July 23, 2012 · 8:17 am

If I were a homeowner in Greenwich today, I might be a bit restless

 

Waiting for the fall – fall market or just “fall”- who knows?

Europe got hammered, stock indexes down around 3% and the American market getting off to an equally crummy start.

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24 Comments

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24 Responses to If I were a homeowner in Greenwich today, I might be a bit restless

  1. Anonymous
    July 23, 2012 at 8:48 am

    Looking to move up from Brooklyn where we have outgrown our apartment now that we have 2 children and one on the way …. We did a tour of Greenwich this past w.e and i have to say i was completely UNDER WHELMED .. you get very little house for the money ..i mean these 1940 – 50 – 60 houses are clean and well kept but i dont understand the premiun that Greenwich commands ..The commute these days from say Darien or even Westport are not that much worse ..From everything i have read your Board of Education is in chaos , the HS is overcrowded and underperforms in all scholastic and aptitude test . By the looks of the Middle and GradeSchools . these brick and morter school buidlings is shockingly dated and appear shabby and have not been updated …we went to playground to amuse the little ones and again very subpar ..although not permitted into the beach we were able to finagle a ride around Todds Point .. no playground? and i understand any time it rains the beach is closed ?What passes for a civic center or your YMCA are unfortunately a bad joke . I mean this seems like a nice place if you are a senior citizen and looking to sit on a park bench and look out at the water .. but why any young family would want to move to Greenwich is beyond me .. Im sorry Ill take my money and head north.. newer , better schools with nicer more child friendly parks

    • Chris Fountain
      July 23, 2012 at 8:59 am

      If you get it, you get it. If not well, there’s always Darien, although perhaps you might be more comfortable in Mamaroneck. Me personally, I’d take Wyoming.

  2. The New Normal
    July 23, 2012 at 9:11 am

    Anonymous 8:48am,

    judging schools by test scores is not very useful unless you normalize for the diversity of the population in Greenwich vs Darien, Weston, Wilton, even Westport; I guess you could objectively define one school building as “newer” but I don’t think that makes a difference in the quality of the education

    if you are looking at ugly, older homes in Greenwich it’s probably b/c you are priced out of the more desirable areas and houses; most people in your situation who don’t buy Greenwich when the market is bad and the economy sucking will never be able to buy – they will get priced out when the market turns and things pick up (and they eventually will)….

  4. Cos Cobber
    July 23, 2012 at 9:41 am

    Gwich isnt for everyone. Its a town of a wider variety and broader range than the others up the line. You have valid observations about infrastructure, we just like our taxes low.

  5. Patrick
    July 23, 2012 at 9:58 am

    Anonymous,

    Out of curiosity what section of town, which parks and schools did you observe this? I’ll give you that Westport for example has better amenities but that commute is on average 20 – 30 minutes longer depending upon your parking situation. I don’t agree that Darien has better amenities depending upon what section of town you are comparing it to.

  6. observer
    July 23, 2012 at 10:02 am

    When the town started allowing big companies like UST, American Can and Chesebrough Ponds to forever change the landscape of our pretty town into a corporate mecca, the promise was that these developments would generate the tax revenue to keep the town’s facilities first rate. That never quite happened. Where did the money go?? Certainly wasn’t put into the school system.

  7. Towne
    July 23, 2012 at 10:12 am

    Agreed , i live in Riverside and have to say .. we have a toddler and i find myself visiting friends in other towns … while most residents talk up the schools any sort of state or News reports grade the town low .. I am not sure what TNN means when they say ” normalize for the diversity of the population in Greenwich vs Darien, Weston, Wilton ” etc ..I can not agree i have lived and worked here for over 20 years and while Greenwich is larger than any of those other communities , no more or less diverse …if you are joining one of the local CC’s your infrastructure is fine .. othewise i tend to think the town is run down and many of the parks , schools etc are shabby ..have a look at what we call a pool or a civic center , its shocking .. there are a lot of people that grew up in Greenwich that are caught up in its mystique .. and days long gone .. when they use to walk to the Pharmacy and buy candy on house account …they also tend to be 45 + years old which is around the time anything in town seems to have been built or was fairly new . Cos Cobbler said it .. taxes are low … but buyer beware .. you get what you pay for !

  8. The New Normal
    July 23, 2012 at 10:20 am

    just as one may theoretically seem to be getting more bang for the buck in Brooklyn vs Manhattan, the Darien/Westport/New Canaan vs Greenwich trade typically isn’t a good one in the long run – proximity to NYC will always have a premium, and as Cos Cobber mentions the taxes are the best in the area by far

  9. The New Normal
    July 23, 2012 at 10:39 am

    Towne,

    Greenwich is far more diverse, both ethnically as well as socioeconomically, than any of the other well-to-do towns in Fairfield County – it’s not even really close

    check out the latest Census data

  10. The New Normal
    July 23, 2012 at 10:52 am

    http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/09000.html

    White persons, %
    Cos Cob: 86.0%
    Greenwich: 80.9%
    Old Greenwich: 90.4%
    Riverside: 87.8%
    Weighted Avg: 85.4%

    Darien: 94.1%
    Westport: 92.6%

  11. Richard
    July 23, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    Try looking at some of the towns in Westchester. The prices are much more reasonable and many have a shorter commute than the towns in CT you’re considering. RE taxes are higher but that’ll be more than offset by the lower mortgage payment on a comparable house. Brown and Bickler in White Plains is an excellent buyer’s agency – I’ve used them twice. Theirt website is buywestchesterhomes.com

  12. The New Normal
    July 23, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    swapping home equity from higher prices (CT) for higher real estate taxes paid to quasi-bankrupt municipalities (NY) does not sound like a good trade at all….

  13. Sebastian
    July 23, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    Oh come on, you people…Brooklyn guy whining about how horrible Greenwich is…I mean seriously!

  14. Richard
    July 23, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    Westchester County has a triple A bond rating and CT has not been a model of fiscal rectitude anytime in the recent past. Individual towns in Westchester are going to vary obviously but none are in anything like quasi-bankruptcy.

  15. hmmm
    July 23, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    they aren’t in quasi-bankruptcy because you folks haven’t run out of money yet!

  16. Sebastian
    July 23, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    hmmm
    July 23, 2012 at 4:42 pm
    You need medication. (nothing wrong with that)

  17. hmmm
    July 23, 2012 at 10:52 pm

    Sebastian @ 459

    I just read another comment u posted on another post concerning scoffing at cf and I made a comment calling him a racist. Were you referring to my comment?

    That comment about calling cf a racist is intended to mock the liberals that truly feel that way every time cf posts something controversial. I am actually ridiculing them and in no way at all think cf is a racist. I hope that clarifies any misunderstanding.

    Cf I hope you understood it that way and didn’t misinterpret my comment as anything else

  18. Anonymust
    July 24, 2012 at 7:26 am

    hmmm,

    you have made a couple of fatal mistakes so far:
    1) denigrate those who are paying the taxes (hint: it’s mainly the top few %)
    2) apologize and explain yourself to CF

    please do not do that again

  19. Sebastian
    July 24, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    hmmm
    July 23, 2012 at 10:52
    Of course you did not. It is just I cannot believe the amount of bull… people say towards anything anti(Obama)…I mean There’s always be an….California!

  20. Anonymous
    July 26, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    People move out of the city so they can be around white people. Diversity is not a big selling point. They also move out of the city so they can be around their kind of white people. Westport and Darian are night and day in this respect.

    • Chris Fountain
      July 26, 2012 at 3:41 pm

      I don’t believe you. People do care about matters of socio-economic class, and physical danger so yeah, a neighborhood populated by 32-year-old crackheads living with terrorist grandchildren is not going to be a drawing point but that’s not about race.