It is big news. General Electric (GE) has made an announcement that it is leaving its Fairfield headquarters in Connecticut for Boston and it means that the homes of its employees may be listed in the market soon. In fact, agents are keeping a close eye on the situation.
CT Post reports that it is possible that 800 high-priced homes may be hitting the market very soon but true to their form, local real experts says it is not time to panic yet.
Mary Beth Grasso, a Realtor in Trumbull with Keller Williams, a member of the CT Realtors executive committee, says that the region has long learned to adjust to crunches.
She said, referring to the housing market collapse, "If you think of what we've been through, back in 2008, '09 and '10, we've been through a lot worse. We get smarter every time we make it through a challenging event."
Part of GE's annoucement was that it is moving 200 corporate employees from the Fairfield location to its new headquarters to be constructed in Boston. The question as to what will happen to the remaining 600 or so employees remains unanswered. The company only says that some of them will be in an office space it currently leases in Norwalk. Therefore, the effect of this huge change to the local real estate market will be known once people are aware what would happen to these jobs, the report continues.
Grasso added that there's too much uncertainty at the moment. "We want to make sure we stop and think about the situation rather than panic. "I don't want to use word 'devastating.' This is challenging, and I think we've had worse."
Brad Kimmelman, brokerage manager at William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty's two Southport offices, said southwestern Connecticut would weather the storm.
"This is not Flint, Michigan," he said. "This is not going to devastate Connecticut." He added that last year was strong, even with GE's plan to move move. "There's a lot we don't know. We don't know how many employees are leaving and whether something else might come in that would replace those jobs."
The good news is that, the effect on the residential housing market would not be felt right away. Kimmelman said, "This is not like a flip being switched. "Whenever anything like this happens it's human nature to put the worst possible spin on it, but we are urging people to look at the possibilities rather than the fear."
John Frey, a real estate agent in Ridgefield with Coldwell Banker said at least two GE employees called him in November to find out the market conditions just in case they need to sell their home.
He said, "They weren't calls of panic but more an effort to get a handle on the market, like we would expect from any good GE executive."
The rest of the outcome is yet to be seen but at the moment, it seems that the uncertain fate of the local real estate seems enivetable, according to John Glascock, director of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of Connecticut.
