Brown Harris Stevens Boosts Connecticut Presence

Brown Harris Stevens is expanding its foothold in Connecticut with two new brokers and an outpost in Southport, an affluent hamlet within the town of Fairfield.

Longtime William Raveis agents Andrew Whiteley and Wendy Ryan joined the New York City-based brokerage after more than a decade with their former firm. The duo will set up shop in BHS’ new digs on Old Post Road — their seventh location in the state.

Ryan credited their move to the brokerage’s network in areas such as Greenwich, the Hamptons, New York City and Palm Beach, which the two consider feeder markets to Southport and lower Fairfield County.

“We really felt it was important to ensure we were aligned with a brokerage that was far-reaching,” Ryan said.

The pair are joining the firm as individual agents, though they previously served on William Raveis’ Team AFA, New England’s top team, according to RealTrends. Whiteley served as the president of the team’s Premier Homes Collection and Ryan as the senior vice president of sales.

Ryan and Whiteley’s combined sales volume was $115 million in 2023, the latest numbers provided by BHS. They declined to comment on which listings, if any, they’ll bring along.

The duo’s former team lead, Al Filippone, declined to comment on their move.

In December, Whiteley brokered the $15 million sale of the Rose Hill Estate, setting the record for the priciest deal outside of Greenwich last year. The Fairfield mansion at 385 Harbor Road unseated an estate in Litchfield County, which sold for $12 million, and ranked as the fifth most expensive sale in the state overall.

Prices in Fairfield County have been rising since the pandemic. The median sale price for a home jumped from nearly $400,000 in Dec. 2019 to more than $$630,000 in Dec. 2024, a roughly 63-percent uptick, according to data from Redfin.

“Before the pandemic, no one really knew about [Southport],” Ryan said, and added that while it has long been a second home market, deals with New Yorkers looking for more than just a summer weekend abode were few and far between. “Now it’s really blowing up.”

But similar to other New York City suburbs, as prices in the region grew, inventory plummeted. Few homes hit the market after the pandemic-era buying frenzy, leaving buyers with few options.

Whiteley said that only 53 homes are listed in Fairfield, compared to more than 400 homes at this time before Covid. With sparse inventory to peddle, he said he and Ryan focused on selling their clients’ homes off-market

Whiteley added that he’s working on a new development project in Southport Village, which will add 18 townhouse apartments to the supply once they’re completed next spring.

They aren’t expected to stay on the market long, according to Whiteley. “If we had these 18 apartments today, we could sell them all tomorrow.”