Foreclosures tend to be worth exactly what you pay for them; or less, but certainly not more

The "carriage house" (garage with maid's quarters) is to the left, the uninhabitable main house to the right.

The owners of 18 Dwight Lane (way up off John Street) paid $1,359,750 for it after the previous owners had been foreclosed, redid the floors in the maid's quarters above the free-standing garage, left the wreck of the main house untouched, and put it back up for sale last November for $2.1 million. Today, that price has dropped down to $1.495 million with, I suspect, plenty of falling room still to go. (Previous listing, with additional pictures, here.)

It's common for buyers of bank-owned property to think they've purchased at a discount, but in my experience, that usually proves to be delusional: by definition, they've paid more for the property than anyone else was willing to. When you're sitting around the poker table and can't figure out who the chump is ...

Speaking of chumps, though, how about U.S. taxpayers? The foreclosed owners were given a $6,289,900 mortgage on this place in 2006 from, of course, Countrywide (though Wells Fargo did kick in a bonus second mortgage of $250,000 at the same time). That was for a ruined, 1960 contemporary and 4.5 acres in a most undesirable area of town. Countrywide's appraiser, its lending officer and that officer's manager must all have been in on this scheme, but so far as I know, no one, including Chris Dodd and his pal, Countrywide's CEO Angelo Mozilo spent a single day in jail. 

a little bleach on that diving board, replace the deck and gazebo, and bob's your uncle

And perhaps a new driveway

Perennial quick seller on Hillside Road

55 Hillside Road, asking $3.695 million, is already pending after just 40 days on the market. It sold (for $3.476) in 8 days in 2015, and 23 days in 2012, so clearly this house and location has great appeal. 

There's no arguing the merits of the 1.5 acre lot, set far enough back from Hillside to avoid the worst of high school traffic, but I'm struck by how out of date my tastes are: to me, all of the charm of this 1937 house was stripped long ago, especially during these sellers' brief ownership, but I'm obviously out of touch with today's generation of buyers.

I'll have to keep that in mind. 

Unbelievable; four more car thefts and again all four had keys left in them

How much trouble can it be to take your keys with you? Even if you can't be troubled to lock your car?

Our out of town nighttime visitors are having a field day in town because they know that Greenwich residents make it so easy. In a way, I suppose these idiots (Tommy Hilfiger is one, I recall) make it safer for those of us who do pocket our keys, or fobs, or whatever: rater than bust a window to get in, the thieves will probably pass us by, knowing that there will be easier pickings in the next driveway.

But, really ....

They breed 'em tough up in the Maine woods

95-year-old man clubs rabid fox to death.

Brunswick: [Robert] Galen ... had been repairing his deck and was walking around the house to fetch planks. Wearing work gloves, he picked up one broken plank that was the size of a club, and when he looked up he saw a mature fox “looking me right in the eye.”

Galen estimated the fox was less than 2 feet away.

Asked if the animal attacked or lunged at him, “It never got the opportunity,” Galen said. “Any fox or rabbit or skunk that approaches a human being within a foot and a half is abnormal.”

It took him about 10 minutes to subdue the animal. As he fought the animal, he fell backward into a bush but continued to strike the fox.

A Maine warden took away the dead fox, and on Tuesday the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention notified him the animal had tested positive for rabies.

He was relieved.

“I didn’t want to kill an innocent animal,” he said.

95, still out repairing his deck, and fully capable of fighting off attackers. I feel like such a wuss.

Price cut on (Greenwich) Park Avenue

140 park avenue

New construction at 140 Park Avenue, down to $4.295 million from $4.5. Nice enough, I suppose, but I personally liked the looks of 180 Park, diagonally across the street, which closed just last week for $3.750. 180 was built in 2008, not an auspicious time to bring a house on the market, and it ended up being rented out for the next ten years, but the owners brought it back to pretty much "like new" condition, so I'd consider it a good comp. Each house is on 0.4 of an acre, and each has about 4,000 sq.ft. above ground.

140 is a bit more private than 180, and that's worth something, but I'll take a brick Georgian over another humdrum "Colonial" any day.

Question: why, if a builder has just 4,000 feet to play with, would he build a master closet that takes up so much space? And a "laundry room" closet with stacked washer/dryer and little room for much else strikes me as inconvenient. Even if my Lord and my Lady's garments in that master closet are all dry-cleaned, surely, with four bedrooms (like 140, there's a nanny cubicle in the basement), children are expected, and they usually come with all sorts of dirty clothes, most of which are not appropriate for dry cleaning. Oh well.

Upate, June 30: Heard from my friend and this home's listing agent, Ellen Mosher, who assures me that there is a full laundry area in the basement, convenient to the nanny cubicle.

140 park's master closet

180 park

And so it begins

SNL "Comedian" expresses his opinion on Justice Kennedy's retirement. Of interest, but not to this particular idiot, is that Kennedy was the swing vote upholding Roe-vs. Wade, gay marriage, and a host of favorite liberal issues. 

This is why we elected him

Get out the popcorn; we're in for a fun summer

And there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth

NOOOOOO!!

Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court's swing vote, is retiring. 

It's hard to believe that the crazies can get even crazier, but I fear that the prospect of Trump creating a 6-3 conservative-liberal court will do just that. I hate to say it, but the Secret Service protection should probably harden up. 

UPDATE: The lawyer collective over at one of my favorite blogs, powerlineblog.com offer some insight.

BREAKING: “CHIEF JUSTICE” ANTHONY KENNEDY TO RETIRE

That headline is not a misprint or slip: as the swing vote on a Court that has long divided 5 – 4 on key questions, Justice Anthony Kennedy has been effectively the “Chief Justice” of the Supreme Court for a long time. Lawyers who practice at the Supreme Court will tell you that case briefs and pleadings have long been written for an intended audience of one: Justice Kennedy.

My observation the last couple weeks is that the cases that have come out recently have been nearly a clean sweep for the right, unlike previous years where case results were a mixed bag. The fact that Kennedy was aligning himself with the solid conservatives on just about every key case late in this term was the sign to me that he was content to step off the Court after 30 years, content that he is happy with the Court’s current center of gravity. In particular his very recent comments about how the time has come to reconsider “Chevron deference” indicated to me that at the last, Kennedy’s conservative side was re-emerging. No one on the left could have been happy with Justice Kennedy’s jurisprudence in recent months.

Get ready for World War III on Capitol Hill as confirmation hearings are held this summer for Kennedy’s replacement.  I predict protests and disruptions in the committee hearing room will be attempted. But I also think that just as the vacant Scalia seat energized conservative voters for Trump in 2016, the confirmation of a replacement for Kennedy will further energize the Democratic base for the mid-term election in November, even if a new Justice is confirmed (as I expect he or she will be). It will also put intense pressure on red state Democratic senators fighting tough races for re-election (McCaskill, Donnelly, Tester, Manchin, etc).

Bright spot? We've probably heard the last of the unaccompanied border children on the nightly news. Move On™.

Finally, a price cut that just might move it

90 Club Road, a land sale, has cut its price from $6.9 million to $4.950. The owners are Gideon's clients and long-time friends and neighbors of both of ours, but their 2016 price of $7 million was way too high, and their markdown by a miserly $100,000 this past February was ludicrous. Today's reduction is a significant improvement.

A very, very nice building lot; high and dry, with great water views, on an excellent street. 

It's tough to recoup renovation costs

24 Stone Brook (nee Hooker) Lane is under contract, last listed at $1.595 million, after starting in September at $1.975 million. The sellers paid $1.415 for it in 2015 and slathered a lot of lipstick on to this 1972 contemporary, including a new roof, kitchen, new baths, deck, etc., all of which must surely have cost far more than they'll be getting back. It's by no means a terrible house, and the new buyers will be doing well here, but the fate of these owners does illustrate the danger of putting a lot of money into renovations if you aren't going to be around to enjoy them.