Wealthy New Yorkers Flee the City, Snatch Up Previously Unwanted Homes

If your home has sat on the market for hundreds of days, that usually doesn’t bode well for a lucrative future sale. However, some properties owned by Upstate New Yorkers and residents of Connecticut that were previously unsellable are trending like they’re the latest fashion. Before the coronavirus pandemic, millionaire homebuyers wanted perfection, but now “if the toilet flushes and they can move in quickly, they're here,” one real estate agent in New York says. The pandemic is changing what buyers want in a home, and for those fleeing the crowded West Village and Upper East Side of New York, what they desire is a quick sale for a hasty escape. Since the pandemic began, about 420,000 New Yorkers have moved to Upstate New York, Connecticut, or the Hamptons. 

Suburban houses in Connecticut and upstate New York that have lingered on the market for months or even years are being snatched up during the coronavirus pandemic, Michelle Sinclair Colman reported for the New York Post.

Real-estate agents say demand has skyrocketed since March in towns like Darien and Salisbury in Connecticut, and the Hudson Valley and the Catskills in upstate New York.

"Folks are buying sight unseen," Jeff Serouya, a Berkshire Hathaway agent in the Hudson Valley, told the Post. "And at a time when we're not able to meet with clients, with guidelines imposed on us to get properties shown without putting anyone in danger."

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