Must be from Yale
I like (a few) contemporary houses and if I were building new and didn’t care about getting my money back, I’d have one designed for me, just as I’d prefer a trimaran sailboat, if resale weren’t an issue. But often, it is and in Greenwich, contemporaries are very much passe. A search through the inventory shows 38 of them on sale (out of 738 single family houses), many of them with long-ago listing dates and none of them with a reasonable chance of getting close to their asking price (that’s my personal opinion, obviously). Greenwich buyers want traditional, for the most part, and contemporaries are not that. Peter Ogden, for instance, made quite a name for himself in Greenwich in the 60s with his designs but the few that haven’t been torn down yet sell for land value only. The poor guy’s life work won’t survive him.
There is a beautiful new contemporary going up on Stanwich overlooking Frye Pond and it’s a pleasure to look at and will no doubt be a wonderful house to live in – I’m envious. But aside from that example, contemporaries don’t seem to be being built in Greenwich anymore; of the 38 for sale, all are at least 25-years-old and most date back to the 60s.
There is an upside to this: if you like this style of house, you can find numerous examples of the type, most of which have been updated and available, eventually, when their owners give up, for the price of the land they sit on. I can’t think of any that are priced where I think they should be, but give time time, and you’ll do well. But just remember that, when you decide to sell it again, that the house will have gained nothing in value. You should pay for the land only and expect to sell for that, too. In the meantime, if you choose well, you’ll have a wonderful house to live in.
