Week 76: Trust, Predictions, and the Recommendation Engine. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
60% of all sales are occurring above list price. Last month I gave examples of 20 bidding wars where houses traded for 120% of their asking price. A good buyers’ agent provides value when asked what is a house worth, and what will it take to get it? The first value is in their advice. […]
Week 75: March Market Report. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
1. How has New Canaan’s inventory changed in February 2025 compared to 2024?New Canaan’s inventory fell from 68 homes in February 2024 to 50 in 2025, a 26.5% drop. Darien declined 21.4% to 22 homes, Westport fell 10.2% to 79, Wilton stayed flat at 34, Stamford dropped 5.7% to 165, Norwalk decreased 10.6% to 118, […]
Week 74: 600 Granola Bars. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
Last week, I wrote about the resurgence of “pocket listings”—a practice that favors secrecy over transparency. Agents, like hostage negotiators and press secretaries, believe controlling the flow of information makes us better negotiators. However, lack of transparency leads to anxiety for both buyers and sellers who feel they might be leaving money on the table. […]
Week 73: Things I Think I Think. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
In today’s Gospel, Jesus, sounding annoyed, says “this is an evil generation, it seeks a sign” It made me wonder what He would have said about this generation and about the New Canaan real estate market. In the month or so since Trump took office, in the month since the Spring market started, it seems […]
Week 72: A Room With a View. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
A Room With a View is the 1908 novel by E.M. Forster and a 1985 Merchant & Ivory film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Julian Sands. The novel opens in Florence with the women complaining about their rooms at the Pensione Bertolini. They were promised rooms with a view of the River Arno but instead have ones overlooking a […]
Week 71: Moneyball Meets Real Estate: How AI and Data Are Changing the Game. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predictable, but desirable. They mean growth. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. –Fyodor Dostoevsky I’ve been thinking about datamining a lot these days, what it means and how it is changing in the context of elections, business […]
Week 70: Can New Canaan Hold Its Triple-A Rating? The Market Data That Matters. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
New Canaan is going through its annual budget review. There are two parts to the budget: operating and capital. The Selectmen have recommended a School budget of $114 million, up 4.6%, and a Town budget of $43 million, up 4.3%. The town council will cut that further. Most of the budget is locked-in: the result […]
Week 69: Did the Mavericks Just Pull a Pocket Listing on Luka? The Real Estate Lessons of the NBA’s Most Shocking Trade. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
Last week the Dallas Mavericks traded their 25-year-old star, Luka Dončić, one of the two best players in basketball, to the Los Angeles Lakers for “not much” compared to previous blockbuster NBA trades. Instead of calling multiple teams and asking for their best offer, they called one team, the Lakers. Fox Sports called it the […]
Week 68: Boomers, Millennials, GenXers, Oh My! John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
The power of demographics to explain our economy and the housing market is often understated. It may be the single biggest influence on current home prices. To understand real estate, take the growth of motorcycle sales between 1960 and 1974: 1960: 575,000 registered in the U.S. 1965: Registrations increased to 1,382,000. 1971: The number surpassed 3 million. 1974: Registrations […]
Week 67: It’s Brutal Out There. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
“The Brutalist” is the hottest movie in the nation, with 10 Oscar nominations. It’s currently playing in New Canaan and has deep New Canaan roots. Why should New Canaan care and what does it mean that Brutalism is part of the conversation in 2025 (named by Zillow and Better Homes and Gardens to be the […]
