This should be interesting

3 Jada Lane

This house was built by Doran Sabag, one of Greenwich’s very best builders, and sold new for $8.295 million in May, 2007. If I read its listing correctly, nothing new has been added or done to it since, yet it’s back up for sale today at $14.995 million.

I was unaware that we’ve seen that kind of price appreciation since 2007, but what do I know?

UPDATE: Fudrucker points out that the seller is Joe Pontoriero, head of Worth Construction - remember them? In April he was sentenced to 2 years probation, the first two months of which were to be spent in home confinement. I guess he is now free to move about the country.

Apple to apple

11 Tomney Rd

This was new construction when it sold in 2006 for $3.1 million. It came back on this January for $3.2 and recently sold for $2.6. So it goes.

Cry me a river

Hiroshima survivors not appeased by U.S. efforts. We firebombed Tokyo and burned up 100,000 people in one night. The Hiroshima bomb killed 140,000 instantly. The Japanese who, last time I checked, started all this, were either going to die by fire or vaporization.

And how’s that apology for the rape of Nanking going? Or the treatment of American POWs?

Two contrasting contracts

88 Hillcrest Park

This house is assessed for $1.025 but was listed at $999,000 and found a buyer. Smart move.

3 Khakum Wood

On the other hand, no need for such a cut in the Round Hill district, yet. This house is assessed at $2.559, was priced at $5.950 back in July of last year, cut to $5.500 million this year and has a contract.

Okay, a nice story about our police

This morning I noticed three or four kids (early 20′s?) across the street from my office. They were just a tad scruffy enough to catch my attention although Lord knows I looked like them at times in my teens. They weren’t doing anything wrong – two were sitting an a bench, another on the sidewalk with his dog – all perfectly legal but they looked a little out of place.

So when a cop car (#53) pulled up in front of them I was curious to see if he was going to roust them. He did get out and approach them but he sat down on a bench next to them instead of towering over them. I couldn’t hear what was said from my distance but he obviously just chatted them up, figured were no danger to the community and went on his way.

The whole thing struck me as an example of excellent patrol work. See something a little out of the ordinary, make a polite risk assessment and end of matter. I certainly want our cops to be alert and vigilant but polite and professional is nice, too.

Another unsurprising sale

42 Winthrop Drive

 

I recommended this house to my own clients when it came on back in May but obviously I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a well-priced home. It went to contract in just 10 days which, if you figure time for home inspections, lawyer haggling, etc., is just about instantaneously. Priced (by Shore & Country) at $2.525, it closed today at $2.475. Its assessment is just $1.610 but that’s why you can’t use assessments as the absolute yardstick – some are spot on, some are off. 

In this case, there were recent sales to support the price, the house was in great condition and located on a very desireable street. As reader Fred 2 commented earlier today on conditions in his town in another area of the country, it seems like well-priced homes are selling quickly while the dogs linger. That’s exactly what’s happening here. 

So what do you do if you have a dog? Slash its price and not by 5%, either. And buyers, if you trust your agent and they tell you that a house you like is a good buy, grab it – there are a lot of buyers out there, ready to go. They just aren’t stupid anymore.

Funny how this works

36 West Brother Drive

This Milbrook house, priced at $4.350, is reported as “pending”. It’s assessed at $4.261 and was first listed a year ago at $6.2, when it didn’t sell. Now it is – cause and effect? Nah, pure coincidence.

Since 1970, public school employment has risen 10X public school enrollment

At least our kids at 10X better educated!

Oops! Hope and change aren’t here yet.

Nation lost 131,000 jobs last month.

With the American economic recovery hanging in the balance, private employers added 71,000 jobs in July, up from a revised 31,000 in June but below the consensus forecast of 90,000. The unemployment rate stayed steady at 9.5 percent.

Over all, the nation lost 131,000 jobs in July, more than expected, but many of those losses came as federal Census Bureau workers left their temporary posts. The government also sharply revised the overall June number, saying the economy lost 221,000 jobs instead of 125,000.