Market Conditions
In a word, torrid. Thirty-three houses went to contract last week, including some houses that have lingered for literally years. Bidding wars erupted over houses that the owners couldn’t give away last fall and yes, you Cassandras, prices are up. A bit of advice for the MBA’s and their calculators: it is possible—probable, in fact, that houses won’t continue to appreciate at last year’s rate of 24% but that does not mean you should expect cheaper prices two months from now. Greenwich’s market goes flat from time to time but I see no indication that prices will actually drop. And for heaven’s sake, put aside your analysis charts for a moment and consider that you are not buying a Florida condominium (of which an additional 60,000 are due to be constructed this year) you’re looking for a house for your family. If it appreciates, fine, but there are other considerations here than a simple investment decision. Or there should be.
Smart Pricing
21 Rainbow Drive is a very nice house with an unconventional layout: the kitchen is on the second floor. I don’t know why it was built this way but, once you get over the idea of walking upstairs with your groceries, it’s a bright, sunny space that works. The last time it was on the market in 2001 it sat for 111 days before finally selling for $665,000, $134,000 less than its original asking price. Time and the market march on, of course, and today that same house with a conventional floor plan would probably fetch $1,495,000 or so. So how do you deal with the fact that the kitchen’s upstairs? Offer a discount. Angela Swift has priced this house at $1,149,000, leaving plenty of room in that price for a buyer to flip the layout and still have money left over. What will most likely happen, aside from this house selling quickly, is that the new owners will quickly get used to the floor plan and leave everything the way it is. And live happily in their bargain house.
Other Houses of Note
Debby Gardiner’s new listing at 4 Stanwich Lane is priced at $1,795,000, which seems right to me. A nice older house that could use some updating but the street is great and any money you put into this house will be more than repaid. I like it.
When 10 Tyler Lane in Riverside came on the market last fall I liked its location (dead end street) and its spaciousness very much but questioned whether its price of $3,100,000 was justified in view of the poor quality of the interior trim and doors. I didn’t want to embarrass the owners so I didn’t give its address but they identified their house anyway and pulled it off the market to upgrade those items. They have done so and returned it to the market via Liz Johnson. I saw it last week and it’s vastly improved and very nice. Between the improvements and the market’s advance, I’d guess this will sell quickly.
Access
My great grandfather, a builder in New York City in the 1800’s, liked to say that a stairway should be wide enough to swing a coffin in. This bit of wisdom was brought to mind recently when we were obliged to call in a sewer clean out service and discovered that the line trap was located in a crawlspace whose entryway was too narrow to accommodate the router machine. All was well, eventually, but the moral here is that, when building, make sure that you leave adequate access to service all the mechanical and plumbing systems. Another lesson remembered: the very best sewer cleaning service in this area is Kaiser Battistone (not Kaiser Sosa-that’s another story) up in Norwalk. I called them (800-525-6295) late at night, eschewed the emergency number and merely asked that they call back in the morning. They called at 7:30 and had a man at the house by 8:00. The problem was resolved within thirty minutes for a very reasonable (especially considering the alternative) fee. That’s exactly the service they seem to always provide, based on my own previous experience and that of other agents I queried. Good company. Also known as Plumber Rooter.
And Another Item in Bad taste
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time at Greenwich Hospital lately as a visitor and have been struck by the absolute atrociousness of the prints on its walls. These things are everywhere: corridors, patients’ rooms, entranceway and they must be hurting the moral of everyone who works or is recovering there. These aren’t “art”, they’re “wall accessories” and are truly dreadful. I’m surprised that an institution that so obviously took pains to build such a splendid new hospital would have used so little care in selecting decorative items. Perhaps some donor can remedy this. Until then, I’ll loan the place my collection of velvet Elvis paintings.
In a word, torrid. Thirty-three houses went to contract last week, including some houses that have lingered for literally years. Bidding wars erupted over houses that the owners couldn’t give away last fall and yes, you Cassandras, prices are up. A bit of advice for the MBA’s and their calculators: it is possible—probable, in fact, that houses won’t continue to appreciate at last year’s rate of 24% but that does not mean you should expect cheaper prices two months from now. Greenwich’s market goes flat from time to time but I see no indication that prices will actually drop. And for heaven’s sake, put aside your analysis charts for a moment and consider that you are not buying a Florida condominium (of which an additional 60,000 are due to be constructed this year) you’re looking for a house for your family. If it appreciates, fine, but there are other considerations here than a simple investment decision. Or there should be.
Smart Pricing
21 Rainbow Drive is a very nice house with an unconventional layout: the kitchen is on the second floor. I don’t know why it was built this way but, once you get over the idea of walking upstairs with your groceries, it’s a bright, sunny space that works. The last time it was on the market in 2001 it sat for 111 days before finally selling for $665,000, $134,000 less than its original asking price. Time and the market march on, of course, and today that same house with a conventional floor plan would probably fetch $1,495,000 or so. So how do you deal with the fact that the kitchen’s upstairs? Offer a discount. Angela Swift has priced this house at $1,149,000, leaving plenty of room in that price for a buyer to flip the layout and still have money left over. What will most likely happen, aside from this house selling quickly, is that the new owners will quickly get used to the floor plan and leave everything the way it is. And live happily in their bargain house.
Other Houses of Note
Debby Gardiner’s new listing at 4 Stanwich Lane is priced at $1,795,000, which seems right to me. A nice older house that could use some updating but the street is great and any money you put into this house will be more than repaid. I like it.
When 10 Tyler Lane in Riverside came on the market last fall I liked its location (dead end street) and its spaciousness very much but questioned whether its price of $3,100,000 was justified in view of the poor quality of the interior trim and doors. I didn’t want to embarrass the owners so I didn’t give its address but they identified their house anyway and pulled it off the market to upgrade those items. They have done so and returned it to the market via Liz Johnson. I saw it last week and it’s vastly improved and very nice. Between the improvements and the market’s advance, I’d guess this will sell quickly.
Access
My great grandfather, a builder in New York City in the 1800’s, liked to say that a stairway should be wide enough to swing a coffin in. This bit of wisdom was brought to mind recently when we were obliged to call in a sewer clean out service and discovered that the line trap was located in a crawlspace whose entryway was too narrow to accommodate the router machine. All was well, eventually, but the moral here is that, when building, make sure that you leave adequate access to service all the mechanical and plumbing systems. Another lesson remembered: the very best sewer cleaning service in this area is Kaiser Battistone (not Kaiser Sosa-that’s another story) up in Norwalk. I called them (800-525-6295) late at night, eschewed the emergency number and merely asked that they call back in the morning. They called at 7:30 and had a man at the house by 8:00. The problem was resolved within thirty minutes for a very reasonable (especially considering the alternative) fee. That’s exactly the service they seem to always provide, based on my own previous experience and that of other agents I queried. Good company. Also known as Plumber Rooter.
And Another Item in Bad taste
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time at Greenwich Hospital lately as a visitor and have been struck by the absolute atrociousness of the prints on its walls. These things are everywhere: corridors, patients’ rooms, entranceway and they must be hurting the moral of everyone who works or is recovering there. These aren’t “art”, they’re “wall accessories” and are truly dreadful. I’m surprised that an institution that so obviously took pains to build such a splendid new hospital would have used so little care in selecting decorative items. Perhaps some donor can remedy this. Until then, I’ll loan the place my collection of velvet Elvis paintings.
posted by Chris Fountain at 1:28 PM
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