Walter goes western

After scurrilous accusations that this blogger and Walter Noel are the same writer using different names, I thought I’d prove the rumors wrong and publish this picture of our famous Greenwich resident, taken at the Round Hill Club as he waited to pick up the filly(‘s). I do hope this puts an end to the matter.

 

Walter does Dallas

But wouldn’t you have to live in Cleveland?

Forced from New York and Brooklyn by high rents, it says here that the beatniks are moving into abandoned buildings in Cleveland . I might move to Texas for freedom, but  the prospect of cheap rent in downtown Cleveland isn’t exciting me.

Kids, get Mom and Dad smoking, now

Social Security and Medicare will cost more than the entire value of the United States.

The feds should be giving away cigarettes, not taxing them out of existence. No foresight.

Just 5 Connecticut residents contribute to Dodd

$4,000 bucks from locals, a million plus from out-of-state bankers. And you cynics thought that his moving to Iowa showed a lack of commitment to Connecticut and its interests. Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves?

Sell granite short!

Reader AC writes:

Word around town is that Christopher Peacock cabinetry has shut its doors for reorganization, restructuring of some kind. Fine product – but I can only imagine that people don’t want to pay three times more than is necessary for custom cabinetry…and some have argued lately that it really isn’t custom at all. Sign of the times.

Spring Thaw?

154 Cognewaugh

I’ve been busy much of the morning setting up appointments for a client tomorrow and was struck by the number of deals that seem to be in the works. Higher end houses, perhaps because they have so much to give in the pricing department, seem finally to be moving. Not all will sell, as 154 Cognewaugh did yesterday, for 60% of their original asking price ($3 million from a $4.895 price two years ago) but builders are getting flexible (as their banks breath down their necks?) and buyers are realizing, I think, that when this crop of relative bargains goes, there won’t be much new construction for a long time [just try to diagram that sentence, Hiram]. I’m guessing that we’ll see a number of builders disappear who enjoyed a decade or two of prosperity. Their ranks will be refilled, but not for awhile.

We saw the five acre building lot on Meadowcroft go to contract this week at what I’m guessing was close to asking. Another big, beautiful house reportedly has an accepted offer again at a price that surprised me. Other new houses are fielding offers, some “ridiculous” according to their agents (no not all those offers are from me) and others closer to the mark. Hey – start knocking off a couple of million dollars and lots of houses start to look interesting.

My experience right now is that interest is falling on new spec houses at a bargain and low end ($1.5 million and down) older houses that permit people to afford Greenwich for the first time in years. If you have an older house priced in the $3-$6 million range, it had better be in an incomperable location or, at least right now, I don’t see much interest in your offering. Maybe that will change when the new houses all go.

UPDATE: my hope is that, if houses start moving, the logjam will break. No one wants to be the last chump to buy Greenwich real estate or even to go first into a dead market, so if we start seeing some activity, we’ll have comps to show clients that they can base their buying decision on and maybe, just maybe, a little twinge of urgency will emerge. If I think a house is going nowhere for a few months I’ll tell my client that. But if three in his price range sell, then a decision might have to be made sooner, rather than later.