I'm starting to get some requests on rentals and felt that this would be a good time to talk about the rental market in Greenwich (including Cos Cob, Riverside, Old Greenwich and North Mianus).  There are essentially two types of rentals in Greenwich. One type is the family rental and the other is for people that don't have kids (clients that are either very young or empty nesters).  I'll explain in a second why I include the younger clients in the same pool as the older empty-nesters.  The reason that I split up the groups in this manner is that one (the family clients) is very cyclical, while the other is not.

The rental clients that don't have kids look throughout the year and don't care which school district they are in. This is very important to pay attention to as you will see when I start talking about the family rentals. These non-children Greenwich rentals normally end up closer to town and in areas like Lyon Farm. Demand for these units is fairly consistent throughout the year. Yes it gets slow around the holidays and in the coldest of winter times, but there is not near the cyclical behavior as we see in the family rentals.

Clients that are looking for family rentals have a fairly small period of time to jump.  The sole reason for this is the school year. Not many people are looking to move their children during the school year so we see a ton of activity in Greenwich rentals in the summer months when school is out. This cyclical behavior has little to do with the economy. That being said, the negative economic market can sometimes boost the rental industry. Last August the Greenwich rental market saw this happen. The rental Market in Greenwich in August 2011 could not have been hotter. I had several clients loose out on rentals after bidding the ask price! They lost out to people that offered more than the asking price and people that offered money the day it was listed.

This burst in activity was due to all of the families that had to be in by the school year (the September Greenwich rental market slowed down considerbly). This happens every year, but I think the spike was extra strong last year because there were more families finding themselves in the market for Greenwich rentals that originally wanted to buy, but could not get the financing or find the right home at the right price.

I think we might see another spike this coming summer. It will be awhile until we know. Just realize that if you are interested in renting for the  next 2012/2013 school year you'll want to wait until this summer to look at what comes on the market. All of those 2011 rentals won't turn over and become available until this spring/summer.

Greenwich CT (&National) RENTALS