Some Mystic real estate agents are seeing a larger uptick in interest from New York and Boston buyers than others amid the pandemic, but there's one thing they all seem to agree on: Inventory is low and bidding wars are up.

RE/MAX agent Greg Broadbent said we're in a unique situation: It's both a good time to buy and a good time to sell because interest rates are so low and the market is hot.

"There are multiple offers on a lot of homes, and so you have to be very competitive on your offers in order to get the house you want," he said. "We've had houses with multiple offers and somebody comes in 8% higher than list price, with cash offers."

Broadbent started noticing inventory going down in January and February, as the unusually warm winter meant people were out buying houses earlier, and the momentum meant that people missing out on one house were bidding more aggressively on the next one.

Then COVID-19 hit.

"Most people thought it was going to crash the market. Everybody kind of panicked for a second," Broadbent said. The market didn't crash but he saw some people who originally intended to sell scared of doing so during the pandemic, which further pushed inventory down.

Judi Caracausa, owner of Market Realty, said she wasn't at all surprised that the housing market stayed strong during the pandemic. She thinks the pandemic made people think about where they want to be and said Mystic has "always been a beautiful, pristine, genteel town here, and more and more people want to come here."

She's seeing more situations where, instead of getting two offers on a home, sellers might get five, and she's seeing tighter inventory across southeastern Connecticut.

Caracausa said she's seeing a new construction boom, with a few new houses being built on Mason's Island, while Jon Arruda of Arruda Real Estate Associates said land listings that weren't moving much over the past four or five years have started to sell.

Arruda has seen out-of-town interest skyrocket, such that his business from New York and Boston is close to 50% of total business whereas it was 10% to 15% in years past. Bloomberg recently reported on bidding wars in Mystic and increased interest from New Yorkers.

Arruda said buyers coming from Boston and New York traditionally want to be within walking distance of downtown Mystic, but he's seeing more people willing to expand their search area. That may be partly due to the lower inventory and partly to people wanting more space.

Susy Hurlbert, CEO of the Eastern Connecticut Association of Realtors, thinks that some buyers may be lowering their standards because the inventory is low.

She said when comparing July 2020 to July 2019, there were 15% fewer units on the market and the median price decreased by 5.5%. Year to date, she said the median price in Mystic was down 2% but the average price was up 6.31%, which tells her there are more outliers — higher-priced homes — being sold.

Across New London County, by comparison, Hurlbert said the number of units only decreased 3% and the median price increased 5.67% year to date.

Bonnie Nault, with William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty, mentioned one property in Mystic that had seven offers the day after it went on the market, and also said Waterford is "selling like crazy." Nault said the buyers she has that want to be in Mystic don't want to go anywhere else, so with low inventory, they're just waiting.

But she hasn't personally seen an influx of New Yorkers, while Berkshire Hathaway realtor Marie Cox commented, "Certainly we have had some New Yorkers move into the area, but I don't think it's the same kind of rush as Fairfield County."

Two people she knows that were living in New York but are looking to buy in Mystic? Her son and his fiancée.

The two are originally from Mystic and North Stonington, and Will Cox said they always thought they wanted to return to the area, but the pandemic accelerated their timeline. He works from home to begin with and thinks that working from home "is here to stay in some capacity."

The couple is renting a house in Stonington and looking to buy in Mystic. Cox is noticing the low inventory and high competition, but he is "thinking this kind of hot cycle is going to die down in the wintertime, and we'll be able to find something that fits our criteria."

e.moser@theday.com