Patience is a virtue

The owners 25 Birch Lane tried without success to sell it from November 2022 through July 2023, at a price that began at $4.995 million and stopped at $4.695. They pulled it off the market then, and tried again this past February 28th at that same terminal price of $4.695. The bidding closed in 7 days, and the sale was completed today for $4,810,555.

I’d say that was close enough to that original price to count as a victory.

Good street, pretty standard interior for a house of this price built in 2011.

A quick flip in NoPo

after

27 Mary Lane, Riverside NoPo, was purchased for $1.2 million on July 28 last year, redone to what appears to be about the same quality as the original, and put back up for sale 10 days ago. Gone.

As I mentioned in the previous post, there’s currently a real dearth of inventory.

before

5o Bote Road contract, 12 days

50 Bote Road asked $1.750 million and is probably selling for more, give the speed with which this has gone off the market. And why not? Bote is a quiet street close to town, and although the house dates to 1959, all the important mechanical stuff has been attended to, and the slim inventory in this price range, together with the large number of buyers looking for a home in move-in condition, practically guaranteed that more than one offer would be submitted, immediately.

From the listing:

Charmer on Bote that was renovated in 2016 from the studs, including new kitchen, amazing primary suite, and behind the scenes....new insulation, wiring, windows, doors, roof, and serious structural support added.

25 Lockwood Drive, Old Greenwich sale price reported

25 Lockwood was listed at $2795, went immediately to contract, and sold Friday for $3.010 million. The property is in the AE flood zone, but the house itself has been here since 1916 and hasn’t floated away yet, so that’s probably not an issue. Besides, down here it’s more the streets that flood, not the houses themselves, and those agents who like to give their buyer/clients a housewarming present (I'm not generally one of them) usually present them with a Zodiac and a pair of paddles, so who’s to complain?

As an aside, I note that, although this house sold for $1.875 million in 2005, the town still appraised it at $1,670,00 in 2023. There are probably some adjustments to be made in the next town-wide reappraisal due …soon.

evacuation day

As predicted

2019: mainers protest construction of the (still unbuilt and 10 years) CMP power line that would have brought canadian hydroelectric power to new england

Over the past few years we (editorial we) have pointed out that the Green’s ambitious plan to convert the count’s energy supply to one based entirely on windmills and sunbeams could never be accomplished by 2035 or any date close to that because federal environmental laws and private law suits to enforce it would stall any large scale projects for decades. Well, someone in Washington knows that, and knows how to fix it: nullify by executive order that part of the law that interferes with the Green Deal:

White House Slashes Environmental Restrictions for Biden's Pet Projects

(Institute for Energy Research)

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized a rule changing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to streamline permitting for infrastructure for renewable energy and transmission projects. NEPA, a 1969 law that requires environmental reviews for major projects, is a frequent focus of litigation that can delay construction for years. According to Biden’s CEQ, the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule will facilitate agencies moving faster on permits for infrastructure that can help the environment, thus ruling out fossil fuel projects which supply about 80 percent of the nation’s total energy.  The rule sets deadlines and page limits for environmental reviews and establishes one lead agency to handle such reviews.

As part of the rule’s review process, climate impacts have to be considered as well as environmental justice — the movement to assist disadvantaged areas — and outreach to those places must be conducted.

Different markets yield different results

Back in 2006, 25 Keofferam Road was listed as land for $2.195 million and sold to Sound Beach Partners (or whatever the proper name is; Jim Hoffman, Doran Sabag) a few months later for $2.250. Sound Beach builds to the very highest standards, so after they razed the existing home, built a new one, and listed it in 2008 for $5.995 million, the price didn’t seem all that outlandish to some of us (or to me, at least). But 2008 marked the beginning of the crash, and it wasn’t until 2009 that the current owners appeared, and got it for just $4.375.

And as it turns out, that was great deal for those buyers, because when they listed it with the Dutch Terror, Daphne Lamsvelt-Pol, last week priced at $6.950 million, buyers rushed in, and 8 days later it’s already pending. It’s fair to guess that this will be going for a price well into the $7s.

CORRECTION: I mistakenly gave credit for building this house to Sound Beach Partners, when in fact Peter Thalheim, under the name of 403 Sound Beach Llc was the owner/builder. It’s a beautiful house either way, but kudos to Peter.

Two more Riverside houses are pending

13 Chapel Lane, $2.699 million, which seemed to be dragging after 43 days on the market with no action, now has fully-executed contracts and is pending.

72 lockwood

As is 72 Lockwood Road, $2.295 million, although this house went to multiple bids as soon as it hit the market.

This house has proved popular recently, but either its charm fades rapidly or it attracts fickle, footloose buyers. It sold for $1.875 million in 2020 to a gentleman from Texas; he had the gutters cleaned and then moved out and sold it to this owner from Farmington in September ‘22 for $2.1. She, in turn, had the toilets scrubbed — that’s a secret pro tip known only to and recommend by the top agents — and, as noted, placed it back up for sale last week. Success.

It's like something from the worst dystopian novel, or a dispatch from a communist country

Former Government Official Charged With Falsely Accusing 7 Colleagues of Participating in J6 Riot

An interoffice revenge tale doesn’t particularly concern me; standard fare, even if it occured in one of the government spy agencies. It’s the second part of this story that’s so horrifying:

The FBI is still getting tips on the tipline that they set up in the immediate aftermath of J6. They have been aided by an army of private citizens who call themselves "sedition hunters" and who spend their lives pouring over video from the riot trying to find someone who might have escaped the clutches of the FBI.

The "PBS News Hour" from Jan. 3, 2024, shows Judy Woodruff interviewing one of the citizen snitches named "Sandy."

“One of the first things is just getting a face. And there is one rioter, #OrangeGoggleSpiker is his hashtag, you can see him in the tunnel section of the Capitol beating up the officers.

“Eventually, when I found his face, we were able to plug it into some facial recognition software. That popped up a picture of him at his work.”

(Laughter)

Big Brother puts out the word: “We’re looking for Citizen X, who has been determined to be an enemy of the state”, and dutiful citizens scramble to locate and denounce the criminal. It’s not just coming, it’s already here.

And way out west in King Merritt Acres ...

118 Bowman Drive has sold. It asked $2.749 million, and got $2.680. King Merritt is a nice neighborhood, with quiet streets and spacious lawns, but its distant location from town (in Greenwich terms — in a more rural area, this would be considered practically in-town), and its older housing stock has kept prices down. Or “affordable” if you want to look at that way.

All that changed as the homes were updated and expanded, and the steadily increasing prices really took off in the post-Covid market, as you can see below.

Old Greenwich sale

37 Lincoln Avenue was listed in January for $1.9 million, went to contract in days, and closed today at $2.250. That’s not a crazy price for Lincoln, which is a nice street, south of and within an easy walk to the Village, and there have been previous sales in this range, but those were houses that were larger and had been more recently renovated.

The market continues to chug along, ever upward — at least for now.