ABA President to disappointed law grads: “you dumb f**ks!”

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Suckers!

“If you’re smart enough to get through law school, you’re smart enough to know you’re going to end up buried in debt and unemployed”. Okay, I’m paraphrasing here, but that’s about the gist of it. And I agree. I’m not the only lawyer to point put that it’s a different world than the one twenty years ago, when state universities offered law degrees for zero or very small tuition. Today, if you can’t get into one of the top 5 or 10 schools, save your money and go do something productive. The world will be better off and so will you.

Thanks, but no thanks

A reader tipped me off that 329 Riversville Road is being auctioned on line with bidding to close on January 12. Current bid, $819,000.

This is that abandoned project right beside the Merritt Parkway. It’s been sitting there, unfinished, for a looong time so who knows what condition it’s in (I can guess, though). Auction notice says the property is being sold “as is, where is”, which means two strikes against it. I wouldn’t give it a third chance, but maybe you might;  if so, beware – this may very well be that rarest of commodities in Greenwich, a property that has no value. Whoever has bid $819,000 is in line to lose his money.

The new civility and the Left

Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson mocks Santorum family’s grief for the death of their new born. Robinson finds it “weird” that anyone would take a dead baby home and then bury it instead of, presumably, just tossing it into the hospital incinerator. No wonder these guys are so passionate about late-term abortions – babies aren’t babies even after they’re born.

Green Demolitions

These guys are pretty darn good, if you’re trying to redo your house on a limited budget (I realize that that isn’t the case for you, you BSD you, but for some of us …). They take out donated kitchens, closets, etc. and then sell them cheap. Pal Nancy looked at a kitchen in their showroom, original cost $100,000 +, installed at her home, $17,000. beautiful cabinets, counters, etc. We’d have done it, too, except that youngest daughter’s tuition bill arrived just then.

But check them out, if you’re thinking of remodeling. Here’s this week’s deal on a man’s full closet. They say it was $150,000, new. I don’t know about that, but it surely cost far more than what Green Demolitions is asking.

Crime rate in Old Greenwich set to plummet

Dunkin Donuts coming to the Village, in the space where Patriot Bank once passed out dubious loans.

Pull the plug

 

Hybrid boy toy

From InstaPundit:

ALL ALONG THE WESTERN FRONT, PEOPLE LINE UP TO RECEIVE.  But maybe not for long.  Congressman & Chevy Dealer Introduces Bill To End EV Tax Credit.“A few days ago, the Washington  Post demanded the execution of the $7,500 tax credit for EVs. Republican Congressman Mike Kelly is ready to comply. He introduced H.R. 3768, legislation that would repeal the $7,500 tax credit for plug-in electric drive vehicles. The odd thing is: Kelly is owner of Kelly Chevrolet-Cadillac in Butler, PA. The not so odd thing is: He knows firsthand whether the car is worth tax payer money or not. Kelly does not think so.”

The trouble with politicians supporting their friends with other people’s money is that, if you aren’t their friend, you won’t like the result. Case in point would be the tax credit for “trucks’ that was designed to sell more huge SUV’s (for all I know, this credit is still in force). I know of at least one friend, an architect for Crissake, who bought a new Suburban some years back because “my accountant told me I’d be a complete fool not to do it”. Politicians mess with market forces at our peril.

Sultans of SWAT

Now don’t you wish you’d become a cop?

Police SWAT team playing cops and robbers at 89 Lake Avenue today. Some guys have all the luck. Plus, they’re ready to enforce the NDAA.

Be afraid, be very afraid

Civil libertarians from across the political spectrum aren’t liking the NDAA, which authorizes the indefinite detainment of anyone, including American citizens, without trial or the right to any kind of hearing. Obummer signed it into law (a law passed by both parties) but promised that “he wouldn’t use” that provision. A couple of points: (a) he also once promised to cut federal spending, and (b) he will not be, please God, president forever.

Why we’re in the mortgage mess, maybe

33 Harold Street in Cos Cob sold yesterday for $515,000. Decent little house, decent street and, for Greenwich, a good starter home. The owner originally priced it at $725,000 but never mind – we can’t always get what we want.

What caught my eye about this place, though, was the mortgage Wells Fargo extended in 2009: $938,250, for a house assessed at $466,000. Unless there’s more to the story, like other collateral, then this loan would seem to have been ill-advised.

Insurance companies figure out how to benefit from ObummerCare

Well they aren’t stupid, after all. When the only player in town is the taxpayer, soak the taxpayer. Record profits result. That’ll help.

[C]ompanies are changing their business focus to gain from provisions in the law that will expand the size of Medicaid, the $401 billion government health plan for the poor. “Only by substantially reshaping their businesses can they profit,” the study says.

No open houses of note

195 Cat Rock

This is the wrong week for such things but with luck, the market will resume business soon. I see that 195 Cat Rock (corner of Frontier) has an open house but I saw it in 2005, when it was new, and I have its general picture. It sold back then for $4.175 and the new owner has been trying to get most of that back. Recently he dropped the price from $3.995 to $3.695 which, while an improvement, will probably not achieve the desired goal.

It’s a Jordan Saper house and even though I don’t like Mr. Saper’s design – he basically builds the same house, all with huge, oversized rooms – they’ve always sold quickly, so I’m sure he doesn’t lose a wink of sleep worrying about my preferences. I will be curious, however, to see how his homes stand up to the market ten years on.

That was then, this is now

541 Lake Avenue

541 Lake Avenue was withdrawn from the market a couple of months ago and its $5.625  listing finally expired today. This is a nice, older home but its value was the land, 3 acres in the two-acre zone. In 2007 it sold for its full asking price of $6.250 in just eight days. This time around, it couldn’t fetch that. I thought it was an attractive lot and Greenwich’s largest mansion (well, a huge one, anyway) is going up right next door, suggesting that the location will support a big-ticket house but I guess the spec builders with the wherewithal to take on a project of this scope are still on the sidelines. Or bankrupt.

UPDATE: a reader informs me that the owner has decided to build here for his own use.