Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
4 Lindsay Drive, discussed here earlier when it entered contract last April, has closed at $3.075 million. That must have been a disappointment; the owners had started at $4.250, and they paid $3.025 in 1999, then spent a lot on expansion and improvements.
But they got twenty years of enjoyment from the place, so who’s to complain?
3X the size of 22 Mimosa, and less than twice the price
65 Clapboard Ridge Road, all 4 acres and 14,400 square feet of it, is back on the market and asking $7.495 million. That’s down considerably from the March, 2015 opening ask of $12.495, and isn’t even the $10 million paid for it in 2007.
It’s certainly a lot of house, and someone’s bound to want it, but when, and at what price? We needn’t lose sleep over the seller’s being stuck here, though; the Goldman alumnus bought some of Mario Gabelli’s land at 135 Field Point Circle for $10.250 back in 2014, and by now he’s surely built new lodgings and moved in. This one’s ready for its new owners.
22 Mimosa Drive, new construction, asking $3.375 million. Not my cup of tea, but it’s new, and that’s a lot of the market these days. Query how this price will hold up over time, when the house is, say, twelve years old, but I guess we’ll find out.
(For those keeping track of land values, this property was offered as a land listing in December, 2016 at $1.2 million. It sold almost immediately for $1.320.)
Fly away, little hedgehog!
60 Butternut Hollow had been on the market since 2016, starting at $3.495 million, but dropping pretty quickly. It spent all of last year still unsold, beginning at $2.940 and as of this past February, $2.781. Come April, however, not one, but two different buyers appeared, with the result that a mini-bidding war broke out and the house sold yesterday for $3 million.
I’m glad for the owners, and the buyers are getting a nice house, but it’s always difficult explaining to buyer/clients how a house can sit forever with no action and suddenly have multiple buyers. The only answer I can give is that in real estate, this phenomenon isn’t all that uncommon; it’s not a conspiracy between agents, it just … happens. And after all, if you yourself like a house enough to buy it, it’s not all that surprising that someone else will too, even if, coincidentally, you both arrive on the scene at the same time.
The owners of 14 Hycliff Road paid $3.8 million for it last year, painted it grey, added what is perhaps the most bizarre staging furniture I’ve encountered, raised its price by $500,000 and put it back on the market at $4.295. Home values way out here have been decreasing, not increasing, so this pricing decision’s a real puzzler.
It’s true that a previous owner bought this house new in 2006 for $5.8 million, but that has no bearing on today’s value; nor, for that matter, on 2006’s — the sap overpaid.
Still life with wicker motorcycle, zebra, and (I dunno, Times Square party hats?)
N’uff said
Is the baseball meant to be tossed into the Jetson mitt?
lock ‘im up
A man facing homelessness who held up a bank with a banana, stealing more than £1,000 before handing himself in to police, has been jailed for 14 months.Laurence James Vonderdell threatened a cashier at a Barclays branch in Bournemouth with the fruit, which he covered with a plastic bag, and shouted “This is a stick-up, give me the cash”.
[Love this part]:
Vonderdell approached nearby police officers after the incident and told them he had committed an armed robbery and “wanted to be arrested” but was told to go to a local police station, the court heard.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard how the man, who had recently been evicted from his flat, decided to rob the bank to get arrested so he would “have a roof over his head”.
He reportedly walked more than two miles with £1,200 in £20 notes from the crime to get to Bournemouth police station, where he was detained.
Detective Constable Andy Hale, of Bournemouth CID, said: "Even though the defendant handed himself in shortly after this incident and the cash was recovered, this must still have been a very distressing incident for the cashier involved."
Although the use of a banana was unusual, it is not the first time a piece of fruit has been used in a robbery in recent months.
In Israel, a man is facing charges for stealing 30000 Israeli shekels (£6,637) after threatening a bank employee with a “grenade” that was actually an avocado painted black.
Of course, had the teller been properly trained,, Barclay’s money would have been safe
Should this recycling poster be toned down?
Cafeteria worker investigated for “micro-aggression”. Crime? Greeting a student in Japanese.
U. of Minnesota student complained of ‘microaggressions’ and ‘implicit bias’
During the fall 2018 semester at the University of Minnesota, an Asian-American student stopped by one of the restaurants in the Coffman Memorial Union to pick up a snack.
At the register, a food service worker said something the student didn’t understand. When the student said they didn’t get it, the woman at the register said she was saying “hello” in Japanese, and asked where the student was from.
“Wisconsin,” the student replied.
The cashier laughed and told the student to have a nice day, but the student did not find much humor in the experience. The student reported the cashier to the campus Bias Response and Referral Network, claiming “these type of microaggressions occur too often on campus” and “this implicit bias needs to be addressed.”
The bias team then referred the incident to dining services and referred the complaining student to the campus “Ethical Advocate Program” in case they “want to talk further about the experience.”
Just a few years ago a story like this would have had me rubbing my hands in gleeful anticipation of what awaited this student when she encountered “the real world”. Today, I’d be disappointed; it’s become apparent that today’s college graduates are moving into a corporate world already occupied by two generations of higher education products, and they will be received with open arms by their elders, who are ready and willing to be further educated by this new swarm of woke children.
Ugh.
11 Fado Lane
11 Fado Lane, asking $995,000. Contract after just 20 days, which I assume means that the accepted offer is close to ask, and that surprises me, a little bit. I’ve always liked Fado; it’s a little dead end off lower Cognewaugh, so very convenient, and has a real neighborhood feel, with an annual block party (or there used to be one) etc. That said, sales here over the past decade have ranged from $800 to $915,000, and the houses are pretty much identical: mid-60s construction, none updated recently, small yards. If this one is going in the high-nines, then that may something about the scare inventory in the under-a-million range.
The same can’t be said about the over-five inventory.
UPDATE: For perspective, 14 Dandy Drive, $825,000, is also under contract. Given the condition of this house, I think its sale will establish current local land value.
14 Dandy Drive
semper paratas
Florida Man had sex with stolen pool toys “instead of raping women.”
There are details at the link, but do your really want them?
36 Perkins Road. We wrote about it six weeks go, when it dropped to its current price of $3.5 million, and discussed its long down from an original asking price of $6.2 million. This last cut seems to have done the job, and won’t the owners be pleased!
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