With a brutal winter in the Northeast, the spring real estate market has had a late start, says Libby Tritschler, luxury properties specialist at Al Filippone Associates of William Raveis Real Estate in Southport, CT. So, as we quickly launch into another spring market for 2026, real estate agents across the region describe the playing field in three words: fast, competitive and intentional.
“In the tri-state area, we expect this year to be more competitive than 2025,” says Kori Sassower, Real Estate Broker at Westchester’s The Kori Sassower Team in Rye Brook, NY, a Compass Real Estate agency. She and many agents cite pent-up demand from many potential buyers taking a wait-and-see approach last year in the hopes of holding out for better interest rates, lower home prices or more inventory to choose from. “It’s creating this lack of supply and increased demand,” adds Sassower.
Steady and Cyclical
The atmosphere is steady and cyclical, describes Andrea Weiss, an agent with Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty. “Across markets like Scarsdale, Edgemont, and most of lower Westchester, the spring season has a very clear rhythm,” says Weiss. “Homes come on midweek, show through the weekend, and most are calling for best and final offers by Monday. Buyers and agents expect it, and many won’t even submit until that moment.”
What’s different is the depth of demand, explains Weiss. While buyers still have a preference for turn-key homes, and they are showing it with their checkbooks, there is significant competition for homes that need updates. “That really speaks to how little inventory there is and how committed buyers are to getting into these communities,” she adds.
If You Are Selling
For sellers, this means that to get top dollar for your property, you have to be prepared to present it well when it does go on the market. Properties aren’t staying on the market for long if they show well and are priced right. Young homebuyers want to be able to move in and do few renovations. After years waiting for prices to cool, they are done waiting and ready to settle in.
“They just want to walk in with their suitcase and unpack their clothes,” says Tritschler. For many couples today with two people working outside the home, they don’t have the time and capacity for the mental load of a renovation. Older couples looking to downsize have done renovations before and don’t want to have to do another one.
To maximize interest, focus on curb appeal, says Sassower. She is seeing a large increase in the amount of weight buyers put on the home’s exterior and how it presents from the road. Homes big on curb appeal are going for 20% to 30% over asking, she notes, while homes with low curb appeal sit on the market with price reductions.
Your buyers are going to be your neighbors, in a manner of speaking, adds Tritschler. She said while many people predicted homebuyers coming from California or New York this year, the majority of the buyers she is seeing out shopping are from Connecticut. “I just ran the stats the other day and 69% are coming from Connecticut,” says Tritschler. Meanwhile, 22% are coming from New York and Massachusetts and Westchester round out the majority of the list.
Interest isn’t limited to “prime” towns says Weiss. With low inventory, buyers are looking at the big picture: location, lifestyle, schools and proximity to New York City as the workforce returns to office each more every year since the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For sellers, this is a tremendous opportunity,” says Weiss of the spring market. “The homes that perform best are the ones that are well-prepared and priced strategically from the start.”
Know what your home’s weaknesses are before you list, advises Tritschler. Find out from the town if your property could be approved for a pool; if it doesn’t have one, buyers will ask, she says. Call in an inspector, make repairs and remove as much clutter as you can. She doesn’t advise her clients to get rid of personal items, but she does advise them to live minimally and keep things clean even before photos are taken, because they are harsher than reality. “Pack up the extra pillows, all the extra books,” says Tritschler. “If you walk up to a front door and it’s not freshly painted, or you walk in and see dust bunnies along the baseboard, any buyer is going to think, ‘If they neglected this, what else in the belly of this house has been neglected?’”
If You Are Buying
Start early and look often. With the depth of demand and low inventory, plan to be competitive in order to get what you want. “If a home is priced right and shows well in lower Westchester, it’s not a matter of if it will sell, it’s how many offers it will get and how far over asking it will go,” says Weiss. She advises buyers to find the right agent—someone who will be honest with you about value, location and whether a home will hold up when it’s time to sell. Particularly for those seeking to settle in or make a long-term investment, she recommends not walking away from the market now despite prices holding higher and interest rates being elevated. “If you’re planning to stay long term, paying a premium today can still make sense if you’re buying into the right community with strong fundamentals and an easy connection to the city,” she adds.
Don’t write off a property that has lingered on the market because for the right price, it could be exactly what you’re looking for. “There are some older homes that have been on the market since last year,” explains Tritschler. “In my mind, when a home takes a price reduction it becomes brand new on the market to me because you’re visualizing it on that walk through at a different price point, which makes a home look much different.”
Be flexible, agrees Sassower, who encourages buyers to look at in-contract comps rather than previous sales to get a better understanding of this very “reactionary” market and where it is at the time you are placing your offer. “It is competitive,” she says. “The larger the search reach, the more success you will have.”
And, if you haven’t started looking, it’s not too late, says Tritschler. The spring market sometimes starts late in Fairfield County, because many private schools are on spring break, so there are a lot of buyers and sellers out there just getting started.
“I thought that after Covid we were going to absolutely level off—not go down but level off— but because there was this whole inventory problem it’s almost like Covid is still here,” says Tritschler as we enter another spring market six years after the Covid-19 pandemic rocketed home prices and set the real estate market on its head. “You can’t catch up. I’ve been standing in line at open houses!”
