Market Activity
August is usually a pretty slow month in the Greenwich real estate market and this year was no exception. Still, I was impressed how much activity there was. Forty-three houses went to contract during the month (compared to 41 in August ’06) ten of which at prices of $5,000,000 and up ($12,750,000 was tops, on Cedar Cliff Road in Riverside). That’s a substantial volume and you might find it reassuring to know that, even in this “national housing crisis”, there are still buyers out there and they’re doing more than just kicking tires.

“Green” houses
A number of my builder friends are either building or considering building “green” houses: super efficient, energy saving structures. They cost a bit more to build but produce a draft-free, comfortable house and offer much lower heating and cooling bills. The general sense the builders and I have is that consumers aren’t willing to pay more upfront even with the promise of paying less during ownership; my friend and builder, Peter Thalheim, says he builds them out of personal pride and a commitment to the environment, which is pretty cool. But 26 Bramble Lane, a house I wrote about before because of its innovative, super-insulated construction, sold in August for $3,725,000 and, without meaning to offend the buyer by suggesting that they over-paid for the house – they didn’t – I think that price may reflect a slight premium for its energy saving features. I hope so, because that will encourage builders to do more of these projects and buyers will end up with better houses. I am one of those “global warming deniers” and consider Al Gore and his ilk to be leading a new religious campaign based on fear and ignorance, rather than science, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t conserve resources – my father singly-handedly kept the 15 watt light bulb industry alive and raised his kids to abhor waste. I learned well, and I’d like to see more new construction pay attention to conservation.

White Houses
As one of the last subscribers to the printed book version of our MLS, I like to get my money’s worth by prowling through the whole thing, cover to cover. Did that recently, as was struck by the number of listing photographs that showed bucolic snowy scenes, reminiscent of Pieter Bruegel. Nothing screams “over-priced loser going nowhere” than a photograph, in September, of a bedraggled yard with a melting Frosty the Snowman in front. Any competent agent has a digital camera or can borrow one. If your listing is still depicting the snows of yesteryear, demand a new photo. Or, of course, you can wait a few months and you’ll be seasonally correct once again – but maybe you’d like to sell your house before February.

Chubby Wubbies
I’m delighted to have moved to Raveis’s Old Greenwich office because I’m now back in my “hood’ and get to encounter friends and neighbors regularly. The location also affords an opportunity to survey the street scene, and I’ve seen some amusing sights, including a porcine 4 year old, clutching both a bagel (with cream cheese, presumably) and a soda while being wheeled through town in a stroller. Far be it from me to offer parenting advice but this kid looked (a) old enough to walk on his own and (b) desperately in need of a little exercise. Just one man’s opinion, of course.

Don’t stage that house!
Saw some new construction the other day. The builder, seeking to recoup the expense of renting furniture for another, larger project, crammed everything into this much smaller house, thereby ensuring that prospective buyers will see exactly how tiny the living room, dining room and kitchen are. Bad move.

Speaking of melting snowmen
The new ethic, at least as preached by Leonard Decapprio and his new movie, “The 11th Hour”, is that we should all use less wood and curtail logging. Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace and presumably no enemy of the earth, points out that trees suck up carbon better than anything else on earth and that carbon remains stored in the wood, even as it’s converted to furniture and houses. Young trees absorb carbon at far greater rates than mature ones so we should be doing more logging, not less. And shooting more methane-belching moose, of course.