Ah, progress!

Keep those budget deficits growing and we may yet whip this country back into shape. California high speed train is dead.

I just KNOW there’s a governor under here somewhere!

The solution’s in the problem

Dancing fools

Study: Obesity threatens to deplete world’s resources. So that should lead to starvation which would lead to that Biafran look so popular with models and Greenwich mommy -chauffeurs, right?

Some people will worry about anything.

Must be the heat

Nothing happened today in the Greenwich real estate world. Nothing. Except, perhaps, 11 Grimes Road in Shorelands dropped $100,000 down to $2.675, below what was paid for it. This is nice house, less than 10 years old, if I recall, and right down the street from the Shorelands beach. I’ve seen Old Greenwich homes inferior, in my opinion, to this one sell for more so I’m puzzled why this home is still around. Full disclosure: I sold this house once, although I have no involvement in this current listing at all. Still, I liked it enough to recommend it then and I still like it and still recommend it.

Uh oh

Existing home sales disappoint, again, despite yesterday’s rosy predictions by the usual “experts”, Wall Street tanks (down 200 and still falling) and the world’s going to hell, generally. Interesting divergence in views between buyers and sellers right now: I have buyers who are being cautious in their bids because they see the approaching storm and we’re meeting sellers who must be listening to the National Association of Realtors and are sticking fast to their price because things are only going to get better.

My guess is that I’ll still have buyers this fall, the sellers will still have their houses and any bids will be still lower than now.

But that’s just my guess. Maybe Obama will be reelected, the Democrats will pass a balanced budget, Italy, Spain, France and Greece will sort out their difficulties and peace and harmony will spread around the world. Maybe.

UPDATE: If you’re keeping score, May single family sales in Greenwich were down 15% from last year, average price down 5.4%, median down 2.9% and inventory up 5.4%, from 700 to 738. In 2007, inventory was 570 and climbed to 612 in 2008.

Anything on the open house list worth braving the heat?

Not that I see, although there’s a condo at 71 Orchard Place asking $1.195 that is now owned by Connecticut Community Bank instead of its builder. Might be a deal there.

UPDATE: Not bad at all – no noise from the I-95 (or certainly not objectionable, anyway) and this is a price that should stand up well no matter what the market does. Probably a good rental, too.