April 2, 2004
Gone in Sixty Seconds
The market is in hyper-drive and I find that unsettling. It’s reminiscent of 1986, when buyers were told to make up their mind on a property as they stepped in the doorway; if they thought about it overnight, they’d lose it. Buyers living in New York were out of luck, then and now, because anything available midweek was gone by the weekend. 1986, of course, was followed by 1987 when bad things happened. Will we see a repetition? Stay tuned. I’m more sanguine over long term prospects, however. In 1986 we all—lawyers and agents—thought that the market was positively insane, and it was, but anyone who got into Greenwich in 1986 has done very, very well.
Prices
On a related subject, a number of us (I, anyway) are having a hard time estimating prices in this environment. If we use sales from last fall as comparables, we’re out of date, but how high should a price be? I recently lost an opportunity to list a very nice house in Cos Cob because I insisted, firmly and foolishly, that it should be priced at $1,825,000. It went instead to another broker who set its price at $1,995,000 and sold it in two days. I am not alone in my confusion, but that hurts. It is still possible to over-price a house and there are dozens of such houses languishing on the market as I write, so I still advise setting a less than maximum, “only in your dreams” price and hope that the market will reward your conservatism with a nice bidding war. My brother Gideon recently put his own in-town house up for sale (and, like any smart broker, placed it in the multi-list system for full exposure—we in the industry not only like to receive commissions, we’re willing to pay them because we know how well the system works) for $749,000. I believe he was hoping that multiple bids would drive it into the Eights; two days later, it went for well over one million dollars. Soooeee.
So What’s Available?
Not much, and what is will be gone by the time you read this. I really liked Pam Chiapetta’s listing at 4 Waterfall Lane, asking $879,000. This is a tiny cottage (a relative term—the New York Times just profiled a couple living with their infant in a 245 square foot apartment) that sits right next to (and owns, in fact) the waterfall that gives the street its name. Almost a half acre in its own right, it borders Pinetum for an additional couple of hundred acres of hiking territory. Three bedrooms, one bath and even an “eat-in” kitchen although I thought placing a child’s toy table and chairs in the room was stretching reality a wee bit. A very nice house in the North Street school district.
41 Grove Street (Marianne Broekmeijer) also offered affordable housing at $679,000, but it sits on a third of an acre in the R-7 zone and will certainly have been snapped up by a builder by the weekend. Too bad, as it was a nice house with a nice yard.
Way up north, at 236 Bedford Road, Kathy Wasilko has listed a 1758 house for $1,800,000. A bit of ill-advised “renovation” was performed upstairs at some time but most of the house is untouched, including its two-foot-wide planked floors and a small tavern in the basement. Right on what Kathy calls a lake and what I’d refer to as a pond. Great house, great property; I fear for the house, though.
Russ Pruner has listed 320 Sound Beach Avenue for $1,995,000 and it, too will disappear before you read this. A rambling 1900 house that was brought entirely up to date in 1990. Nice yard, great location. In Riverside, 49 Oval Avenue has the railroad as a neighbor but this is a very good, four bedroom house asking $1,275,000. In this market, easily the best house at that price in Riverside (it may be the only house at that price in Riverside). I think it’s a very good buy.
Stoned
Saw a new house in the Mid Country the other day that was quite nice, if far too large for my taste, but it was faced on the front with stone while the other walls were clapboard. I understand that in Nantucket in the old days something similar was effected, using clapboard on the street front and cheaper shingles on the rest of the house. Fine for Nantucket, with its heritage of skinflint Yankees, but on a nine million dollar house, I think a partial stone facing looks like the owner ran out of money. In this town, today, that’s an unpardonable social faux pas.
The market is in hyper-drive and I find that unsettling. It’s reminiscent of 1986, when buyers were told to make up their mind on a property as they stepped in the doorway; if they thought about it overnight, they’d lose it. Buyers living in New York were out of luck, then and now, because anything available midweek was gone by the weekend. 1986, of course, was followed by 1987 when bad things happened. Will we see a repetition? Stay tuned. I’m more sanguine over long term prospects, however. In 1986 we all—lawyers and agents—thought that the market was positively insane, and it was, but anyone who got into Greenwich in 1986 has done very, very well.
Prices
On a related subject, a number of us (I, anyway) are having a hard time estimating prices in this environment. If we use sales from last fall as comparables, we’re out of date, but how high should a price be? I recently lost an opportunity to list a very nice house in Cos Cob because I insisted, firmly and foolishly, that it should be priced at $1,825,000. It went instead to another broker who set its price at $1,995,000 and sold it in two days. I am not alone in my confusion, but that hurts. It is still possible to over-price a house and there are dozens of such houses languishing on the market as I write, so I still advise setting a less than maximum, “only in your dreams” price and hope that the market will reward your conservatism with a nice bidding war. My brother Gideon recently put his own in-town house up for sale (and, like any smart broker, placed it in the multi-list system for full exposure—we in the industry not only like to receive commissions, we’re willing to pay them because we know how well the system works) for $749,000. I believe he was hoping that multiple bids would drive it into the Eights; two days later, it went for well over one million dollars. Soooeee.
So What’s Available?
Not much, and what is will be gone by the time you read this. I really liked Pam Chiapetta’s listing at 4 Waterfall Lane, asking $879,000. This is a tiny cottage (a relative term—the New York Times just profiled a couple living with their infant in a 245 square foot apartment) that sits right next to (and owns, in fact) the waterfall that gives the street its name. Almost a half acre in its own right, it borders Pinetum for an additional couple of hundred acres of hiking territory. Three bedrooms, one bath and even an “eat-in” kitchen although I thought placing a child’s toy table and chairs in the room was stretching reality a wee bit. A very nice house in the North Street school district.
41 Grove Street (Marianne Broekmeijer) also offered affordable housing at $679,000, but it sits on a third of an acre in the R-7 zone and will certainly have been snapped up by a builder by the weekend. Too bad, as it was a nice house with a nice yard.
Way up north, at 236 Bedford Road, Kathy Wasilko has listed a 1758 house for $1,800,000. A bit of ill-advised “renovation” was performed upstairs at some time but most of the house is untouched, including its two-foot-wide planked floors and a small tavern in the basement. Right on what Kathy calls a lake and what I’d refer to as a pond. Great house, great property; I fear for the house, though.
Russ Pruner has listed 320 Sound Beach Avenue for $1,995,000 and it, too will disappear before you read this. A rambling 1900 house that was brought entirely up to date in 1990. Nice yard, great location. In Riverside, 49 Oval Avenue has the railroad as a neighbor but this is a very good, four bedroom house asking $1,275,000. In this market, easily the best house at that price in Riverside (it may be the only house at that price in Riverside). I think it’s a very good buy.
Stoned
Saw a new house in the Mid Country the other day that was quite nice, if far too large for my taste, but it was faced on the front with stone while the other walls were clapboard. I understand that in Nantucket in the old days something similar was effected, using clapboard on the street front and cheaper shingles on the rest of the house. Fine for Nantucket, with its heritage of skinflint Yankees, but on a nine million dollar house, I think a partial stone facing looks like the owner ran out of money. In this town, today, that’s an unpardonable social faux pas.
posted by Chris Fountain at 8:55 AM
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