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Dear Neighbor,

Well, it's time for the annual check up on what's going on in the neighborhood and beyond. It's was a brutal winter, and not much happened in real estate during the snow and cold, but I am happy to tell you as the weather warmed in April and May the buyers have come back and a number of properties throughout Litchfield County have found their buyers and gone into contract, some with multiple bids. Most of these haven't yet closed, so you will have to wait until next year to read the results. But I think it will be a busy spring and early summer.

While on the national scene real estate is doing well, but throughout the north east sales have been sluggish. I think we have been doing better than most. New Milford itself had 119 residential sales. There was only one other land sale besides the one in your neighborhood reported below, a 5.63 acre lot off Ridge Road, that went for $100,000.

This past year in the three areas we write about in Merryall (all the letters and maps are on our website under "Neighborhood Sales Stats") there were 19 sales, and 7 of them were in our Southern Merryall neighborhood, up from last year's 4.

Let's take a look at what happened.

Over on the west side of the "hood," off of West Meetinghouse Road Nature View Lane had two sales. 1 Nature View Lane is a 2544 sq. ft. colonial with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths built in 1986 on 1.27 acres it sold for $283,500 down from its list of $299,900.

5 Nature View Lane is a 3344 sq. ft colonial with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths built in 1987 on 1.54 acres that sold for $316,000, down from its list price of $329,000.

324 West Meetinghouse Road is a 2100 sq. ft. High Ranch with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths built in 1976 on .95 acre. It sold in March after 88 days on the market for $292,000, down from its list price just $2,000.

31 Bridle Road, a 2426 square foot colonial with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths built in 1986 on .92 acres sold in June for $300,000. First listed in April of 2009 for $389,000, it went through 5 brokers and 5 price reductions to $309,900 and then sold in 34 days. Price does make a difference.

At the north end of Wood Creek Road a private 8.94 acre building lot sold last May for $165,000, just $4000 down from its list price after only 8 days on the market. It abutted a large parcel of preserved open space.

72 Bear Hill was an old mill originally built in 1800 and now transformed into a 2301 square foot 2 bedroom 2.5 bath home right on the West Aspetuck River! It also has a small guest house. It is very special. The home was first listed for $635,000 in February of 2012, dropped twice to a final list price of $575,000 and sold in August for $545,000.

Lastly 69 Bear Hill Road is a 714 square foot cottage with 2 bedrooms and one bath on 1.1 acres that sold last August for $152,500, down from its list price of $157,500 after 355 days on the market.

These letters as well as those we write for other neighborhoods are on our website under "Neighborhood Sold Stats" along with their maps, so if you would like to review them or share them, they are just a few clicks away. We work hard to make them interesting and factual and hope you have enjoyed them. You can sign up to get these letters emailed just by leaving your email address there. You can also search the entire MLS for properties for sale in New Milford and neighboring towns on our web site www.bainrealestate.com. It has received much favorable comment for its ease of use. If we can be of service in the meantime, please give us a call. The numbers are below. Enjoy the summer and we'll write again next year.

Sincerely,

David Bain

Please note that not all listings and sales transactions are through David Bain Real Estate.

This graph shows the number of successful transactions

in our key towns of Cornwall, Kent and Sharon in 2014