October 8, 2004
Market Conditions
Buyers have been active this week. Twenty-three houses went to contract, representing all price ranges. 15 Field Point Circle asking $15,000,000 (no saying what the owners accepted, but surely it wasn’t chump change), Anne Simpson’s listing at 152 Indian Head, $11,500,000, 45 North Stanwich, $7,995,000, and so on, all the way to 4 Janet Court in Riverside, asking $784,500 (went to contract instantly). Margriet Finnegan’s (Round Hill Partners) listing on Stony Wylde, a contemporary that will almost certainly be torn down and replaced, came on the market on a Thursday for $2.1 million and went to sealed bids Monday. Same story for Pat Giovinco’s (Country Living Associates) listing at 5 Nedley Lane in Glenville: asked $659,000, went to sealed bids within days. Builders and end users, in other words, are all still out there and buying what is available, if the price is right. To repeat: if the price is reasonable, houses are selling briskly, often drawing multiple bids. If your house is not selling, then you should be able to figure out the problem.
18 Pintail Lane
This house just came on asking $2,850,000. I don’t know whether that’s the right price or not, honestly, but it will certainly set a price record for Pintail no matter what it sells for. And it is a very nice house; good looking, well built, with a terrific waterfall and koi pond in the backyard. It’s large: 6,568 feet in fact and was slipped in (literally, as it’s a modular) during the FAR hiatus. Its neighbors may disagree but I think it fits nicely on its lot, super-sized or not. Drive by and decide for yourself.[update - it sold, for full asking price, in 8 days. Ed.]
Changing Times
My father once told me that one of the reasons he liked living in Riverside was that the Chairman of the Dime Savings Bank lived across the street from the local alcoholic who repaired screens and storm windows in his rare moments of near-sobriety. And this was true. Growing up in the 1960s, the fathers (mothers rarely worked outside the house then) of my friends had jobs that ranged from Chairman of the American Tobacco Company to senior partnerships at Wall Street law firms to collecting parking meter nickels for the town and inspecting septic systems. And, as kids, we all lived within a few streets of each other. I was reminded of all that recently because the alcoholic’s house is back on the market, basically exactly as it was in the 1960s, for an asking price of $1.45 million. Try affording that on screen door repair earnings. The parking meter collector’s house, if it were offered for sale today, would probably fetch at least $1.2 million. In the Back Country, the small cottages on Richmond Hill Drive are almost all gone, replaced by mansions. And so on. All this is not necessarily bad, I suppose, and the owners of those small houses, if they’re still alive, are probably happily laughing at those of us stuck here in Greenwich while they enjoy their Florida retirement (well, they were until the four hurricanes showed up). But I miss the variety that the town used to have, the artists and the kooks and just odd folks who were scattered about in all areas of town. Not to pick on anyone in particular, but when I was younger, I considered New Canaan to be a pure, boring, homogenized town, while Greenwich had character (and characters). Now that the average price for a home here is approaching $2,000,000, I fear that we’re looking more like New Canaan every day. It’s nice that our town attracts such highly successful, driven people, I just wish there were still room for screen door repairmen.
We Get Results
Just kidding – the town P&Z goes its own way without any need for input from me. But a week after this column complained, for the second time, that Cos Cob lacked a Starbucks, I was delighted to see that it’s finally getting one. The town has settled the litigation brought against it by the would-be renters to Starbucks (have I mentioned that zoning by law suit is an expensive way to govern property use?) and we’ll soon be able to sip grossly expensive coffee drinks while sitting at outside tables overlooking Cos Cob’s Mill Pond. I think that’s a huge boon for Cos Cob; now, if someone would provide a decent cup of coffee in Glenville, I’ll be safe to travel throughout Greenwich without worrying about finding my next caffeine fix.
Buyers have been active this week. Twenty-three houses went to contract, representing all price ranges. 15 Field Point Circle asking $15,000,000 (no saying what the owners accepted, but surely it wasn’t chump change), Anne Simpson’s listing at 152 Indian Head, $11,500,000, 45 North Stanwich, $7,995,000, and so on, all the way to 4 Janet Court in Riverside, asking $784,500 (went to contract instantly). Margriet Finnegan’s (Round Hill Partners) listing on Stony Wylde, a contemporary that will almost certainly be torn down and replaced, came on the market on a Thursday for $2.1 million and went to sealed bids Monday. Same story for Pat Giovinco’s (Country Living Associates) listing at 5 Nedley Lane in Glenville: asked $659,000, went to sealed bids within days. Builders and end users, in other words, are all still out there and buying what is available, if the price is right. To repeat: if the price is reasonable, houses are selling briskly, often drawing multiple bids. If your house is not selling, then you should be able to figure out the problem.
18 Pintail Lane
This house just came on asking $2,850,000. I don’t know whether that’s the right price or not, honestly, but it will certainly set a price record for Pintail no matter what it sells for. And it is a very nice house; good looking, well built, with a terrific waterfall and koi pond in the backyard. It’s large: 6,568 feet in fact and was slipped in (literally, as it’s a modular) during the FAR hiatus. Its neighbors may disagree but I think it fits nicely on its lot, super-sized or not. Drive by and decide for yourself.[update - it sold, for full asking price, in 8 days. Ed.]
Changing Times
My father once told me that one of the reasons he liked living in Riverside was that the Chairman of the Dime Savings Bank lived across the street from the local alcoholic who repaired screens and storm windows in his rare moments of near-sobriety. And this was true. Growing up in the 1960s, the fathers (mothers rarely worked outside the house then) of my friends had jobs that ranged from Chairman of the American Tobacco Company to senior partnerships at Wall Street law firms to collecting parking meter nickels for the town and inspecting septic systems. And, as kids, we all lived within a few streets of each other. I was reminded of all that recently because the alcoholic’s house is back on the market, basically exactly as it was in the 1960s, for an asking price of $1.45 million. Try affording that on screen door repair earnings. The parking meter collector’s house, if it were offered for sale today, would probably fetch at least $1.2 million. In the Back Country, the small cottages on Richmond Hill Drive are almost all gone, replaced by mansions. And so on. All this is not necessarily bad, I suppose, and the owners of those small houses, if they’re still alive, are probably happily laughing at those of us stuck here in Greenwich while they enjoy their Florida retirement (well, they were until the four hurricanes showed up). But I miss the variety that the town used to have, the artists and the kooks and just odd folks who were scattered about in all areas of town. Not to pick on anyone in particular, but when I was younger, I considered New Canaan to be a pure, boring, homogenized town, while Greenwich had character (and characters). Now that the average price for a home here is approaching $2,000,000, I fear that we’re looking more like New Canaan every day. It’s nice that our town attracts such highly successful, driven people, I just wish there were still room for screen door repairmen.
We Get Results
Just kidding – the town P&Z goes its own way without any need for input from me. But a week after this column complained, for the second time, that Cos Cob lacked a Starbucks, I was delighted to see that it’s finally getting one. The town has settled the litigation brought against it by the would-be renters to Starbucks (have I mentioned that zoning by law suit is an expensive way to govern property use?) and we’ll soon be able to sip grossly expensive coffee drinks while sitting at outside tables overlooking Cos Cob’s Mill Pond. I think that’s a huge boon for Cos Cob; now, if someone would provide a decent cup of coffee in Glenville, I’ll be safe to travel throughout Greenwich without worrying about finding my next caffeine fix.
posted by Chris Fountain at 8:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home