A sale and a contract

85 Hunting Ridge

85 Hunting Ridge asked $3.495 in 2008, sold for $2.208.

390 Riversville is under contract. I really liked this house; great layout, nice grounds. It could use a new kitchen and updated baths but that’s a quibble at its last asking price of $3.275. It was more of an issue back in May, 2009, when it asked $4.295.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some rough inventory stats

590 single family homes for sale in Greenwich

Asking Price

                            >$4.5 million: 182        Sold YTD: 18              Sold (all of) last year: 58

                              $2.0 – $4.5:   172                              19                                                         118

                              $1.0 – $2.0:    137                             34                                                         142

                               < $1.0:               97                             27                                                       107

Spring market winding down?

It wasn’t much of a market and I know I’m still working with buyers but the contracts being recorded these days seem to be mostly on the modest end of the scale. Nothing impressive is showing up in the new listing category and what’s left of the inventory (a couple of years worth, I’d say) is pretty picked over. Sellers are still holding out for dream prices, buyers are still reluctant to pull the trigger, fearing that people like Mr. Schiller might be right and we have … stalemate. This could be a summer worth taking off.

Old Greenwich contract

2 Center Rd

New Old Greenwich prefab, asking $2.475 (dropped from original price of $2.875). I’m not a huge fan of prefabs as built by this particular builder but it’s in a good location and I suppose a price in the low 2’s isn’t insane.

Geeze, this guy could really bring a man down

That eternal pessimist Gary Shilling says, “you should have sold your house yesterday”.  Sees another 20% drop in prices coming. Yes I know he’s talking national and we’re local and yes, I at least sense that we’ve hit bottom here in Greenwich, but when the subprime fiasco hit I thought, “how can that affect Greenwich? We don’t do subprimes here.” Turned out, that didn’t matter – I hope I’m not as wrong this time.

Real estate news from Ireland

Art Deco Nazi safe house in Dublin for sale, approximately $1.8 million. Needs new wiring and a roof (and probably everything else) but think of the history, man! And Dublin’s a terrific little city. Bring a raincoat.

Here’s a kind of, maybe surprise

35 Glen Ridge

I didn’t see this Glenville house but from its pictures it looks quite beautiful. Built in 1921, in 2003 it got the full renovation treatment including a redo from a locally famous interior designer. 6,000 sq. feet, on a dead end, 1.29 acres. Nice house. Still, when it was listed in 2007 for $3.5 million it expired unsold. It came back on the market this past March for $3.2 and now has an accepted offer. No word on what price was accepted but I’d guess it’s not too far from its asking price.

Which is curious. Its neighbor, 43 Glen Ridge, a 9,000 sq.ft house built in 2003 and also on 1.29 acres, sold for $3.8 in 2006 but resold for $2.8 million in June of 2010. I guess this means the market is rising again?

What hope is there for this city?

47% of Detroiters are functionally illiterate. These people are doomed.

From the same people investigating Google’s GPS tracking of cell phones

Administration floats idea of taxing drivers by their mileage. A simple little tracking device affixed to your car by the government but don’t worry, it’ll just be used to calculate what you owe – would the government abuse your trust?

Secret of selling your Greenwich real estate revealed

It’s all in the pricing, Greenwich realtors admit to Greenwich Time.  Gee, aren’t these the same people who’ve spent the past five years attacking me for exposing our market as grossly overpriced? Why yes, I believe they are.