Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
3 East Point Road, off Shore, close to Tod’s Point, has sold for $3.025 million. It sold new in 2006 for $3.5, and $3.450 in 2016. It’s a perfectly decent house, so I’m guessing this gradual subsidence in price is due to our ever-stricter flood zone regulations. So far as I know, the house itself never flooded, but this area is known for requiring dinghies and rubber rafts to negotiate in during storms. Always has, always will — get over it.
Way back in January, 2017, I poked fun at the owners of 340 Old Church Road for dropping their price from $3. 795 to $3.695 [Gil, POS, this time I’ve checked my typing]. arguing that any buyer who’d balked at the first number wasn’t going to bite at what was essentially the same one. Today it’s down to $2.350, which is persuasive. If you’re into quirky homes, Old Church is a good street, and this is a pretty neat house. Could go farther and fare worse, as they say.
11 Carrington Drive, up off of north Stanwich, has sold for $2.350 million, a substantial discount from its February 2017 asking price of $3.875. Carrington’s a nice street, though a bit far from town, and this is a lot of house for what once passed for not a lot of money in Greenwich.
Maybe the photo of a wildfire raging behind it deterred buyers.
347 Riversville Road is now down to $795,000. The owner paid $830,000 for it in 2004 and spent a pretty good amount renovating and improving it. It’s in foreclosure — $1.4 owed, which shows how foolish banks were back in the day — but, without working the math, I’d think this would work as either a rental property or a starter home.
23 Khakum Wood Road has dropped its price $10,000, from $9.985 to $9.975. It’s a 1927 “brown furniture” house, which the current pool of buyers don’t want, and it’s been on the market since 2007 (!) when it started at $19. 7 million. Knocking $10 million off that price was wise, but what on earth does the owner think taking another $10,000 will accomplish?
Khakum Wood has lost its appeal over the years, so I expect we’ll see this property hanging around for a bit longer, despite today’s price cut.
9 Mountain Laurel Drive, way up near New York, has sold for $3.550 million. That’s a substantial sum, but the sellers paid $4.9 for it in 2005, and put some substantial money into renovations. My guess is that even $3.550 will prove to be a regrettable price a few years from now.
I haven’t recommended any properties in this area for, I’d guess, a decade, except to Bedford/Banksville residents who wanted to stay close to their friends and neighbors, but escape Westchester County taxes. As an “investment”, it’s a black hole.
Ho hum
111 Dingletown Road has continued its drop from its April, 2017 price of $3.250 million, and today it’s asking $2.650. It sold for $2.550 in 2003 and, after improvements, $2.8 in 2014. There’s nothing wrong with this house; in fact, it’s quite decent, albeit access is via a long driveway to a back lot, but it’s pretty undistinguished, to my eye.
But it’s now owned by a relocation company, and the original owner isn’t around to be offended by a low offer. Re-Los tend to grow tired of hanging onto properties, so it might be worth tossing a still-lower offer at it.
good god
3rd in command, USMC “Toys for Tots” campaign, 1969
WASHINGTON — In a potentially major breach of Washington political etiquette, Sen. Richard Blumenthal learned Wednesday that although he is a Senate Judiciary Committee member, he would not get a meeting with President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William Barr, before confirmation hearings scheduled for next week.
“William Barr’s refusal to meet with Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee is entirely unprecedented and unacceptable,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “The Department of Justice’s attempt to excuse this gross break in the norms by citing a ‘truncated schedule’ is galling when they are the ones who have rushed it. My Republican colleagues should share my outrage at this appalling violation of the Senate’s independent authority.”
This from there very same prima donna who loudly refused to meet with Brett Kavanaugh when the nominee was making the same round of courtesy calls to senators. “Well, sure”, Blumenthal told FWIW, “but that’s because they asked me to listen to him, and gave me the opening to tell them to piss up a rope — boy, did the newspapers love that! This time, they didn’t have the courtesy to offer me that opportunity, so yeah, of course I’m mad as Hell. Who do they think they are?”
9 Thornhill Road, sold for $930,00 February, 2018, is pending at $1.399 million. New kitchen, baths, etc., and quick turn around.
Thornhill’s a nice street, running from Riverside Lane (NoPo) to Sheephill. Many years ago I had a listing here, and the son of the owner told me that, when he was growing up, there were two cops living on the block, one in the middle, one at the end, and it was the safest street in Greenwich: not a single vandal dared intruding. The days of policemen being able to afford to live in town are long gone, alas, but the street itself remains as a quiet micro-neighborhood, with good people.
34 Circle Drive, off Indian Field, down near to I-95, has dropped its price to $2.775 million from $2.875. I’ve never used this forum as a platform to tout my own listings — in fact, I’ve refrained from mentioning my own listings completely in the past — but this house offers an illustrative example of how we idiot dirt peddlers try to come up with relative values, so I’ll point out factors that I considered when setting the price (and, full confession, the Mickster, and brother Gideon, were responsible for raising the price from my initial opinion — I was going for the owner’s desire for a quick sale, they thought we could achieve that and still get her more) for our new listing at 16 Norton Lane, in Hillcrest Park, Old Greenwich.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with 34 Circle Drive: it’s on the right side of the loop, so I-95 noise is minimized, and the street is a good one, but, comparing the two houses, Circle’s on a third of an acre, and its school district is Cos Cob and Central, while 16 Norton sits on a full acre in what I consider a more desirable area, with North Mianus and Eastern Middle School. So to me, looking at 34 Circle as a competitor when pricing Norton (and when Circle was asking $2.875), $2.950 seemed to be a good target price. In fact, I aimed to undercut it, but I was convinced by The Mickster and Gideon’s arguments to go a tad higher, which was, I hope, wise advice, and an example of why we agents reach out for second, even third opinions.
This post is not the start of some new marketing scheme of mine where I’ll disparage other listings to favor my own, and I repeat, in the 16 years I’ve been running this blog I’ve never touted my own listings at the expense of competing houses, but the similarities of these two listings prompted me to write about them (but sure, I’d prefer that a reader bought the Mickster’s and my listing, instead of this agent’s). Location, lot size, school district, age of construction: all go into the hopper when trying to value a house.
(Can’t resist — shouldn’t this trophy wall hold deer heads, or large fish?
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