Westport, Connecticut Moves

Looking to buy a new construction home, in Westport, CT?  Now may be a great time to play "Let's Make A Deal" with the local builders.

Westport's new construction homes currently make up a disproportionate segment of the market.  Of the active listings, on the MLS, 92 are identified as some form of new construction.  These listings include proposed, under construction and completed properties, as well as torndown and rebuilt homes.  This represents 28% of total active listings.  Looking at 2008 sold properties, year-to-date, 19% of Westport's single family home sales, were new construction.  In 2007, new construction accounted for only 17%. 

If we annualize the year-to-date sales, we can project a twenty (20) month inventory of new construction homes, currently active, on the market.  This compares with a fourteen (14) month inventory, overall. 

Within the new construction segment, some price points are faring better than others. 

Westport, Connecticut
Single Family New Construction Homes
2008 Y-T-D

THIS DATA IS COMPILED FROM THE CONSOLIDATED MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE AND MAY NOT ALWAYS BE ACCURATE. NO WARRANTY IS MADE AS TO THE ACCURACY OF THIS INFORMATION. YOU SHOULD VERIFY ANY INFORMATION THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR BUYING DECISION.                        

So far, this year, approximately one third (32%) of new construction homes had sale prices under $2 million, another third (34%) sold between $2 million and $3 million, with the final third (34%) represented by the over $3 million sales.  Some downward pressure on price is evidenced by a shift in those segments to 36%, 35% and 29%, respectively, for active listings.

Further analysis suggests that many of the homes currently listed between $2,500,000 and $2,999,000, will require price reductions, to be sold.  This price point has not performed well, this year.  There are 19 active listings, in this group, with only 3 sales, so far, this year.

Copyright © 2008 Marilyn Katz, All Rights Reserved, Westport, CT - New Construction Homes

The other day, I received instructions for using the new voting system being
used in Connecticut, for this year's presidential election.  It was described as "An instructional pocket guide to using the New Optical AccuVote-OS^TM Voting System."  The title, itself, sounded daunting."  

The mailer was a tri-fold.  When opened up, it presented a wordy, five-step explanation of the process for casting your vote.  The guide was sent from the Office of the Secretary of the State.  The immediate knee-jerk reaction to anything requiring that amount of explanation, was that voting, this year, will be difficult.

In truth, the system is quite easy.  For anyone checking it out online, The State of Connecticut Secretary of State posted a website, which offers a simple, single paragraph explanation of this year's voting process.

Voters will be given a paper ballot and a privacy folder.  They will take both into a privacy booth, where they will fill in their choices.  The ballot will then be fed into a scanner.  Simple!

Unfortunately, the voters who are most likely to be put off by the printed voting guide, are the least likely to check out the instructions, online.  Hopefully, the "helpful" guide won't scare off too many voters.

Is a new system being used in your state?  How is it being presented to the voters?

Copyright © 2008 Marilyn Katz, All Rights Reserved, 2008 Voting Systems - Will Voters be Scared Off?