1,500 and 2,000 SqFt.) in October 2002 were 70.46% over the median price paid for similar homes in October 2000 ($479,000 vs. $360,500). Prices have decreased from $614,500 in October 2004 to $505,000 in October 2007, or a 17.81%.Overall, prices have increased 40% between October 2000 and October 2007 which represents a great ROI. A better performance than many stocks.In the graphs below you can see how the number of listings sold and the average number of days on market have behaved in the last 7 years. Prepared and published by Nestor N. Romero, REALTOR.   11/10/2007

This last week we had 550 units showing as either Active or Under Contract, from which, 66.18% (364) listings were Active, 22 condos as  new listings (4%), 39 condos as Continue to Show (7.09%).19 Condos (3.45%) showed a reduction in price, and 84 condos (15,27%) went under contract.The average median listing price this week was $441,244.It is interesting to take a look at the different Median Listing Prices. As you can see, MLP from high to low follows this order:Condos Under Contract (Sale Pending), Active Condos, Condos (New Listings), Continue to Show Reduced Price. I would infere from these figures that new listings show some more adjusted prices. Sellers seem to be adjusting their expectations to what the market is actually expecting: They priced their properties above those prope... 11/03/2007

This is a weekly report that shows the current market in Stamford for Condos and Co-Ops.Around 22% of the current 561 properties in Stamford are either CTS - Continue to Show or PEND - Under contract. 5.35% of Condos  currently on the market have shown a price reduction in the last days.I will present a new snapshot next Friday. 10/26/2007

This is a snapshot of the current market in Stamford (Single Family Properties).As you can see, 203 of these properties are either CTS - Continue to Show or PEND - Under contract. This represents over 13% of the total 581 properties currently in the market.26 listings or almost 4.5% of these homes show a price reduction.I will follow up one week from now and publish a new snapshot. 10/26/2007

Dear Reader, I just wanted to say hello to all of my friends, past clients, business partners and blog subscribers.  I wanted to share with you about how I was the guest speaker at All Star Realty's office meeting last night in Stamford, Connecticut.  It was an honor to attend this meeting and speak with all of the agents of the office about where we are today as far as the mortgage industry is concerned.   I attended the meeting with the following in my hands: 1.) Business Cards, plenty of them. 2.) Company information about the mortgage company that I work for and have been working for since January of 2005. 3.) Co-Marketing flyers where I can do some marketing with each of the agents in the All Star Realty office. 4.) Open House Mortgage flyers to show as examples for all of the offi... 10/10/2007

  We saw some interesting results in sales of Condominiums in Norwalk, Danbury and Stamford:As oposed to what happened with Single Family properties in Stamford and Norwalk last month, the number of condo units sold in Sept. 2007 was lower than one year ago for these three towns. (Danbury showed the largest difference).Prices, however, were higher this year than in 2006 for condos sold in Norwalk and Stamford.  10/07/2007

Only those condos sold in Stamford in the price range of $600,000 and $800,000 this year have been sold for more than those sold last year in the same price range and period: They reached prices 1.52% higher this year. Condos sold between $200,000 and $600,000 this year, have been sold for just under 0.5% less than last year.Take a look:  10/06/2007

The largest price reduction between SF homes sold in Stamford in September 2007 compared to those sold in September 2006 was observed in the price range of $600,000 - $800,000 (8.62%).Since there was only one home sold in the price range $200,000 - $400,000, it is not statistically significant to draw conclusions.On the other hand, homes sold in the price range 'Over $800,000' were sold for over 36% more this year, even though only 6 properties in that range were sold versus 13 last year.  10/06/2007

Dear Reader, The facts are in so please take a look at the top 10 mortgage originators of quarter 2 of 2007.  You be the judge here.  Who is at the top of the list?  Who is growing market share?  Who is almost more than 2x better than the #2 mortgage lender on the list?  You be the judge.  Just simply sharing the facts here. Top Originators in Q2 2007 (Dollars in Millions) RANK    COMPANY                                 Origination Volume Q2 2007               Q2 2006 1             Countrywide Financial           $130,163                                                  $118,509 2          Wells Fargo Home Mtg.      $79,957                                        $110,040 3          CitiMortgage, Inc.              $61,252                                        $48,330 4          Chase Ho... 09/24/2007

I am including here the report for sales reported thru the CT-MLS as occurring between Jul 23 and Aug 23. It will be interesting to see how these two neighbor towns, Norwalk and Stamford behave in 2 and 4 weeks.As you can see, in Stamford, the highest number of units sold comes from Condos sold in the price range ($450,000 - $600,000), followed by 22 units of Single Family homes sold in the same price range. 08/23/2007

This is the sales report for the last month in Stamford. It is interesting to note that the least expensive SF properties reached the biggest variance between Listing Price and Selling Price. The same happened with multi-family properties with the highest price tag.I will check again in 2 weeks and post the results and by then we will be able to draw some conclusions on what trend our local market is following. 08/22/2007

I am including our current inventory for STAMFORD. You will see how active properties are distributed among different price ranges, as well as the average number of days in the market.I will repeat the same analyis in a couple of weeks to follow up on how this inventory is changing. This will be complemented with a new table showing sales at the end of the month. Source: CTMLS 08/19/2007

I am including our current inventory for STAMFORD. You will see how active properties are distributed among different price ranges, as well as the average number of days in the market.I will repeat the same analisys in a couple of weeks to follow up on how this inventory is changing. This will be complemented with a new table showing sales at the end of the month.  08/19/2007

For homes with Selling Prices between $750,000 and $1,000.000 the average price was $866,782 in 2007 and $848,857 in 2006, or a 2.11% higher.The highest difference between the Last Listing Price (properties are showing more price adjustments today than one year ago) and the Final Selling Price was observed for those properties in the Selling Price Range between $1,000,000 and $1,250,000: 4.37%Homes with Selling prices between $400,000 and $500,000 showed the highest difference between 2006 and 2007. 08/17/2007

Dear Reader, I was referred to a very interesting website which I thought was extremely interesting to me and I know for a fact that it would be interesting for you as well.  You don't have to be a financial analyst or a mortgage industry analyst to know that we are going through some rough times.  I was referred to this websute: http://www.ml-implode.com/ which is a website dedicated to the mortgage lending industry.  This website has news about lenders that have gone out of business and lenders that are on a watch list of lenders in trouble or possibly going out of business.  You can take a look at the website closely on your own and you figure out if this is really accurate or not.  Below I will copy and paste the 117 mortgage lenders that have already gone out of business or are on... 08/14/2007

To understand the attached graphic, i will comment on some of these numbers:While in Danbury Condos in the price range of $400K to $600K were the only ones whose prices were increased, in Stamford we can see that it was the condominiums in a lower price range  ($300K - $400K) the ones who luckily saw their prices going up about 2.3% in average. At the same time, in 2006 the difference between the Listing Price and the Selling Price for condos between $300K and $400K between Jun10 and Aug10 was about 3.61% while in 2007 it was only 1.43%. This means that listing prices for that particular market segment were closer to selling prices.  08/12/2007