1 Meadowcroft
Got the grand tour on 37 Grahampton/ 1 Meadowcroft today. Understand that I'm not a fan of houses this size so my comments are not purely objective. It's certainly big, and there's a huge cellar filled with all the wine racks, media rooms and toys that today's adults seem to want. Large kitchen with some kind of granite thing going on - it's too high to be a food preparation surface, and too wide to reach even to its middle, so I'm uncertain what purpose it serves. I asked the agent, "what's this?" and was told, "granite". That I already knew.
Lots of big bedrooms, thick doors, big baths, everything you'd expect, I suppose. Mariani builds a nice house and this one is no exception. I would quibble with its approach, however. You can't tell from the artist's rendering posted here but it's a very short jog from the street to the house; turn off Meadowcroft and bang! There's the house. If I had an ego large enough to accommodate buying this house I'd want a long winding drive so that my visitors would think, "wow, this guy's made it!". You'll have to find other ways to impress them. Nice flat back yard, if anyone still uses them. And a pool.
Are there buyers out there for this size house? We'll see.

Put on your tinfoil hats!
Okay, they're tired of dumb f***s like us who don't believe in global warming so now they're going to
use more persuasive methods.

Armed with new research into what makes some people environmentally conscious and others less so, the 148,000-member American Psychological Association is stepping up efforts to foster a broader sense of eco-sensitivity that the group believes will translate into more public action to protect the planet.

“We know how to change behavior and attitudes. That is what we do,” says Yale University psychologist Alan Kazdin, association president. “We know what messages will work and what will not.”

17 Meadowcroft
Old vs new?
A reader points out that this beautiful place on 8 acres didn't sell when priced at $16.8 million for the past two years and thus wonders whether Mr. Mariani's new venture will fare better. Good question and one only time will answer but there are definitely two different markets for huge houses: old and new, so this one's failure does not necessarily portend the same fate for #1.
But then again ....

74 Zaccheus Mead
Under "new listings" comes this reduction (albeit with a new broker). It didn't sell last year at $4.395 million so now it's back with a fresh new price of $3.3 million. Zaccheus is a good location and a $1.1 million dollar price chop isn't so bad, either.

Location, location
This house on Havemeyer tried breaking the $2 million price barrier ($2.1 million, in fact). It didn't and now is at $1.795. Getting there, but Havemeyer remains a busy road and the new development across the street won't help.

Master Baths
So far, most readers responding to the poll (that's over to your right, see it?) consider a tub in the master bedroom to be either "essential" or at least "nice to have". Builders take notice.

This might work
RealEstate.com is teaming up with AT&T so buyers can search for properties on their cellphones. A decent idea, but perhaps AT&T picked the wrong partner. I've never used the site but I just checked it now and it tells me that there are no properties for sale in Greenwich for $15 million or above. Mr. Mariani will be disappointed to learn that.

I wonder if we can get the Greenwich Board of Realtors to try this for our town?
In this slow real estate market, we need all the buyers we can get. If this Alabama group's offer of hard cash works Group offers Jews $50,000 to move to town we could try the same thing for lots of ethnic groups - French Huguenots, for instance (just in case, I'll be reverting back to "de la Fontaine" - it was the British who made us change it, anyway).

Barbarians at the Gates
I just tried emailing my friend David Ayres at Sotheby's and was informed that I'd been blocked by that firm's spam-buster. Should I take this personally? Must I stop saying mean things about Sotheby's parent, Realogy? Inquiring minds want to know.
(By the way, the image above was lifted from a good article on libertarianism - if you're tired of reading about Sarah Palin's eyeglasses,
try this.)

Hurricane Ike Slams into Cuba Dr. Jeff Masters reports:

Cuba is taking a terrible beating from Hurricane Ike, which crashed ashore in eastern Cuba last night as a Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph winds. Ike's winds have since weakened to Category 2 strength--100 mph--but are still strong enough to destroy the Cuba's electrical system and heavily damage the cities it encounters along the heavily populated east-central portion of the country. Damage will be heavy in Camaguey, which reported sustained winds of 49 mph at 8am EDT as Ike passed 20 miles to the south. Baracoa, on the coast to the southeast of where Ike made landfall, suffered a significant storm surge, topped by high battering waves, that damaged or destroyed 1,000 buildings. Ike's winds and rains of 6-12 inches will cause additional heavy losses to Cuban agriculture, and the storm should easily rank as one of the top-five most damaging storms in Cuban history. Ike is expected to track over Havana Tuesday morning, and the city's 2.2 million people can expect significant damage to the many poorly-built structures in the capital city. It will take Cuba a long time to recover from Ike.

Cuba, like Burma, doesn't want our help which is probably okay - Ike has now crossed Cuba and is again over (warm) water,picking up strength and headed for Texas, so we'll need the money.

You want a bargain? Here's a bargain.
I think so,anyway. 26 Summit Road in Riverside. New construction originally asking $2.495, which didn't seem at all a stupid price, is now down to $2.195 million. Decent house, decent yard and, for those who buy their houses like they buy their groceries, $510 per square foot.

If at first you don't succeed...
15 Sidney Lanier Lane first went on the market in May 2006 asking $7.8 million. It didn't sell even though it was eventually reduced to $6.2 million and was taken off the market a year later. Now it's back, asking $6.595. Good luck.

Testing the waters
Mark Mariani has just listed new construction at 37 Grahampton Lane for $15 million dollars. It's a good looking house (I'll post a picture tomorrow) and Mariani is a quality contractor so if anything should go in that price range, this one should. But what's the market for 15,000 sq. ft homes these days? I guess we'll see. I would never dare question this very successful builder's business sense but by my count this makes three spec houses he has on the market, each over $10 million. He obviously has nerves of steel.

Picture lifted w/o permission (because I don't know how to contact the photographer) from the very talented "Blonde Excuse"

Speaking of Business....
I was struck the other day by the sight of a shopper exiting the Old Greenwich Food Mart with a full cart of groceries. Not so long ago this was common,of course, so the fact that I thought it unusual seems evidence, to me, that more and more folks are using the new ShopRite for their main shopping and using Food Mart as a fill-in. I certainly have done no research to verify this but if my own experience is typical, we might look for a new tenant on Arcadia Road in the not-so-distant future. I hope not - small towns need places like this, or they used to.

It may be the future, but whose future?Zillow.com and 300 newspapers have joined forces to sell real estate advertising. I see the upside for Zillow here, but to this non-businessman, it seems as though the newspapers will be selling access to their last revenue base for 50 cents on the dollar.

Dress for Success
I've been criticized for my informal dress at broker open houses - I'm even told that someone wanted to bar (male) agents from wearing flip flops on hot summer days, but that was before Obama made flip flops so fashionable - so I've decided to change my image. Here, from last week's NY Fashion Show, is the new look that I and no doubt many other agents will be sporting:
Pretty cool, eh?

Bonobos in Paradise
My friends at
Greenwich Roundup have been attacking our Board of Education for being a crowd of incompetent bunglers but that's missing the point: the Board of Ed's budget last year was $125,000,000 or $13,929 for each student. As test scores fall and our Board fumbles, we're seeing an increasing outflow of students to private schools, any private school. So let's keep the Board as it is, or even expand it; at $14,000 a pop, we can ditch our students and get our budget under control in no time.

Fannie Mae's new digs
We all have to work somewhere but as we taxpayers nationalize 70% of the mortgage market, perhaps we should examine the hubris and greed that produced buildings like this.

And then we can focus on the Department of Education whose 2007 budget was $54.4 billion. No waste there, I'm sure, but still...

Sally O'Brien
One of my favorite people, Sally O'Brien was seriously injured in a fall Saturday night when she lost her electrical power and went down to her basement to investigate. To this layman, her prognosis seems dire. Sally was an indomitable spirit who loved quirky old houses as much, if not more, than I do, and she championed them, fetching prices that justified their continued existence in this tear-down town. I'm praying for her.

Ok, this is pathetic
After reading so much about OwlGore's energy-hogging mansion it occurred to me to look it up. That's it on top. Sheesh, it would barely pass muster in our fair Greenwich. This is a mansion? I sure hope there's a lot more house hidden around back because otherwise, the guy's practically living in a hovel - pretty discouraging for someone who's making millions on his latest racket. And, if this is considered a mansion, what is the rest of America living in? I've got to get out more.
On the other hand, the house on the bottom is, I kid you not, our current President's Texas ranch. I have no idea what it says about anything, but I do note that it's heated geothermically and uses far, far less energy than the Whopper's home, at least according to
this report
Update: "A random internet looker-upper" said...
There is more hidden around the back, for what it's worth (linked below). Apparently it's 10,000 square feet, which is probably a Tier II mansion in Greenwich (versus the elite monstrosities in the 15,000-35,000 range).

Here it is; enjoy.

Another reader poll
The cost of new construction poll is done; average cost seems to be between $300 and $400 sq.ft., which is also the range quoted me by my builder client who also cautioned that the proper answer is, "how much does a dress cost?" Depending on what you want, the costs can go anywhere.
But here's another: I occasionally see master bathrooms with great showers but no bathtub. I don't remember taking a bath in 40 years so I'm not concerned by the lack of one personally, but I have a sense that no tub would be a turn-off for those who like to soak. Is it?

Let them eat cake?
But not any fish served by Robert De Niro
Or we could all relax and heed the wisdom of Northern Ireland's Environmental Minister, who calls the whole man-made global fuss an hysterical pseudo-religion. I like that guy.

How to get rich in real estate
Become a Senator. According to this story, it worked for Joe Biden. Nice work if you can get it but as an author, I'm just as impressed to learn in the same article that Fighting Joe received $225,000 in advances for his autobiography last year. I'm sure it was a best seller, especially if it carried a jacket blurb by Neil Kinnock

Uh oh!
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were cooking their books
. Of course, with so many friends in Washington, I'm sure the chief thieves will be allowed to keep their millions and leave town, no doubt to be rehired somewhere else in the banking industry.

Answer: "Hey Y'all, watch this!"
Question is, what are a redneck's last words?



2007 - Antares expands into luxury residential housing

Vixen!
Won't Somebody Stop Her?
Damn - Palin didn't have an affair with her husband's ex-business partner. It's back to the blogs for my liberal friends.

(Great Grandfather Caldwell decides to leave for America)
Bloomberg reports that
Foreclosures are up. There's some encouraging news buried way down in the article: foreclosed houses are beginning to sell, indicating that the glut's being reduced (a local real estate columnist reports the increase in existing house sales in July as great news but declines to mention that 1/3 of those sales were bank-owned properties; you'd think he was being paid to be cheerful or something).

Hanna a bust?
In terms of high winds, probably so. Check out this great blog, Weather Nerd and all his links for a good picture of Hanna and, more worrisome for residents of the Florida Keys and the Gulf states, Hurricane Ike.
Rambling through the Internet, guys (for some reason, storm tracking seems to be a guy thing) blogging from the center of Hanna report a lot of rain but not much else and because of the storm's speed, even the rain is ending quickly. Of course, even 4" of rain could cause a mess up here - we'll find out tonight. In the meantime, keep your powder dry.

New York Times to condense paper

77 Sheephill
This house was listed back in January '07 for $1.995 million and still hasn't sold, despite a steady series of price cuts. It's now down to $1.695, perhaps where it should have started to begin with, but in this market, who knows what will happen?It's a good house, so its future will give a pretty good snapshot of this area of town's market. But regardless of how much the seller put into renovating this house, and it looks to be a substantial sum, he'll probably make out okay - he paid only $435,000 for it in 2001.

Freedom of the Press
Imagine that you had once worked as a real editor of a real newspaper, or that your father had founded a real newspaper and handed its reins over to you. Now imagine that you've ended your editing career with, or transformed your inheritance into, a light-weight vehicle for advertising and nothing more. Bummer, no?
With that in mind, I'm happy to announce that my former paper, The Greenwich Post, has bravely faced down the scorn and ire of its advertisers and will, beginning September 18th, begin running Susie Costaregni's gossip column, "The Dish", every week! The public be damned, we're going to print what must be told. Right on, guys.

Here's a taste of what the hard-hitting Dish will be serving up:

Greenwich residents Frank Gifford, the former NFL star and sports commentator, and Olympic gold medal swimmer Donna de Varona were seen having lunch at Valbella restaurant in Old Greenwich this past week; Regis Philbin and friends were spotted dining there Saturday, Jan. 20; and actor Jesse Bradford of "Swimfan" and "Flags of Our Fathers" fame ate there last week. And . . . at Valbella New York on West 13th Street, recent Golden Globe-winning actress and producer Salma Hayek of the popular sitcom "Ugly Betty" was seen having dinner.

And this:

Among the 300 friends, colleagues and dignitaries, including her favorite security guard, at the party were Randy Jones of the Village People; celebrity photographer James Edstrom; Fox News legal analyst Lis Wiehl and attorney Michael Sherman; MSNBC anchors Contessa Brewer, Alison Stewart and Chris Jansing; NBC anchor Carl Quintanilla; Lisa Bloom and Diane Dimond of Court TV; and actor Bobby Abid. Boyfriend and singer/songwriter Tomaczek Bednarek wrote a song for the occasion, "You Make the News."

Cosby isn't taking a break. This week, she hosted a two-hour radio show on Sirius satellite radio. She heads to her
alma mater, the University of South Carolina, next week to teach for a day. Then she travels to the Middle East,
where she will speak at a conference.

No need to worry about the future of this paper now, that's for sure.

Pricing (and building) to the neighborhood
This beautiful house on Loading Rock Road in Riverside was originally priced at $3.695 million in January and has now been reduced to $3.195. Why won't it sell? I suspect it's because the neighborhood won't support that price level. Pioneers sometimes do well -Dave Tilly, builder of beautiful homes,broke through the price barrier on Irvine Road in Old Greenwich - but they usually need an extraordinary feature to do so. If this house were directly on the Mianus, for instance, instead of across the street from it, I'm pretty sure it would have sold at its original price a long time ago. As it is, who knows?

95 Cognewaugh Road
The owners of this house paid $1.150 million for it in August 2003 and, after renovating it, tried to sell it 5 years later for $1.550. It sold yesterday for $1.245 which, while technically not a loss, sure isn't a home run. Moral is, buy your house as a place to live and possibly raise a family - any appreciation is a nice bonus. I used to say that five years ago, so I feel almost smug in these trying times.

44 Close Road
Built in 2003 for Tommy Hilfiger, neither he nor anyone else has ever lived in it and it's been on the market ever since. It started at $12.5 million, was raised to $13.995 million a year later in an attempt, I assume, to punish those buyers who were too stupid to buy it at the lower price and then gradually slipped down through the 12s and the 11s. Today it was reduced to $10.995 which might move it, or might not. It's a perfectly good house but unlike cheese, listings don't improve with age.

7 Dwight Lane
Here's the house on Dwight Lane that's being sold via court judgment later this month. If you enlarge the first photo you'll notice that the house, built in 1986, has suffered from malign neglect. The original builder was on site and the auctioneer says that the man will "fix everything" for $100,000. Considering that that would involve, at a minimum, new siding, new decks, new electrical, new pool and God knows what else, that sum sounds suspiciously optimistic to me.
As did the auctioneer himself, who told me that his only problem was that he "only has one of these to sell". I questioned him on that and he assured me that $2.5 million was only going to be the starting bid and that he already had numerous buyers chomping at the bit. If he does, they almost certainly aren't from Greenwich because I can't believe anyone familiar with our town and this street's location would share the auctioneer's fevered enthusiasm.
Of course, he could have been shucking and jiving me - you think?
The grounds are nice, though. By the way, I just remembered what else needs replacement: the tennis court.

View Larger Map

On second thought ...
A builder (I'm pretty sure it was a builder) paid $2.840 million for a building lot on 3 Quintard Ave (Old Greenwich) in July of this year. Today he's put it back on the market for $900K more. I understand why he might not want to proceed with a building project at this time but I'm at a loss to explain why the land is worth so much more now than it was six weeks ago. With that kind of creativity, you'd think this guy could have made a go of this project regardless of market conditions.

16 Ridge Brook
How about this one?
This house was listed April 15, 2008 for $6.950 million and immediately underwent seven price cuts until by June 30th it was priced at a mere $3.695 million. It then disappeared for two weeks and popped up in mid-July at a new, higher price: $3.995. Today that failed experiment was deleted and replaced by a new listing of $3.495. Make up your mind, will ya?

11 Winding Lane
Agents: Don't let this happen to you!
This house came on for sale last September at $9.975 and sat at that same price until July 2008 when the seller lopped $1.0 million off the top. Too late, I fear. There was an additional price drop of almost $300,000 two weeks ago, no doubt because the broker's listing was due to expire but expire it did and now it's with a new broker, but at the same last listing price of $8.695. The original listing agent is one of the most successful in town and her replacement is also excellent but I suspect neither was or will be enough to overcome what was obviously the wrong price.

Something for insurers and taxpayers to chew on
This site is always a helpful source of weather news, particularly Gulf hurricanes. It may be worth your while to scroll down his site for the discussion of wind shear, where you'll find this alarming quote: "Make no mistake about it, the levees didn't save New Orleans from a rare and powerful storm. Cuba and some slight wind shear did, ensuring that Gustav was barely a category 3 hurricane in the open Gulf of Mexico, as it was building its maximum storm surge."
By the way, hurricane Ike seems likely to be heading west, into the Gulf, but at least one model has it slamming full force into Miami. That's probably not going to happen with this storm but sooner, rather than later, some storm will and the results will be awesome: I've read predictions of $400 billion in damages. That would take care of the current housing glut down there, sure enough.

Free Cardboard
Is there a typo on this card or have moving boxes really risen in cost so much that they can cost $3,000? I used to work summers for a moving company (a long time ago) and I think we moved entire houses for what this guy's boxes cost. Of course, his use of the term "house removal" suggests that he's a Brit, so perhaps someone just took advantage of him: "How much is that in pounds? Really? Jolly good!"

26 Taconic Road
A reader asked what happened to this house. The answer, it turns out, is "nothing". It came on in September 2006 at $7.45 million and slowly dropped in price to $5.980 before being withdrawn from the market June 28 of this year. It was a nice house but the yard was a bit dodgy and the beautiful porches extending on the east made many rooms too dark, at least for my clients' taste. The builder may be living in it himself now - I don't know - but I'm sure we'll see it back for sale one of these days.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to
According to Drudge, Oprah is balking at inviting Sarah Palin onto her show. I'll admit that I've never watched Oprah but I'd have thought she'd be interested in a female VP nominee. Wrong again.

Here's an example of (builders') optimism
My friend Jonathan Wilcox took it upon himself to compare builders' claimed square footage with what town records show. I suppose that attics and basements do provide some sort of space but when some builders add those areas to their square footage calculations and others do not, it makes it difficult to compare apples to apples.

Click to enlarge

You think I'm pessimistic
A friend emailed me this story predicting a housing decline worse than the Great Depression. That's just nasty and, to make certain he ruined my morning, he also sent me this.

Wet Basements
If you're considering buying a house, this weekend looks like a good time to visit the subject property and inspect its basement. Hanna's on her way and the National Weather Service is predictingup to 7" of rain in our area. A storm like this will reveal drainage flaws far better than the most thorough home inspection and, conversely, if the place is dry on Sunday, you should be able to relax.

What Was I Thinking??!
Apropos of the post below, 29 Byfield Lane was listed April 15 of this year for $9.450 million. It dropped a wee bit, then was excised from our listings and returned June 24th at $6.350 million. Even a $3 million drop didn't work so today it's been cut again, to $6.298. Call me overly pessimistic, but if cutting it $3.145 million didn't do the trick, I'm dubious that a trim of $52,000 is going to help much. And again, what is a buyer to think when he sees a house drop by more than a third in two months? He might think, "that was a stupid price the first time." He might also think the market's in a free-fall.

Interestingly enough, the same broker's got another listing that can't seem to decide on the right price. 101 Dingletown, a 1964 house renovated four years ago, has jumped around since it was first listed in late June of this year. It started at $5.785, went up to $5.995 10 days later, climbed again, to $6.395 2 weeks after that (I'm not kidding), and dropped today to $5.798, or $13,000 more than when it started its journey. I've mentioned this before, but if your house isn't selling, the price direction you want to go in is down. Try it and see.

I don't know what this means, but I suppose it's not 'discouraging"

In Greenwich, we are continuing to see a shift in what price ranges homes are being purchased. In July, 72% of homes sold were below $3 million. Thirty percent of these homes sold between $2 million and $3 million or slightly above our median price of $1,825,000. Our market is appropriately adjusting to the economic changes that can further support its stability.

That's from the real estate column in today's edition of The Greenwich Post (no perma link available so you'll have to click through to find it). The writer in question works hard to keep up a happy face, week after week, so "appropriately adjusting to economic changes that can further support ... stability" must be her attempt to offset news even she feels compelled to disclose:

In Greenwich, single-family sales decreased 34.7% and condominiums decreased 5.1% in July as compared to this time last year. In June of this year, existing homes decreased 31.1% as opposed to condominiums that decreased 19.6% from a year ago.

It must have killed her to admit that.

Open house report
Well, nothing much out there today. I saw one new listing whose listing agent was asking for price opinions. I suspect I added no cheer by suggesting a price cut of $225,000 off its $1.995 price but hey - he asked; and he won't listen anyway, so no harm no foul.

But there's a problem with these over-priced listings that affects all of us: a friend tells of showing a house yesterday that had been marked down a full million dollars from its two million plus original price. Instead of seeing a bargain, his potential buyer was scared off, reasoning that if a house could "lose" a million dollars in value one week, what was to prevent it from losing another million next week?

What's being exposed in the present market is the unreality of pricing in this town. I know that sounds "too discouraging" for some of you readers, but when Back Country mansions start whacking $3-4 million from their asking price, over night, buyers can be forgiven if they conclude that there's no real substance behind some of these prices.

So they're waiting things out.

Tear down of next week? 7 Hearthstone Drive

This beautiful (to my eye) 1868 farmhouse, originally belonging to the Lockwood family, is presumably slated for destruction. There's no demolition sign posted yet but the lawn isn't being maintained and it recently sold for its land value, $1,315,000. What a shame. The owners tried selling it for $1,560,000 back in 2003-2004 but found no takers, a reflection of what's happening in Greenwich.

I've often wondered why Greenwich buyers show so little interest in antique homes. In many towns - look at Guilford or Westport, for instance, older homes are treasured but not so here. Even growing up, I noticed a dearth of old houses, even though the town was settled in 1640. What's different about Greenwich that causes its residents to disdain our heritage? I have no idea, but I do know that in the years I've been doing this gig, I've had exactly one buyer who specifically asked to see old houses. That's discouraging.

Tear Down of the Week - 384 Sound Beach Avenue

This is (soon to be was) a very nice house with, as I recall, a pool dominating the small back yard. It sold via bidding war (asking price, $1.795, selling price, $1.873 million) in August 2004 (which we now refer to as "the good old days"), a price that I would have thought precluded it being torn down. Obviously, I was wrong.

I'm off to see new listings on the open house tour and will report on any bargains that turn up. Unfortunately, even in this market sellers tend to still price their new listings at unrealistic levels but I'm always ready to be pleasantly surprised.

Emails from Realtors I never finish reading
"YOU OWE IT TO YOUR CLIENTS TO PRESENT THEM THIS WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY ..."

I hate ALL CAPS and I prefer to decide for myself what my responsibilities are to my clients (and I don't sell in Stamford).

Straight from "The Grim Reaper Gazette"(Okay, I guess it's actually Bloomberg)GMAC Mortgage shuts down

``This gives you a full flavor of how terrible the mortgage market is,'' said Mirko Mikelic, senior portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ``The past year has been horrible and it doesn't look like there is any improvement on the horizon with continuing declines in home values and rising delinquencies.''

Did you hear the happy news about Greenwich house sales?

Don't worry, be happy!
A reader has posted the following comment:

Chris - one would hope that someone in the real estate industry (such as yourself), would at least try to promote an optimistic point of view. It's in the best interest of all of us, including the buyers.

I'd be happy to oblige, if only someone would point out something to be optimistic about. Sales are down 38%, values are dropping, buyers are sitting on the sideline, what can I say? Are there glimpses of cheer? Sure - there's a house sale pending in the eastern part of town due to close in a few weeks at $8 million plus that should blow the socks off any recent comparable sale on its street. When it does, you'll hear about it here. But otherwise, I'm pretty much stuck reporting on how things are, and things ain't rosy. I try to point out bargains when I spot them, and I've mentioned several times that there are bargains available but I'm not interested in painting a false picture of a healthy market, regardless of how that might serve sellers or even this particular realtor. There are a couple of other columnists in town who seem to have a brighter outlook so if you're looking for happy news, check their papers.
Of course, if I were a buyer who over-paid because of a supposed expert's opinion that things were looking up I'd be pretty ticked when things turned out otherwise.

136 Cat Rock Rd revisited

I mentioned yesterday that this renovated house finally went to contract last week at somewhere south of its last asking price of $1.995 million, down from an initial asking price of $3.4 back in January 2006. What I failed to point out was that the builders/sellers bought the place way back in November, 2003 for $1.4 million and spent the intervening years adding on, building a new septic field, etc. That's a long time and a lot of sunken money for such a paltry return. Watch out where you "invest".

Real friends don't let friend's letters go unanswered

Dear XXX - thank you for sharing the alarming news that Ms. Palin supports oil drilling and hunting mooses. I shall of course never ever vote for such a person and I intend to sell my rifles and contribute the proceeds to Mr. Obama as some small token of remorse.

Along those lines, and in view of your deep concern over global warming, I have decided that, rather than pay you back for the gasoline we consumed boating to Montauk this past week I will instead purchase a carbon offset from an Indian company that grows biomass for alternative energy projects. It will only cost me a few rupees but I'm sure that you'll agree that it's better to spend a few pennies saving our earth than encouraging the profligate use of our precious resources and the spewing of carbon out your 90-foot yacht's tailpipes.

Yours in peace, love and understanding,
Chris.