Summer rentals slow, but sales are strong to younger buyers

Interviews with some Northwest Corner real estate agents and brokers indicate that the summer home rental market is soft. At the same time, there are indications the long-term home rental market (that is, annual rental leases) has picked up.While there are spots of summer home rental activity here and there, it appears 2012 is not an active market.Ira Goldspiel, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty in Kent, said, “The summer rental market is OK but not amazing. The mid- to high-end properties are OK but not booming. We receive tons of requests for properties with swimming pools for short-term rentals.”In recent years, it was not uncommon for some summer home renters, many from the New York City area, to rent a home for the summer in the Northwest Corner and use that time here to decide if it was where they wanted to own a weekend/vacation home.Agent Priscilla Miller with Bain Real Estate in West Cornwall (and this reporter’s wife), said, “From 1998 through 2005, I loved summer rentals. Every other summer renter turned into a buyer.”With the overall Northwest Corner real estate market down from its high before the recession, a number of real estate professionals said sales of lower-priced homes have picked up in the past year.This is primarily due to lower prices providing purchase opportunities to younger people who previously could not afford homes in the area. Lower mortgage rates and Connecticut’s first-time home buyers program, offering an even lower rate, are helping younger people to purchase homes rather than moving out of the area in which they grew up.Most agents and brokers noted that sales of weekend homes are still lower than in the pre-2008 period.Miller added, “In the past few years, the summer rental market has slowed to a crawl. They have not been good for the past three years or so.”Home affordability was mentioned by Nicholas Bruehl, a broker in Cornwall, in another context affecting the summer rental market. “Summer rentals are blipped up a bit. Some people cannot afford to purchase a home so they rent. At the present time there are more people in yearly rentals so summer rentals are soft.”A West Cornwall homeowner who lives out of state, and requested anonymity, said, “Last year I was happy to rent my home for one-month rentals in June, July and August. This year, I am even happier to have a tenant with a year-long lease.”Mardee Cavallaro, a broker in Salisbury with Best and Cavallaro, said, “The summer rental market is a little slower than last year. Some are still available. We still have a lakefront summer rental, and one with a pool; that availability is unusual for this time of year.”Kent real estate broker Paul Dooley said, “Summer rentals are a thin market this year, very spotty.”Another anecdotal story about the growth of long-term home rentals versus summer rentals was related by a Cornwall homeowner, who also requested anonymity: “We have the home listed for sale, but are seriously thinking of taking it off the market because we found a reliable tenant for a long-term rental.”