Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
Somewhere in our capital, the weasels are gnashing their teeth in anticipation
Brother Gideon reports on a non-MLS sale, 110 Field Point Circle, for $48 million. According to Gid, one hedge-funder decamped to Florida with his family, but another has stepped up to fund Hartford in his stead. God bless him.
Greenwich Time is out with a puff piece on 76 Khakum Wood Road, on the market for $6.595 million. I don’t want to risk infringing on that paper’s copyrighted pictures so I’ll just include a few from the MLS listing instead, but I urge the interested reader to click on the GT link and see the best its photographer could come up with: the butler’s pantry? Bar? is a treat in itself.
Basically, the place is a dark mausoleum that will hold exactly zero appeal to any buyer under 90. I’m not sure what land value in Khakum Wood is these days, but $6.6 isn’t it.
viewing parlour?
Perfect dining room for the young family
196 Shore Road, Old Greenwich, a 1919 tear-down in the high flood zone, is back on the market, reduced to $3.1 million from last year’s ask of $3.689. That may be the right price; it’s waterfront, but I was struck by its agent’s choice of what to emphasize:
Full of history; formerly rented by John Phillips of Mama's and Papa's fame and Mick Jagger sunbathed on the seawall.
Phillips is probably best known for raping his own daughter, McKenzie, possibly impregnating her on the eve of her wedding to a Rolling Stone hanger-on (she subsequently aborted her baby, unsure whether it was the child of her father or the groom), and continuing an incestual relationship for another ten years. The image of this man lounging on the sea wall with Mick Jagger and poor McKenzie is, to me, off-putting.
Tear it down and rebuild and who’ll remember? But as a selling point … no, just … no.
The Ponderosa it is not
25 Druid Lane, Riverside, is offered today at $3.195 million. The logic behind that price is perfectly understandable: these owners bought it new in 2013 for $2.932 million, but my goodness, nice interior aside, it basically strikes me as looking not all that different from the 1954 split-level it replaced. Yes, very nice inside, but it’s still a plain-vanilla home on a third of an acre, hemmed in by its neighbors on both sides, and while this may indeed be the entry-level price for a decent house in Riverside, I do wonder whether Riverside may be reaching its peak.
Real estate blogging these days has been scarce, because there’s so little activity being reported — that doesn’t mean that deals aren’t necessarily in the works, and perhaps we’ll see contracts coming in in the following weeks, but for now, it’s almost entirely rental activity, and who wants to read — or write —about those?
I did see that 16 Boulder Brook Road, off Stanwich, has taken another price cut today, to $4.495 million, with the notation, “aggressively priced, motivated sellers, bring all offers”.
When these sellers paid $5.832 million for it as new construction in November, 2007, I know that that price raised eyebrows on a number of us in the professional ranks, because Boulder Brook had never seen a price anywhere near that amount. The sale set off a flurry of builder activity on the other side of the street and, briefly, other new homes sold in the low-to high-fours (after asking as high as $6.750), and one of them achieved $5. That excitement seems to have died down, and these owners, who started at $5.795 million in 2016, seem to have acknowledged that.
There’s nothing wrong with this house, its property or Boulder Brook itself, and in fact, if I had clients actively looking in the high-3, low-4 range, I’d definitely suggest that we go see it. A pretty large price correction has occurred on Boulder Brook and, with luck, prices here have stabilized.
Time will tell.
I’ve never been a fan of two-story foyers like these, however
25 Oval Avenue, Riverside, $1.5 million. To say this is an unusual house for the neighborhood is to understate things a bit. A 1926 home, it was redone by, I think, a gentleman from Pakistan, and he built it to his own taste, to which I say, good for him, although his neighbors were not as pleased: years ago, I shared law offices on Milbank Avenue with my friend Bill Lapcevic, who lived next door to this house, and I used to drive him crazy when, calling him at home, greet him by asking, “Hey, Sir Lancelot, how’s it going?”. Bill died of a heart attack far too early, and though I wouldn’t necessarily blame this house for his demise, I did wonder whether he glimpsed it from his window one too many times, and ….
Our MLS records show it as having been unsuccessfully put up for sale in 2012 before being rented, but I’m pretty sure I remember touring it on broker open house tours long before that. The interior is far more traditional than its facade would suggest — in fact, most of the remodeling budget seems to have been spent on the outside. No current interior shots available yet, but I expect they’ll be up soon, and I’ll post them here when they are. Here are two screen shots from the 2012 listing:
One Indian Chase, near Bruce Park, is “new” again today, now priced at $8.450 million. Nice old house whose primary virtue is its location on Indian Cove, which offers access to Long Island Sound, at high tide.
I’m not sure whether this new price is going to be the right one, but the house started off four years ago in 2015 at the preposterous price of $18.450 million. It’s gone through at least three brokers now, and numerous price drops, but really, why go through all the effort of keeping a house in showing condition, with all the interruption and inconvenience that entails, unless you really want to move?
Death by a thousand cuts.
111 Dingletown Road has closed at $2,4190 million, down from the $2.8 paid for it in 2008, and far below its original 2017 asking price of $3.250. But that 2008 price, to me, indicated a sale to a foreign executive using corporate money — I mean, otherwise, WTF? — and title was passed to a relocation company a few months ago. I’m sure the executive’s been made whole, and the Re-Lo’s fee was set high enough to absorb any loss, so who’s complaining?
I’m a bit surprised at even this price, but maybe the new buyer is also on his company’s dime.
1994 at its worst
13 Aiken Road, originally $11.975 long ago and far away — 2005, and dropping substantially over the years — has been relisted today at $5.9. Yeah, well … maybe. I spoke harshly about this property two years ago in 2017 and nothing but its price having changed since then, I’m inclined to stick to my opinion expressed then:
13 Aiken Road, a side road off Rogues Hill, has cut its price to $6.150 million, down a wee bit from its original 2005 price of $11.975. Admittedly, it's a hideous house, but there was a time when someone with equally-awful taste would have stepped up for this one: someone like its neighbor, for instance, Raj Rajaratnam, once of Galleon Group and now a guest of federal prison authorities for an indefinite period, would have loved it.But those times are gone, and 11,500 sq. ft. grotesqueries, specially those in the far, far back country, are a drag on the market.
I smell a nursing home, or perhaps a commune for aging, blind hippies or, my pet idea, a rehab for alcoholic CEOs, once stripped down to the studs and redone, perhaps by Cindy Renfret.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Aliens’ humanoid capture transfer station?
UPDATE: rereading my 2017 reference to Raj Rajartnam, I’m reminded of the story, told me by an unimpeachable source, of the time Raj paid Kenny Rogers a cool million to show up at Raj’s 50th-birthday bash on Round Hill and play “The Gambler” — Raj’s favorite song — continuously. Rogers did appear, did perform, for about 20 cycles, then said “fuck it”, and left with his band. I’m told he issued no refund.
900 Lake Avenue is back up for sale at $2.850 million. It sold for $2.8 million in 2017, so on its face, this seems reasonable, but the prior sale took years to accomplish, beginning in 2010, when it started at $4.125, and that’s a dubious sales history; you should always pay attention to sales history.
It’s a fabulous house, but north of the Parkway, not too far from Close Road. A part of it dates back to 1790, though so little remains of that original structure that I doubt our historical preservation society much cares about it. The last owner did a great job expanding it and making it entirely livable, and it all works. But, seven years to find a buyer? I’d advise my own buyers to think carefully and make sure they were ready to live here for a decade or so before committing (in fact I did exactly that, several years ago — they bought another house, down the road).
All that said, it really is a wonderful home, and if you’re looking to live up here, and aren’t looking to trade it in a few years, it’s certainly worth your consideration.
Cow hides and Jetsons chairs — where do stagers find these things?
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