Pending in North Country

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Creamer Hill Road: 81 acres (10 lots), started at $39.5 million in September 2023 and is currently priced at $24.750.

Video here.

The property has an interesting history from back when it was known as 100 Sterling Road:

To sell a house where a murder occurred, agents face unique challenges: ‘Not just economics ... It’s emotion.

GREENWICH — It’s an extraordinary estate: A 22,000-square-foot home, tucked away on a wooded 84-acre property on Sterling Road, the remote northwest corner of Greenwich near the border with Armonk, N.Y. It has a gym, a 5,000-bottle wine cellar, full-size bar, lounge and game room. The jaw-dropping list of amenities includes an indoor lap pool and an outdoor pool, tennis courts and basketball courts, a baseball diamond and organic gardens.

It’s a stunning backcountry hideaway, and one that comes with a steep, $35 million price tag.

For any property at that price point, there’s a limited pool of buyers out there. For 100 Sterling Road, in particular, the site of Greenwich’s last murder, in 2009, that pool may be even smaller.

The property was listed for sale in May on Zillow, but was taken off the market this week. It’s unclear why.

According to the Town Assessor’s office, the property was purchased in 2009 by S. Donald Sussman, a hedge fund executive, and then transferred to 100 Sterling Road LLC., the entity that is connected to another Sussman property, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

But for any property where a violent crime has occurred, like 100 Sterling Road, one question lingers when entering the real estate market: How much does the gruesome history of a home impact its market value?

Do memories fade?

Police arrived at 100 Sterling Road, on the night of Dec. 30, 2009, to find Amanda Dobrzanski dead in the an auxiliary building on the estate.

The 20-year-old recent Greenwich High School graduate’s father, Adam Dobrzanski, a live-in caretaker at the estate, was found with self-inflicted injuries, but survived and, ultimately, pleaded guilty to murder. He was sentenced to 40 years for the slaying.

The murder is one of just two occurring in Greenwich in the last dozen years. It got an abundance of local — and some national — press. And it arguably left a stain on an otherwise palatial home and extraordinary property in Greenwich’s backcountry, as similar events do on homes throughout the country.

Randall Bell, a California-based specialist in valuing properties deemed undesirable for reasons not related to the physical condition or features, has told the Los Angeles Times that properties on which a murder has occurred typically sell for a discount of between 10 percent to 15 percent on the low end, and 25 percent on the high end. They also tend to stay on the market longer.

Many variables can potentially affect the price. How long ago was the murder? Did it happen in the living quarters of the property or an auxiliary building?

“I guess it also depends on how the murder was reported,” said John Engel, co-founder of the New Canaan-based real estate group the Engel Team and chair of the New Canaan Town Council. “Was it a particularly graphic story in the papers? Did it make it to national TV?”

In Connecticut, state statute does not require a real estate agent to disclose a homicide that occurred at a property for sale, so media coverage can play a major role in alerting potential buyers.

The Dobrzanski murder did not get the same kind of national attention as, for instance, the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, a New Canaan resident of whom the husband, Fotis Dulos, was the suspected killer. And the Dobrzanski murder and subsequent trial are both nearly a decade in the past.

“Over time memories do fade for all but the most notorious crimes,” Engel said. “Yes, they should expect a discount because some buyers draw the line and will not consider these houses at any price. It’s a much smaller buyer pool.”

…. In the case of Sterling Road, Oshrin said, there is already a small pool of buyers for a property listing at $35 million. That pool may only shrink because of what transpired there in 2009 and some may patiently wait for that number to come down.

To quote a soon-to-be-forgotten politician, "not a joke".

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There’s still some cleanup work to be done in the Republican Party. Indian drummers selected to represent Texas at the Inauguration

A governor proposes but the legislature disposes, and the Massachusetts legislature will almost certainly dispose of this attempt

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happier days

Dem Gov Suddenly Changes Her Tune On Leaving Shelter Doors Open For Illegal Migrants After Huge Drug Bust

The governor of Massachusetts requested on Wednesday that nearly all family members living in any of the state’s emergency shelters be in the United States legally, with few exceptions.

Democratic Gov. Maura Healey proposed a slate of new restrictions for the state’s decades-old right-to-shelter law, such as tougher criminal background checks, establishing residency requirements and prohibiting nearly any applicant who isn’t a U.S. citizen or lawfully present in the country. The proposals come after several criminal busts in the shelters attracted national headlines, such as a rape of disabled girl by a shelter resident and the discovery of nearly $1 million in drugs and an AR-15 by another. 

Currently, any applicant can be housed in the state’s shelter system before providing documentation. In a public statement about the proposals, Healey appeared to blame Congress and the federal government for the beleaguered shelter program.

“I have evaluated the Right to Shelter Law and regulations as well as the operational burdens on the system,” the governor said. “Based on that review, and in the face of continued inaction by Congress and no assistance from the federal government, I believe these changes are appropriate and needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the state shelter system in a way that aligns with the original intent of the law.”

…. Republicans in the state accused the governor of acting far too slowly to address the shelter crisis.

“It’s a shame that the Healey-Driscoll Administration took this long to come to terms with the gravity of the situation,” Amy Carnevale, chair of the MassGOP, said in a public statement. “And it’s an even bigger shame that it was only after the information they’ve known for the past two years became public that they finally decided to take action.”

Major crimes within several shelter facilities have rocked the program and caused headaches for the Democratic governor, who has increasingly taken a tougher stance on illegal immigration in her state.

A Haitian man who arrived into the country through the Biden administration’s CHNV program was arrested in March for allegedly raping a disabled minor at a motel that was being used for migrant housing. A Dominican man living illegally in the country was arrested in December after being caught with an AR-15 rifle and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illicit drugs in his shelter residence.

That December drug bust prompted Healey to order a sweeping inspection of every shelter facility in the state, calling it “outrageous” that the individual was able to take advantage of the shelter program for his alleged criminal activity.

Internal documentation obtained by the Boston Herald revealed that Massachusetts’ state-funded migrant-family shelter facilities has been rife with incidents of child rape, drugs, physical assaults and other illicit crimes since at least 2022. In one of the alarming cases unearthed in the reports, a father staying at one of the facilities allegedly had sex with his daughter repeatedly and ultimately impregnated her.

Asylum seekers have flocked to Massachusetts en masse since the beginning of the border crisis, forcing the state to utilize 128 different hotels and motels to house migrants and other homeless families since the immigration crisis began. The situation has come at great expense to local taxpayers, with a state commission report recently determining that Massachusetts would spend up to one billion dollars on its emergency shelter system in the 2025 fiscal year.

… The proposals made on Wednesday would require shelter applicants to verify their identity and residency before being housed, and applicants must prove they are in the country lawfully unless they have a child who is a citizen or lawful resident, according to her public announcement. The requests, however,  would have to be passed by the state Legislature before going into effect.

morons on the streets

"Progressives", eh? These pampered children offer a perfect target for the first swing of the DOGE axe

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Progressive congressional staffers roasted over ‘tone deaf’ demand for 32-hour work week

“Liberal staffers are demanding Congress establish a rotating 32-hour workweek that goes into effect when lawmakers work from their districts, drawing widespread mockery from critics.

“The Congressional Progressive Staff Association contended that staffers are forced to “work long hours at a level of rigor that regularly leads to burnout” when Congress is in session and suggested that a rotating system could ease that burden.

“Given the cyclical nature of the schedule, we propose implementing a 32-hour workweek for DC-based staff during district work periods and a 32-hour workweek for district-based staff while in-session,” the association, which has some 1,500 members, wrote in a letter to all members of the 119th Congress.

“If implemented, offices are not likely to see a drop in overall productivity,” they added. “If members wish to keep their offices open five days per week, they can stagger which days employees have off so that staff are available every day.”

“If members wish to keep their offices open five days per week”. The little darlings seem to have confused the role of congressional representatives who, in fact, are elected to serve the interests of their constituents, not to provide part-time jobs to liberal arts cynosures.

Here’s their demand letter:

Contract in haste, repent at leisure

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It must have seemed like easy money to its owner when 547 Lake Avenue was listed for $21 million last September 23rd: an offer came in immediately, a fully-executed contract was achieved by September 30, and with all contintingences met, it was reported pending on October 10th.

That deal fell through yesterday, and those who’d feared that they’d lost their chance to part with idle pocket change have a new opportunity to do so, starting today.

Hurry, this one won’t last!