September 17, 2004
The Market Returns
Twenty-nine houses sold last week, eighteen went to contract and eight-five new listings came on. This week should be even busier. As I’ve noted before, sales provide a snapshot of what the market was doing thirty to sixty days ago, when the contracts were signed, so it’s more informative to look at current contracts. There are some interesting deals. 4 Idar Court, another new luxury condominium project on Field Point Road has just reported its first, still-under-constructionvunit to contract at $2,750,000. There has been some speculation that the market for super-high end condominiums must be getting flooded but so far, that speculation seems unfounded. We’ll see what happens when another fifty units come on. Luxury waterfront single family houses, however, will probably never go out of style, and 12 Indian Drive, direct waterfront in Old Greenwich, went to contract in just eight days. Asking price was $7,200,000. Lower down in price but still impressive to me was 22 Linwood Avenue in Riverside. A nice house, recently renovated, it was asking $1,765,000 and went to contract at an unspecified price in seventy days. Whoever owned the place in 1932 would be surprised.
Price that House!
I just saw a house that had a number of drawbacks: it was small, cramped, low-ceilinged (a real detriment in today’s market) dated, in poor repair and backed up to the railroad tracks. I’d consider it either a starter home or a builder’s scraper but you wouldn’t know that from its asking price. I assume it was the owners, not the listing agent, who were so optimistic, although agents can err in that way also. The usual source though, for a house being over-priced can be traced to its owner who has been keeping careful track of what other houses on his street sold for and decides that his house is worth the same amount. Before you, as a potential seller, insist on a certain price, make certain that you know what you’re comparing your house to. In the house that I am writing about, the properties that were apparently used as its comparables were all much larger, much, much newer, and were in genuine move-in condition (which I know because, like any diligent agent, I inspected them during open houses and showed several of them to my own customers). Here’s some advice: when a public open house is held in your neighborhood, attend it and look around with as objective a view as you can manage. Don’t dismiss the new kitchen as “no better than mine” if your kitchen was installed in 1960. Sellers tend to disregard things like dated bathrooms flooded basements and kitchens with coal burning stoves—buyers don’t.
Details
Another new listing that appeared on the market the other day seemed pretty nice. Very large, quite recently built, a good yard on a quiet street. I imagine that the house will go for close to its asking price of $3,000,000 plus, even though that price will far exceed anything sold on the street up to now. But, while I liked the house, I couldn’t help noticing that its builder had selected the cheapest trim moldings and those pre-hung, plastic hollow doors. For perhaps, what—$20,000?—the builder could have installed top quality trim and 2 1/2” wooden doors. It’s not so much a matter of wood being better than plastic (although my personal preferences lean that way) but when a builder goes cheap on obvious things like doors and woodwork, some of us wonder what other short cuts he might have taken when building the more invisible parts of the house. The common wisdom among most builders in town is that there is no premium paid for quality; I suppose that’s so, but I suspect that top-quality finishes will attract more buyers and sell more quickly. We’ll see.
Astro Turf?T
oyota of Greenwich has replaced the artificial-turf on its sidewalk. Other than bringing it into symmetrical balance with the new Greenwich High School field, I’m no more impressed with this idea than when they first tried it twenty years ago. Do you remember when Los Angeles installed plastic palms along its highways? They were set on fire by nature-loving vandals. I’m not suggesting arson or any other attack, but it seems to me that concrete should look like concrete and grass should look like grass. Then again, perhaps this store’s owner prefers plastic hollow doors.
Twenty-nine houses sold last week, eighteen went to contract and eight-five new listings came on. This week should be even busier. As I’ve noted before, sales provide a snapshot of what the market was doing thirty to sixty days ago, when the contracts were signed, so it’s more informative to look at current contracts. There are some interesting deals. 4 Idar Court, another new luxury condominium project on Field Point Road has just reported its first, still-under-constructionvunit to contract at $2,750,000. There has been some speculation that the market for super-high end condominiums must be getting flooded but so far, that speculation seems unfounded. We’ll see what happens when another fifty units come on. Luxury waterfront single family houses, however, will probably never go out of style, and 12 Indian Drive, direct waterfront in Old Greenwich, went to contract in just eight days. Asking price was $7,200,000. Lower down in price but still impressive to me was 22 Linwood Avenue in Riverside. A nice house, recently renovated, it was asking $1,765,000 and went to contract at an unspecified price in seventy days. Whoever owned the place in 1932 would be surprised.
Price that House!
I just saw a house that had a number of drawbacks: it was small, cramped, low-ceilinged (a real detriment in today’s market) dated, in poor repair and backed up to the railroad tracks. I’d consider it either a starter home or a builder’s scraper but you wouldn’t know that from its asking price. I assume it was the owners, not the listing agent, who were so optimistic, although agents can err in that way also. The usual source though, for a house being over-priced can be traced to its owner who has been keeping careful track of what other houses on his street sold for and decides that his house is worth the same amount. Before you, as a potential seller, insist on a certain price, make certain that you know what you’re comparing your house to. In the house that I am writing about, the properties that were apparently used as its comparables were all much larger, much, much newer, and were in genuine move-in condition (which I know because, like any diligent agent, I inspected them during open houses and showed several of them to my own customers). Here’s some advice: when a public open house is held in your neighborhood, attend it and look around with as objective a view as you can manage. Don’t dismiss the new kitchen as “no better than mine” if your kitchen was installed in 1960. Sellers tend to disregard things like dated bathrooms flooded basements and kitchens with coal burning stoves—buyers don’t.
Details
Another new listing that appeared on the market the other day seemed pretty nice. Very large, quite recently built, a good yard on a quiet street. I imagine that the house will go for close to its asking price of $3,000,000 plus, even though that price will far exceed anything sold on the street up to now. But, while I liked the house, I couldn’t help noticing that its builder had selected the cheapest trim moldings and those pre-hung, plastic hollow doors. For perhaps, what—$20,000?—the builder could have installed top quality trim and 2 1/2” wooden doors. It’s not so much a matter of wood being better than plastic (although my personal preferences lean that way) but when a builder goes cheap on obvious things like doors and woodwork, some of us wonder what other short cuts he might have taken when building the more invisible parts of the house. The common wisdom among most builders in town is that there is no premium paid for quality; I suppose that’s so, but I suspect that top-quality finishes will attract more buyers and sell more quickly. We’ll see.
Astro Turf?T
oyota of Greenwich has replaced the artificial-turf on its sidewalk. Other than bringing it into symmetrical balance with the new Greenwich High School field, I’m no more impressed with this idea than when they first tried it twenty years ago. Do you remember when Los Angeles installed plastic palms along its highways? They were set on fire by nature-loving vandals. I’m not suggesting arson or any other attack, but it seems to me that concrete should look like concrete and grass should look like grass. Then again, perhaps this store’s owner prefers plastic hollow doors.
posted by Chris Fountain at 8:46 AM
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