By Judy Szablak

An interesting phenomenon has slowly crept into the Westport real estate market and has gone virtually unnoticed.

Featured Home This home at 52 Shorehaven Road is listed at $2,750,000. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Photo courtesy of William Pitt Sotheby’s/Darien.

Agents and homeowners alike have been conditioned to understand that certain types of homes sell faster and for more money than others.

Specifically, and with all home amenities and square footage being similar, a Colonial home would sell faster and for more money, followed by a cape, ranch, and finally, a contemporary, which would take the longest to sell, and also sell for less.

Reviewing statistics over the last year tells us otherwise. Yes, more colonials have sold than any other style home, however there are more of them. The difference is inventory as opposed to what has sold, and the absorption rates.

Westport Assessor Paul Friia told the Westport Rotary Club today the town’s every five year property revaluation in on schedule with about 8,300 of 8,600 Westport taxable properties already visited. He said while the law allows residents to refuse entry to make interior checks, doing so enables a fairer valuation. “It promotes assessment equity,” Friia said. “The better data we have, the more equitable the result.” He said in addition to property visits, his office is reviewing data from 130 teardowns since April 2014 and 40 commercial sales since October 2013. The result will be a list of Westport property values as of Oct. 1, 2015, the basis for calculating a property owner’s real estate tax. Once reval notices are sent out, property owners will have an opportunity to informally then formally challenge the findings, he said. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

It seemed there were more ideas for increasing Westport’s senior housing stock than there were people at the Planning and Zoning Commission’s (P&Z) second Senior Housing Committee meeting tonight. Only 10 persons were in attendance, and again, everything appeared to be on the table.

About 10 persons attended tonight’s second meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commisson’s Senior Housing Committeee (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

From group homes for seniors to continuing care residential communities (CCRC) to multifamily senior housing without support services—even the suggestion of putting three ranch houses for seniors on an acre in a one-acre residential zone—the committee explored myriad ways to entice developers to pursue projects on private land.

“We’re still brainstorming,” said Catherine Walsh, who co-chairs the committee with P&Z Vice Chairman Jack Whittle.

“That’s the general idea,” said Whittle, adding that the paths chosen would be “followed by a text amendment or two that have a reasonable chance of getting around the P&Z.”