Has there really been a sale at those Sound View condos?

If you go by what’s reported to our MLS, two of the 17 $3 million plus units have now sold, one last May, one yesterday. I don’t want to sound skeptical, but I’m having a hard time believing that anyone would pay that kind of money for a project that is less than half-built and so far from completion. I’m not saying it couldn’t have happened, just that I’m skeptical. And why, I wonder, was yesterday’s sale never reported when it “went to contract”, according to the sales report, November 17th? That’s the kind of happy news that you’d expect to be reported immediately so as to encourage other buyers who might be holding off.

I wonder whether, like some other condo projects in the area that are dragging, the underlying loan documents require certain sale activity within a certain prescribed period. That’s what I wonder.

Golf clubs, raw steaks, now grits – women are getting downright nasty!

Woman dumps boiling grits on boyfriend. James Taranto suggests it might be the work of a cereal killer.

UPDATE: It’s got to be cellphone waves or something. 98-year-old woman strangles her 100-year-old roommate.

Nothing to hide

UN Global Warming conference sics armed guards on journalist asking annoying questions. Once the debate is over, it is pointless to tolerate skeptics and other peckerheads.

This is just plain unfair

Come up and see my open house, big guy

Sex sells real estate. Or real estate agent services, anyway.

Scratch him off the “Realtor of the Year” short list

Real estate agent accused of child molestation found shot to death in home.

Jesus Christ

From the Bovina Bloviator:

When Lefties have too much time on their hands …

They churn out crap like this.

Children’s favourite Thomas the Tank Engine has been attacked by a Canadian academic [Shauna Wilton] for its “conservative political ideology” and failure to adequately represent women.

The show’s right-wing politics shows the colourful steam engines punished if they show initiative or oppose change, the researcher found.

She also highlighted the class divide which sees the downtrodden workers in the form of Thomas and his friends at the bottom of the social ladder and the wealthy Fat Controller, Sir Topham Hatt, at the top.

Still have doubts this dame has too much time on her hands? Doubt no more.

She then analysed the plots, characters and other aspects of 23 different episodes to draw her conclusions, which she then presented at a conference of political science in Canada.

Opressor of women and right-wing conspirator

Good question: do forced abortions constitute an infringement upon a woman’s “reproductive rights”?

You wouldn’t think so from the deafening silence that women’s groups accorded Canada’s Daily Post’s advocacy of such a policy. As Jonah Goldberg points out, had the same paper called for a universal ban on abortions, we’d be hearing about it from Malibu to New York City.

It seems to me that women’s rights groups are actually interested solely in abortion advocacy and not, contrary to their claim, individual rights of privacy and liberty. At least, I sure haven’t heard them protesting smoking bans, helmet laws or, now, this whacko’s prescription in the Post (or China’s original one child policy, come to that).

Finally, a contract

36 Lockwood Lane

This house on Lockwood Lane in Riverside has been on the market forever (since 2006). It started at $2.995 million, which was never going to happen since it is so close to I-95 but by the time it dropped to $1.495 last month it was approaching bargain status – you could rent it out for a profit at that price. Or live in it – it’s a very nice house.

Someone obviously agreed, and is going to buy it. Good for them.

You gonna finish that?

Dinner theater patrons watch as tigers maul trainer.

This is the guy drafting your health care system

Before nominating her for U.S. Attorney General for Montana, Senator Max Baucus gave the staffer he was bonking a $14,000 raise and took her along with him on a taxpayer-paid junket to Asia. At least Tiger Woods pays his prostitutes from his own pocket.

She’s almost ready to report for duty

Honey? Obama's calling again

Obama appointee sobering up, planning to show up in Washington “any week now”. Nice to have an understanding employer like the federal government.

There’s never a recession when you work for the people with the guns

USA Today: Average federal salary now $71,000 vs. $40,000 for private sector. I imagine the same disparity exists between state workers and their private counterparts, too.

I have a Democrat friend who claims that a social upheaval is coming that will confiscate the earnings of “the rich”. He’s probably right, because the government is quite adept at deflecting attention from itself, but sooner or later, the chumps are going to realize what’s really happening to them and revolt. Or try to – it will probably be too late.

How stupid are Wall Street traders?

Or, how is it possible that they make the money they do when they are so completely ignorant and unthinking? The Dow’s soaring today because, we’re told, retail sales are up “unexpectedly”. Even a philosophy major like me can figure out that if that growth is attributable to drivers paying more for gasoline, we’re not looking at a recovery. So what am I missing?

Business Insider provides a nice chart illustrating this but really, all you need is the radio and a slightly inquisitive mind.

Huh?

21 Grove Lane

This house on Grove (between Dear Field and Brookside) sits on three acres and was renovated in 1999. It sold in 2007 for $7,000,000 and has now been put back up for sale, unchanged, at $12 million. Assessment has dropped from $3,026,000 in ’07 to $2,969,000, if that means anything.

I checked for comparable sales on this street and the only house remotely approaching its price – if you consider a $8.5 million difference to be in the same ballpark – is One Grove, which was listed for $3.350 million in 2006 and sold in a bidding war for $3. 505.

1 Grove Lane

 

I see that 21 has three acres to 1′s one acre, but I’m not sure that’s worth this much and I would be worried about paying $12 million for the most expensive house on a street by a factor of four. But that’s the kind of caution that’s kept me from getting rich all these years, so make up your own mind.

Downtown condos

25 W. Elm

A contract here reported today. Started at $825,000 way back in November, 2006, finally reduced to $575,000 in April ’09 and now has a buyer – after this much time, I assume it’s not selling for even its reduced price. Assessment is $585,000. high-water mark for this address, excluding the penthouse, was $806,000 (bidding war) in 2006. Owners might want to drag out their assessment and adjust their net worth, downward, accordingly.

Shades of Samuel Johnson

56 Sound View Drive

 

 Two sale prices reported today, 56 Sound View (condo, orig. price $3.795) for $3,000,000 and 65 Tomac (new construction, original price $4.850) for $3.385,000. I am reminded of Dr. Johnson’s quote: “A woman preaching, sir, is like a dog walking on his hind legs. It’s not that it’s done well; the surprising thing is that it’s done at all.”

65 Tomac

Stair thoughts

Seeing all those reindeer antler kits on local cars this season, I regret discarding Bambi’s lower legs in the woods last week. A couple of upside down hoofs jutting from my roof would give kids Christmas nightmares for weeks. Well, next year.

Science experiments at the Board of Ed

Gotta respect their inquisitive minds

Sorry, but we follow the Jimmy Carter rule of diplomacy and only listen to dictators

A day after dissing the King of Norway, our chief Mesiah refuses to meet with Japan’s Prime Minister. I’m all for on-the-job training, but it would be nice if the trainee had at least a clue about the world.

Put it up and shut up

Can you see me now?

There’s a proposal to erect a cell tower in a patch of woods at Pinetum and, naturally, the Luddites are out in full-throated fury. I find it amusing that the loudest opponents to these things are usually mommies who, bemoaning the deadly effects of gamma rays on their kids, also buy their precious darlings their own Sesame Street cellphones for their sixth birthday. Relax, dears – by choosing to raise your children in the Metro area so that hubby can make you a zillion bucks, you’re exposing those children to some of the world’s worst air, and the pollutants they’re sucking down each day when your Peruvian nanny wheels them outside in their stroller will make a few stray radio waves irrelevant.