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 […]
Week 66: Inauguration Day Reflections. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
Inauguration Day is a moment for looking forward, and for reflecting on the past. This is a look-back over the bigger ideas in this column, reexamining some, correcting others, knowing some points were better made the first time around. What did we learn? 65.2024 Review. Despite national downturns, Fairfield County’s real estate market remained robust […]
Week 65: Market Report for 2024. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
As the father of identical twins I get the question, “Are they different?” To me they are very different. To the casual observer not much. I feel that way about the end of year market report: Not much different from 2023. I find myself squinting hard to tease out some brilliant insight, some reason that […]
Week 64: Winter Light. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
It snowed here this week, so I want to talk about the impact of snow (and reflected light) on real estate sales. Traditional wisdom is, wait for the snow to melt then launch the listing with beautiful spring photos. Let’s rethink that. The problem with this approach is that when the trees leaf out and […]
Week 63: How Much Are Good Schools Really Worth? John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
“I’m fascinated by the art of decision-making, especially when it comes to where to live, where to go to college, and where to send your kids to school.” —Luke Skurman, Niche founder. Real estate values correlate highly with school quality in this area. We spend a lot of time thinking about real estate values and about […]
Week 62: Decision-Making, Fast and Slow. John Engel’s Real Estate Column for the New Canaan Sentinel
This week we explore timely Decision-Making and Commitment as we reflect on 2024 and set goals for 2025. December is when the phone rings. “What’s my house worth?” and “When should I list?” and “How can I prepare?” people ask. Sometimes the timing is not to our liking; buying and selling is a reaction to […]
