Short Greenwich?
The Dean of my law school, who spent much of his career as a Wall Street lawyer, used to warn us in class, “ladies and gentlemen, the number one cause of suicide on Wall Street is selling short”. I mention that because several of my Wall Street clients tell me that the cocktail wisdom among their peers in neighboring towns is to “short Greenwich”. The pessimists may be in for a bit of a wait. This week Amy Reed (Prudential) brought 11 Dearfield Lane to market at $1.395. A 1928 Tudor on a half acre of land, it went to sealed bids, no contingencies, within 24 hours. I’m guessing that it will sell for somewhere just under $1.5 million. I have pointed out before that a great number of homes on the market are over-priced; that should not be understood to mean that there is no market for well-priced homes, because there is. I don’t know exactly how many sealed bid auctions have taken place this year but I am aware of at least six and I suspect there have been at least twice that number. And that doesn’t include informal bidding wars, one buyer gazumping another without benefit of a formal process. All told, dozens of homes have been fought over in town since January and there’s no end in sight. Unless, of course, you are a Master of the Universe who sees, and knows, all. But then you probably don’t live in Greenwich and probably never will.
Milbrook
Josiane Collazo (Sotheby’s) has just listed a renovated home at 45 Overlook Drive (the good end of that street). It’s a terrific home with four bedrooms, three baths and almost a half acre of land; in fact, as the neighboring yard has no fencing or other barriers, this backyard seems positively huge. (As an aside, we had a similar arrangement growing up on Gilliam Lane with our neighbors and our own acre plus merged into a vast play ground for everyone. Robert Frost was right: something there is that doesn’t love a wall.) In any event, Josiane’s listing has been completely renovated over the past few years and has a great kitchen, top of the line appliances, new roof, garage, bathrooms, etc. $2,195,000 asking price.
Contracts
Although it seems that anyone who has somewhere better to go has got up and gone there, the real estate market continues to push along this summer. Elizabeth Douthit’s (Mrs. Doubtfire to her friends here at Round Hill Partners) listing at 16 Deerpark ($6,900,000) has gone to contract, as has Steve Archino’s 96 Round Hill Road listing for $8,950,000, Sally Parris’s at 58 Close Road ($2,995,000), Sherry De Luca’s at 145 Pecksland ($2,950,000) and Charles Magyar’s , 30 Mimosa, for $1,395,000. And in what must be a record price for the street, Peter Lauridsen’s listing at 4 Sickle Bar Lane, went to contract instantly; new construction, asking price $1,395,000.
Havemeyer Redux
Another columnist in town has taken it upon himself to personally lower the prices of homes in Havemeyer—I don’t know why. A few months ago he stated, in strong, positive terms that “Havemeyer is a $600,000 neighborhood”. I (gently, I thought) corrected him by citing numerous sales in the area that far exceeded the $600,000 threshold but he’s back again, this time discussing a new listing on Halsey Drive (disclosure—it’s a listing of my brother Gideon’s) and droning that “anyone who knows anything about real estate knows that this is overpriced by at least $100-$110k.” Well. Is it true? Does that columnist know anything about real estate? So far as Havemeyer is concerned, no.
Opinion columns are just that: one person’s opinion. Readers should remember that, no matter how strongly voiced an opinion is, it isn’t necessarily right or even based on fact—and I do not claim any sort of exemption from that caveat. But an opinion on value should be based on more than some fogged recollection of past selling prices from years ago. In November, for instance, the house directly across the street from the one referred to went to contract for $762,500.00. The house right up the street from that has an accepted offer of $799,000 and the one next door to that sold a few months ago, in one day, for $840,000. Three in a row, all within cup-of-sugar borrowing distance from the house in question. Havemeyer, in my opinion, is a neighborhood on the way up and is shedding old perceptions, old values and old curmudgeons as it goes.
The Dean of my law school, who spent much of his career as a Wall Street lawyer, used to warn us in class, “ladies and gentlemen, the number one cause of suicide on Wall Street is selling short”. I mention that because several of my Wall Street clients tell me that the cocktail wisdom among their peers in neighboring towns is to “short Greenwich”. The pessimists may be in for a bit of a wait. This week Amy Reed (Prudential) brought 11 Dearfield Lane to market at $1.395. A 1928 Tudor on a half acre of land, it went to sealed bids, no contingencies, within 24 hours. I’m guessing that it will sell for somewhere just under $1.5 million. I have pointed out before that a great number of homes on the market are over-priced; that should not be understood to mean that there is no market for well-priced homes, because there is. I don’t know exactly how many sealed bid auctions have taken place this year but I am aware of at least six and I suspect there have been at least twice that number. And that doesn’t include informal bidding wars, one buyer gazumping another without benefit of a formal process. All told, dozens of homes have been fought over in town since January and there’s no end in sight. Unless, of course, you are a Master of the Universe who sees, and knows, all. But then you probably don’t live in Greenwich and probably never will.
Milbrook
Josiane Collazo (Sotheby’s) has just listed a renovated home at 45 Overlook Drive (the good end of that street). It’s a terrific home with four bedrooms, three baths and almost a half acre of land; in fact, as the neighboring yard has no fencing or other barriers, this backyard seems positively huge. (As an aside, we had a similar arrangement growing up on Gilliam Lane with our neighbors and our own acre plus merged into a vast play ground for everyone. Robert Frost was right: something there is that doesn’t love a wall.) In any event, Josiane’s listing has been completely renovated over the past few years and has a great kitchen, top of the line appliances, new roof, garage, bathrooms, etc. $2,195,000 asking price.
Contracts
Although it seems that anyone who has somewhere better to go has got up and gone there, the real estate market continues to push along this summer. Elizabeth Douthit’s (Mrs. Doubtfire to her friends here at Round Hill Partners) listing at 16 Deerpark ($6,900,000) has gone to contract, as has Steve Archino’s 96 Round Hill Road listing for $8,950,000, Sally Parris’s at 58 Close Road ($2,995,000), Sherry De Luca’s at 145 Pecksland ($2,950,000) and Charles Magyar’s , 30 Mimosa, for $1,395,000. And in what must be a record price for the street, Peter Lauridsen’s listing at 4 Sickle Bar Lane, went to contract instantly; new construction, asking price $1,395,000.
Havemeyer Redux
Another columnist in town has taken it upon himself to personally lower the prices of homes in Havemeyer—I don’t know why. A few months ago he stated, in strong, positive terms that “Havemeyer is a $600,000 neighborhood”. I (gently, I thought) corrected him by citing numerous sales in the area that far exceeded the $600,000 threshold but he’s back again, this time discussing a new listing on Halsey Drive (disclosure—it’s a listing of my brother Gideon’s) and droning that “anyone who knows anything about real estate knows that this is overpriced by at least $100-$110k.” Well. Is it true? Does that columnist know anything about real estate? So far as Havemeyer is concerned, no.
Opinion columns are just that: one person’s opinion. Readers should remember that, no matter how strongly voiced an opinion is, it isn’t necessarily right or even based on fact—and I do not claim any sort of exemption from that caveat. But an opinion on value should be based on more than some fogged recollection of past selling prices from years ago. In November, for instance, the house directly across the street from the one referred to went to contract for $762,500.00. The house right up the street from that has an accepted offer of $799,000 and the one next door to that sold a few months ago, in one day, for $840,000. Three in a row, all within cup-of-sugar borrowing distance from the house in question. Havemeyer, in my opinion, is a neighborhood on the way up and is shedding old perceptions, old values and old curmudgeons as it goes.
posted by Chris Fountain at 10:19 AM
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