I've been commenting on this phenomenon for a while now

Pending at 25 Richmond Hill; 13 years on market

Frantic New Yorkers snapping up unwanted homes

They were the castoffs of local real estate — until coronavirus came to call.

Some houses in suburban towns and rural areas outside of New York City sat on the market for years.

But then the pandemic spurred cooped-up urbanites to run for the hills and sparked an uptick in property sales within a few-hour radius of Manhattan.

In Connecticut, a charming colonial home in Darien lingered on the market for 1,083 days, while a 1980s contemporary in Salisbury ticked over the 1,500-day mark.

But then COVID-19 hit. They went from being the last kids picked on the team to idyllic quarantine dreams.

Two additional takeaways:

“Before the pandemic, everyone would say, ‘Hey, if I’m buying a million-dollar house, I want a new kitchen and renovated bathrooms,” says listing broker Bill Melnick of Elyse Harney Real Estate. “But now if the toilet flushes and they can move in quickly, they’re here!”

And:

Larger homes that fell out of favor are now back en vogue, agents add. “It allows working couples to have two home offices in addition to bedrooms with the possibility that shelter [in place] will happen again,” [Catskill agent] Serouya says.

And my own observation: in Greenwich, these unwanted lovelies are still selling at a fraction of their original asking prices, indicating that overpricing played a role – often, in my opinion, the sole role — in their failure to sell for so long. The NY post article suggests the same point.