Local Market’s Health and Vibrancy
Nov. 3, 2011
From where he sits, Jason Kinard hasn’t seen the turmoil that has enveloped the housing market across the nation. “None of the national statistics really seem to apply to our local market. Lower Fairfield County is chock full of movers and shakers,” he says from his office at Higgins Group Real Estate. “I’m very optimistic,” he says. “There are always deals to be done.”
For Kinard, it is all about the art of the deal. In his six years with Higgins, he has assembled a “dream team” of agents who he calls “a solid group of professionals who eat, drink and sleep their work, and really enjoy being agents.” With 14 offices, Higgins Group covers Fairfield County without feeling the limits of a “home field.”
“We encourage our brokers to follow every lead, no matter where it is,” says Kinard. “We can learn the local market pretty quickly. What’s most important is the person representing you. You need a smart, solid person looking out for you when you’re trying to sell your house.”
Kinard admits to seeing some changes in the local market, even if the national housing crisis has been held somewhat at bay. “Prices have come down a bit, and people are using that as an opportunity to leverage up to the next level of house,” he says.
He has also seen a surge in rentals, so much that he has created several websites to handle the demand. “It used to be just young people in their first or second job who had just moved to the area,” he says. “Now we’re seeing more families who might be moving out of the city and want to get the lay of the land before they buy.”
And he cites the uptick in the construction of big houses as another sign of the local market’s health and vibrancy. “I wouldn’t want to be doing real estate anywhere else.”
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