Greenwich recorded just 37 single-family home sales in August, the fewest for any August since the Great Recession.

The figure, reported by Compass Connecticut sales executive Mark Pruner in a Greenwich Sentinel column published Monday, Sept. 7, trails only August 2009, when 36 homes sold at the depths of the financial crisis. The previous second-lowest August was 2011, with 55 sales. Over the past decade, Greenwich has averaged 72 sales each August.

The drop was steep even month to month. July 2026 saw 74 sales. August cut that nearly in half.

But the cause is not weak demand.

"The issue in 2009 and 2011 was lack of demand. The issue this August is record low inventory with plenty of demand at every level," Pruner wrote.

Greenwich entered September with just 75 active listings, down 22% from the 96 listings at the same point in 2025, which was itself a record low. The town started 2026 with only 57 listings. For most of the market below $6.5 million, Pruner wrote that supply is measured in weeks, not months.

The inventory squeeze is not new. Greenwich dropped below its previous all-time low of 291 listings, set in December 1991, in July 2021. Listings have fallen steadily since.

Pruner pointed to several forces keeping homeowners in place. Two-income families are declining corporate transfers rather than uprooting both careers. Retirees who want to downsize find few options, with only 26 true condos listed, according to Pruner. Boomerang adult children are filling bedrooms that parents expected to empty. And high capital gains taxes at the federal and state level discourage selling, particularly for long-time owners sitting on large gains.

The luxury end of the market tells a different story. Sales in the $6.5 million to $10 million bracket surged 95% year-to-date through August: 41 homes sold in that range, compared with 21 during the same period in 2025. Pruner attributed part of that jump to buyers shifting down from the $10 million-plus tier. The over-$10 million segment itself recorded 21 sales through August, already exceeding the historical annual average of 14.

Separately, a Best Version Media column by agents Robin DuCharme Pastore and Jackie Hammock noted that Greenwich's average sale price climbed 11% year-over-year to $4.6 million, with the median up 14% to $3.7 million.

Pruner expects inventory to rise after Labor Day as agents list homes for the fall market, though he gave no specific timeline.