April 30, 2004
Going to the Country
Old movies from the Thirties often sent a couple out of New York and into the country for adventure. “Bringing Up Baby”, for instance, or “Holiday Inn”. The intrepid pair would motor along something resembling the Merritt Parkway until they reached a town very much like Greenwich, where they would pull up in front of a classic New England home. Now, I realize that these films were shot on Hollywood sets, but the sets themselves were based on certain Platonic forms of the ideal house. June Peters has just listed exactly that house, located at 160 Bedford Road and asking $5,300,000. Set on eight acres of rolling lawns and woodlands, with ponds and brooks running here and there, this 1937 classic colonial is just superb, as you might expect from a house built at the height of the Depression—anyone who could build a house of this quality in those dark days had money, and obviously felt free to lavish it on this dream house. Six bedrooms and four baths in the main house and a separate pool/guest studio a short stroll away. This would be a perfect house for a weekending NYC couple (like Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, with leopard) or as a permanent residence for a family. But I wonder if it will survive. The demand for gracious, elegant houses is weak, while the appetite for huge coliseums continues unabated. I worry that this one will be wiped out and replaced by some towering monstrosity. Hope not.
504 North Street
This is a house that you have no doubt admired for as long as you’ve lived in Greenwich—I know that I have. It’s the narrow, pink house set at the corner of North and Dingletown Road amid a three plus acre lawn. Narrow, but certainly not small (well, 5,684 square feet probably feels cramped to today’s wunderkind, but they can always add on). Built in 1931 and modeled, I’m told, on an original Bermudian design, this is a real beauty. A great, two story entranceway, high ceilings throughout and wonderful views of that lawn. It needs work; probably a lot of work, if it is to be completely modernized, but it was a real pleasure to finally get inside this home and satisfy my curiosity after appreciating its exterior’s charm for almost fifty years. Jan Milligan’s got it, for $3,995,000.
Old Greenwich Waterfront
208 Shore Road has been returned to the market with a lower price (now asking $4,250,000) and a few completed renovations. It looks like a good buy, now, although I found nothing particularly objectionable about its original price. How often, after all, can you get ahold of property that is smack on the water, with views that include the Stamford Harbor light house and which stretch all the way down Long Island Sound? Complete with membership in the Lucas Point Association and your own private lap pool. Nancy Healy’s listing at, appropriately enough, Shore and Country.
Move It!
John Horton, a fellow recovering lawyer who has the misfortune to be my office-mate, displays a keen insight on real estate on those few occasions when I shut up long enough for him to get a word in. One such instance came last week, when he observed that the way people shop for homes has changed dramatically from, say, the 1960’s. In those days, potential buyers would climb into Betty Moger or Jane Newhall’s car and be driven around to look at what was available. Their first exposure to a house would be from this tour, and they had plenty of time to go home, mull things over, ask questions and, finally, make an offer. No longer. Everything is on the internet now. Home buyers conduct their initial search via computer, downloading statistics, pictures, school reports and the like long before they ever call a Realtor. By the time they visit a property in person, they’ve got a pretty good idea of whether it meets their needs and they are ready to move on it if they like what they see. I am speaking now of our most active segment of the market, roughly the two million dollar and below price range. In that segment, buyers don’t have the luxury of time. Any good agent can bring a new buyer up to speed in a hurry, but if you’re just starting to look, be prepared to lose out on a number of houses before that happy condition is achieved. And start doing your homework, now.
Old movies from the Thirties often sent a couple out of New York and into the country for adventure. “Bringing Up Baby”, for instance, or “Holiday Inn”. The intrepid pair would motor along something resembling the Merritt Parkway until they reached a town very much like Greenwich, where they would pull up in front of a classic New England home. Now, I realize that these films were shot on Hollywood sets, but the sets themselves were based on certain Platonic forms of the ideal house. June Peters has just listed exactly that house, located at 160 Bedford Road and asking $5,300,000. Set on eight acres of rolling lawns and woodlands, with ponds and brooks running here and there, this 1937 classic colonial is just superb, as you might expect from a house built at the height of the Depression—anyone who could build a house of this quality in those dark days had money, and obviously felt free to lavish it on this dream house. Six bedrooms and four baths in the main house and a separate pool/guest studio a short stroll away. This would be a perfect house for a weekending NYC couple (like Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, with leopard) or as a permanent residence for a family. But I wonder if it will survive. The demand for gracious, elegant houses is weak, while the appetite for huge coliseums continues unabated. I worry that this one will be wiped out and replaced by some towering monstrosity. Hope not.
504 North Street
This is a house that you have no doubt admired for as long as you’ve lived in Greenwich—I know that I have. It’s the narrow, pink house set at the corner of North and Dingletown Road amid a three plus acre lawn. Narrow, but certainly not small (well, 5,684 square feet probably feels cramped to today’s wunderkind, but they can always add on). Built in 1931 and modeled, I’m told, on an original Bermudian design, this is a real beauty. A great, two story entranceway, high ceilings throughout and wonderful views of that lawn. It needs work; probably a lot of work, if it is to be completely modernized, but it was a real pleasure to finally get inside this home and satisfy my curiosity after appreciating its exterior’s charm for almost fifty years. Jan Milligan’s got it, for $3,995,000.
Old Greenwich Waterfront
208 Shore Road has been returned to the market with a lower price (now asking $4,250,000) and a few completed renovations. It looks like a good buy, now, although I found nothing particularly objectionable about its original price. How often, after all, can you get ahold of property that is smack on the water, with views that include the Stamford Harbor light house and which stretch all the way down Long Island Sound? Complete with membership in the Lucas Point Association and your own private lap pool. Nancy Healy’s listing at, appropriately enough, Shore and Country.
Move It!
John Horton, a fellow recovering lawyer who has the misfortune to be my office-mate, displays a keen insight on real estate on those few occasions when I shut up long enough for him to get a word in. One such instance came last week, when he observed that the way people shop for homes has changed dramatically from, say, the 1960’s. In those days, potential buyers would climb into Betty Moger or Jane Newhall’s car and be driven around to look at what was available. Their first exposure to a house would be from this tour, and they had plenty of time to go home, mull things over, ask questions and, finally, make an offer. No longer. Everything is on the internet now. Home buyers conduct their initial search via computer, downloading statistics, pictures, school reports and the like long before they ever call a Realtor. By the time they visit a property in person, they’ve got a pretty good idea of whether it meets their needs and they are ready to move on it if they like what they see. I am speaking now of our most active segment of the market, roughly the two million dollar and below price range. In that segment, buyers don’t have the luxury of time. Any good agent can bring a new buyer up to speed in a hurry, but if you’re just starting to look, be prepared to lose out on a number of houses before that happy condition is achieved. And start doing your homework, now.
posted by Chris Fountain at 10:01 AM
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