The Wall Street Journal recently released an interesting article highlighting the increase in the number of teardowns in Fairfield County. Positive signs as developers once again seek out affordable land to teardown old run down homes and erect new ones.
In Fairfield County’s commuter towns, new homeowners and real-estate developers are demolishing modest older houses so they can erect grander ones. Empty lots, marked by the telltale Dumpsters and mounds of dirt rising 20 feet high, are becoming a common sight again after a slowdown in so-called teardown activity during the recession.
Teardowns were popular during the housing boom, led by hedge-fund managers and bankers looking to build their dream homes in older, but prestigious, locations just a short train-ride from New York city. But as prices of land and the cost of construction surged, the practice came to a halt.
Now, however, “Land prices have come down to where it is feasible to do this again,” says Mark Victor, a local developer who recently bought and tore down one Westport home and is contract to buy—and demolish—another.
