Real estate booms in Connecticut thanks to ‘Mamdani Effect’

Real estate is booming in parts of tony Connecticut as wealthy Big Apple residents rush to snap up homes there thanks to “the Mamdani Effect,” according to brokers.

Realtors in leafy Greenwich said their open houses have been packed and that selling prices are going through the roof after Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York City sparked fears over everything from unsafe city buses to an economic meltdown.

“Every lot is desirable in Greenwich now,” said Mary Ann Heaven, a broker for Berkshire Hathaway in Greenwich — noting that she expects “50 or 60 parties” at an open house for a colonial home over the weekend, or roughly three times more than normal.

“Greenwich is extremely stable, and people are confident that the winds of change that are happening down there [in New York City] are not happening up here,” she said. 

Other brokers agreed that a flood of well-heeled Big Apple residents — generally couples ages 30 to 45 with kids —  are selling their apartments to move to bedroom communities in Fairfield County, which also includes New Canaan, Stamford and Norwalk.

“The people leaving New York City now are not like the people who left New York City four or five years ago,” said  Realtor Marshall Heaven of M.H. Heaven Real Estate in Greenwich who is married to Mary Ann Heaven.

“They’re not the ultra-rich that are going to keep their apartments in Manhattan and just buy another place here and another place there,” Marshall said.

“These are people that are selling their apartments in New York City and moving their families to Greenwich, Connecticut.”

Heaven said he sold a house this week for $2.5 million, more than $500,000 over its asking price, in part because of the Big Apple exodus.

Other real-estate agents said Mamdani’s free-buses-for-all plan — which critics warn could turn the vehicles into havens for violent criminals and the mentally ill — may have scared off some New Yorkers.

“I think the major thing that will affect people would be something as simple as free bus tickets, as bad as that sounds,” said John Antretter,  a broker in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

“If people feel unsafe sending their kids across town on the bus every day or if they have to switch to private car services or Ubers or the parents driving them … that’ll be the No. 1 driving force.”

Dimitry Melnikov, owner of the home interior firm Putnam Design in the Cos Cob neighborhood in Greenwich, said, “The [local housing] market is screaming, it’s hot.

“Places are selling for much more than they are worth,” he said.

“My friend put a house up last Friday. Within 12 hours, by Monday morning, he had 90 offers. I don’t think it’s normal. I don’t think it’s good. I know it’s not good for New York City.

“I grew up in Belarus; I’m familiar with socialism,” Melnikov said. “It’s not going to work in New York City. To lay socialism on top of capitalism? That’s not going to work.”