More on Joe
State investigation of Joe the Plumber more extensive than first admitted

A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on "Joe the Plumber" were more extensive than it first acknowledged.

Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were not restricted to a child-support system.

The agency also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes, she wrote.

This should anger people of any political persuasion. The fact that it is instead justified and defended by Obama supporters lends a frightening foretaste of what's to come.

21 Lia Fail, Cos Cob

Want your own, 500 seat marble amphitheatre? Here's your chance. I've been intrigued by this property ever since Aimee Liu walked me through it on our one date (and only date - Aimee was a really sharp girl) back when we both attended Eastern. Aimee went on to much better things, including Yale and, later, a successful writing career but the amphitheatre is still there, along with a small residence built in 1940 or so from material salvaged from the Havemeyer mansion over in Old Greenwich. First sold in 2004 for $2.2 million (after languishing at $2.8 million for a year - I told the seller not to price it there but she went with the broker who promised more and delivered well, less), the new owners have tried since 2006 to sell it again. They first listed all of its 5 acres (two building lots) for $3.5 million, which, even though they'd updated the original house a bit, didn't strike buyers as much of a bargain. They eventually dropped the price to $2.795 and now offer just the house and amphitheatre on 2 acres for $1.6 million - no mention of what's to be done with the second lot across the driveway.

This is a magical place,set far off of Valley Road and at the right place, would be a wonderful buy. If I were in a buying mood, I might offer the asking price for the full 5 acres and see how badly the sellers wanted to move.

Is this a "Georgian"?

According to the listing agent it is, and who am I to argue? It's at 14 Martin Dale, if you care to drive by and see for yourself. Its builder has been asking $5.995 million since April, so far without takers. Now he offers an "Aspen vacation" to the selling agent. I suppose, if that perk were disclosed to the client, a buyer's rep could take advantage of that deal but if I were the potential buyer I think I'd wonder if the advice I was receiving to buy the place was tempered by the desire of my agent to go skiing. And once I started wondering about that, I think I'd start wondering about lots of things about our relationship. The best way to keep a deal clean, in my opinion, is to forgo offering selling agents any extra bonuses and cut your price, instead.

If he won't help his family, why should I? Obama's aunt, uncle living in Boston slum
Just asking.
Update: Here's a good point:

His campaign obviously found her. It shouldn’t have been hard, in spite of being an apparent illegal immigrant, she and her husband have been cited in several newspapers over the years. But once they found her, rather than help her, the Obama campaign shut her up.

Spread the wealth indeed.

Howard Dean, now and then:

Howard Dean, 2008:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Monday that he’s looking forward to one party controlling all aspects of government, despite GOP charges that it would be a disastrous Nov. 4 outcome. “Republicans had a chance to rule. They failed miserably. I think it’s time to give the other party a chance,” Dean said on MSNBC.

Howard Dean, 2005:

We need more than one party in charge. And the vote on Tuesday is going to be critical to decide whether American democracy still allows those of us who didn't vote for the president to have any say in running the country whatsoever.
[...]
Someday, the Democrats will be back in charge again. Do we want a Democratic Party that's in charge of everything? Well, you know, I suppose it's my job to say yes. But the truth is, as an American, it's better when parties share power. It's better when even those people who didn't win the election have something to say.
[...]
[There] is a culture of corruption and abuse of power in Washington. This is what happens when one party is in charge of everything.

Politics for a change!

Stock Market: These days, that last five minutes is a bitch!

"Built Date"?
A reader asked why 396 Round Hill Road was listed as having been built in 2006 when it had been on the market since January 2005. The best I can determine from checking its listing history is that, maybe, it didn't receive a certificate of occupancy until 2006. Here's what it looked like in the beginning of January 2005, when its built date was shown as "2005 - u/c" [under construction]:
Clearly, this structure was not ready to receive a final c/o at the time this picture was taken. So, if construction lingered for another year, then 2006 would be the right date. In any case, it never hurts to have your attorney examine all relevant building documents before you buy.

A happy reader asks,

Funny topic...A friend once bragged to me she was building an "authentic Georgian" house...it's been on the market until recently (MLS# 68755) but I think it was taken off. It's a gorgeous home but I am not sure how "authentic" it is.
Doesn't Georgian usually connote a red brick house? What's with all these faux Georgian's?

Good question, reader. First, the house your friend said she was building is pictured above. It does have the requisite red brick but it was built in 1989, long before she bought it (for $11.2 million in 2005), so perhaps her claim of authorship is a bit overstated. It was put back on the market in February this year for $12.5 million but found no takers and was withdrawn in August.

But what about the faux Georgians you mention? In the real estate world, we build, and sell, "in the style of" which means, of course, that there's nothing at all in common between the real thing and whatever pile of bricks we're unloading on the newly-rich. Here's a definition of Georgian from the Wikipedia article cited in the post below:

"Georgian architecture is characterized by its proportion and balance; simple mathematical ratios were used to determine the height of a window in relation to its width or the shape of a room as a double cube. 'Regular' was a term of approval, implying symmetry and adherence to classical rules: the lack of symmetry, where Georgian additions were added to earlier structures, was deeply felt as a flaw."

If a house like that ever existed in Greenwich, it was razed long ago - we're into eclectic!

"How can I enjoy this when polar bears can't afford to attend school?"

College costs soar above inflation rate so the natural response is to increase student aid!
Here's another idea - cut college aid and see how schools respond to fewer applicants. Sounds crazy, I know, but shoveling ever-increasing piles of money onto school administrators or, worse, bailing out the student loan shysters hasn't seemed to encourage a sense of thrift - maybe trying the opposite will help.

Wisdom via the Catskills:

The media is regarding the election of Barack Obama to the presidency as a foregone conclusion and the pollsters seem to back up that conclusion. If that is indeed the case, so be it. As Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York, put it with superb prescience after losing in the primaries to his eventual successor, David Dinkens: "The people have spoken. It is now time for the people to be punished." Dinkens' spectacular ineptitude led to his being soundly defeated for re-election after only one term by a Republican(!), Rudy Giuliani (Dinkens, the mayoral equivalent of Jimmy Carter, has been bitter about it ever since). New York City flourished during Giuliani's administration. Similarly, our nation will survive an Obama administration and will surely flourish anew in time.

Of course, the blogger quoted believes in the Resurrection, life after death and all that, so his sense of "in time" may be larger in scope than it is for some of us.

Where is the left's outrage?

We all heard the howls when those two Nazis, Bush and Cheney, eavesdropped on cellphone calls between terrorists. So why, when the Ohio Democrats, state officials all, searched "Joe the Plumber's" background to dig up dirt , did no one on the left complain? No one. That's presumably because, unlike terrorists, ol' Joe doesn't hate America and probably doesn't think much of Obama, so he's got to be destroyed. I don't think I'm particularly paranoid but I have a dreadful feeling that this is what's in store for anyone who dares question the Messiah. What's truly scary is that my friends on the left can hardly wait.

Twin Lakes Drive, Riverside

Waterfront at the end of Gilliam Lane

"Twin Lakes" was the silly name a would-be developer, Jack Brod, stuck on the this end of the road when he had it in mind to festoon the place with 35 houses. He lost that particular dream and was limited to 5 lots, two of which were carved out of this, the original mansion's yard. Still 1.82 acres remain, leading down to Cos Cob Harbor and providing tidal access to Long Island Sound. I don't think I've been in the place since the Fritzsches owned it and, with all possible fondness for the Fritzsches and their 7 (? - seemed like that many) kids, the house was a tad run-down. The listing says this was "renovated" - there's that word again - in 2006 and there's an open house tomorrow so I'll go see and report back. $15 million, if you're wondering.

Oh: the "Twin Lakes" are - you guessed it - a pair of little brackish ponds, but nice enough in their own way. We used to play hockey on the first one, when Muzz Patrick (Patrick Division was named after his grandfather, Muzz was a Rangers player and, later, their manager) lived on its edge. And Dorothy Hamill first skated there, on her way to Innsbruck. Good memories, nice neighborhood.

Realtorese, continued, courtesy of CEA

Definition and picture of Georgian architecture - moderate size, simple.


What Real Estate Brokers Say Is Georgian - gargantuan, bells & whistles:
Like this,

like this,

and, of course, like this.

396 Round Hill Road

Great moments in real estate pricing?
This is a really nice house, designed and built by one of my favorite architects, Alex Kali-Nagy. Really - he has a great eye for proportion and each room in every house he's done seems just right; this house is no exception. But I do wonder at how he's trying to sell this place.

It was first listed at $8.950 in early 2005 and didn't move. In November of that year he withdrew that price and replaced it, the same day, with a new one: $10.9 million. That didn't work so he lopped off a million bucks four months later, eventually dropped it to $9.395 and watched it expire, unsold, in November 2006. In February of this year it returned to the market, four years older and priced at $11.5 million - it still won't sell. Perhaps raising it to $125 million will do for this house what it didn't do for Leona's.

Mark Mariani, Builder to the Stairs?

Why isn't this man smiling?
Perhaps it's because he's just lowered the prices of two of his unsold projects, 10 Dairy Road (the terminal resting place of Andy Kissel, bound, stabbed and no longer investing in earthly things) from $10,750,000 to $8,450,000 and One Meadowcroft, from $14,500,000 to $13,500,000. The latter reduction is a mere 7% off ask, but a million bucks is still a million bucks, or so I was led to believe.

So how's this town's most aggressive spec builder doing? From what I hear, he tells anyone who'll listen that he's doing just fine, "no worries, mate". But he has at least three unsold projects on the market and, if this article's right, 250 people on his payroll. That's a lot, eh?


By the way, for an interesting look back at Hedge Fund Greenwich as it was just a year ago, check out this article in Vanity Fair. Things have changed - permanently? I doubt it; we're all just waiting for the next crop of Masters of the Universe to emerge from the primordial ooze. Though I do worry, sometimes, that we natives are like the Cargo Cultists of Vanuatu who were blessed during World War II by manna falling from heaven when planes were shot down or had to ditch. For years after that conflict ended (and in fact, continuing today) the natives constructed crude replicas of airplanes, hoping to encourage the Gods to return with more largess. Should we be building mock trading floors?

Update: I notice that 10 Dairy Road's address has been changed back to its original number, 8. Did the Post Office require this or did Mariani decide that the stigma attaching to the property because of Mr. Kissel's unfortunate demise had passed? Beats me.
A reader asked about the third Mariani spec house on Sabine Farms (actually, 27 Doverton, off of Sabine). That house is a mirror image to the Dairy Road house but, perhaps because of its location off Round Hill Road, was originally priced at $11.750 million. Now it's down to $8.450 so it's obvious that, at least as Mariani has come to see things, identical houses should command identical prices, regardless of location (or dead bodies).

Realtor-ese
A recurring topic because we real estate agents are so darn creative! In no particular order:
"Lake": any body of water large enough to hold a (small) frog.
"Trout Stream": any trickle of water too small to be called a lake.
"Renovated": if no mention is made of anything specific, assume that there's nothing to mention, so count on the dust bunnies having been swept from under the beds and, maybe, ashes cleaned from the fireplace.
"On the Stamford/Greenwich border": in Stamford
"Enjoy as is, renovate or start anew": Reserve a dumpster.
"Has great potential": Reserve a dumpster.
"Convenient to transportation": backs up to I-95.
"Not a drive-by": It's a drive by - and keep driving.
"Must see": Same advice - keep driving.
"Motivated Seller": We can't possibly unload the place at its current price but the dumbass seller won't publicly admit it - bring a low-ball offer and let's talk.
"Won't last": It did, or we wouldn't still be advertising the turkey.

Send in your own favorites and I'll add them here.

Reader Updates: "seasonal water views". Go up on the roof, climb a step ladder and wow!. I myself, because I'm a truthful sort of guy, prefer to call these nature sightings "seasonal water glimpses".

"Much loved" = obsolete

"Charming" = small

Cozy – means that it’s really a dollhouse or doghouse

New paint – it’s amazing how far $5 per gallon paint goes

New carpet – covering up the scratched hardwood floors

Close to Park – SO close that you’ll never find a parking spot
Peaceful backyard– because 36,000 cars drive by the front yard each day.
Professionally remodeled – the owner and their siblings didn’t do the work, the neighbor’s sister’s husband’s son did.

Movable center island – the kids ran into it so many times it came loose.

Quaint - it’s pink!

Steps to the creek – be ready to sandbag the front yard each spring.

On golf course – high insurance for broken windows

"Classic": brand-new, trying to look established

"Georgian": anything with stone, no matter how little of it, on any part of the facade, even if you need a magnifying glass to find it.

"Condo alternative" - so small that only a single person or couple can live in it.

"Compound" or "retreat" sounds like it's in the middle of a war zone

"First time on market in 70 years" : Last updated when Grandpa sold the horse and used the proceeds to replace the outhouse.

"Lovingly maintained"--the harvest gold appliances still work like a charm and the sheet vinyl in the kitchen has been so carefully patched, you'll hardly notice.

Riverside/Old Greenwich vs. Mid and Back Country?

It all depends on your taste. I grew up in Riverside and raised my own children there and really enjoyed the ability to find friends to play with in every back yard. Of course these days, where there is no such thing as pick-up game of baseball and "playdates" are scheduled 5 years in advance, there is less opportunity for spontaneous fun but it was still nice not to have to chauffeur my kids around - they'd walk or bike home from school, stopping by a friend's house on the way and we'd see them in time for dinner. Great stuff.

But other people feel suffocated by the close quarters - a claustrophobia made worse in the past 50 years by the constant erection of new houses and the destruction of the meadows and woods that used to be here. They'd no sooner live in a house 25' from their neighbor than drive an old beater car to the station. Aaaghh! And I understand that (well, the former, if not the latter). I worked with a great couple who lived in Riverside but, the more I listened, the more I heard that the husband, who'd grown up on lots of land in the mid-west, felt cramped on a piddling 1/3 acre and the wife was more interested in a classic pre-War home than she was its location. I suggested we look at a great old house on two acres, with a pool, that was selling for the same price as Riverside homes on far less land and with far less charm and they loved it. The move made perfect sense for them.

The one complaint I hear from Back Country parents is about the driving - 45 minutes to drop kid #1 to soccer practice and kid #2 at a friends house, then go home for 1/2 an hour and repeat the process. If your kids are old enough to drive, that's not an issue.

So yes: per square foot, Riverside and Old Greenwich are more expensive and have been for a long time - families with young children particularly want to live in the area. The trade off is in privacy and room - some people insist on those, others do without them for the convenience. The nice thing about Greenwich is that there's room enough to satisfy both tastes.

82 Buckfield

Here's a nice house in the Back Country that was, I think, aggressively priced back in 2005 at $4.790 million. It languished for awhile at that price, was pulled, and eventually returned at $4.495 million. Today the sellers chopped a cool million from that and now ask $3.495 (do I have to do all the mathematical heavy lifting around here?). I wish for the sellers' sake that they'd started here, when the market was stronger - ok, when there was a market at all - but it's now a lot of house for a reasonable amount of money. I wish the sellers well.

5 Raymond Street, Old Greenwich

When this house (click on title above for listing details) was last on the market back in 2004 it was listed at $1.625 million and sold quickly at full asking price. That was then. It's now on the market again - the listing claims it was "renovated" in 2008 but I'm pretty sure that's just realtor speak for tidied up and painted. In May, the seller asked $2.250 million; it's now down to $1.788, still 10% over what they paid for it four years ago. If the seller is lucky he'll manage to break even, in my opinion.

Happy news from happy Realtors What downturn? Every thing's great and now's the perfect time to buy a house, says this economist. Don't let the fact that he works for the National Association of Realtors throw you for even one instant. He couldn't say it if it weren't true, right?

You say Hello, and I say Dubai

Like castles built on sand, the Dubai real estate boom is crashing. Too bad.

Dean Barnett has died. Dean was best known, perhaps, in the Bloggers' world but he was also a guest host on the Hugh Hewitt Show, a writer for the Weekly Standard, and one of the longest living cystic fibrosis sufferers. His description of that disease, and his courageous refusal to be daunted by it, can be found here.

Dean and I were just email friends, though he liked my books and even plugged one - probably sold a couple of hundred copies for me, for which I remain grateful. What I regret is that, despite several attempts, we never met for dinner. At first we were going to meet half way between his home in Boston and mine, then I said I'd come up to Boston just for the pleasure. His health dropped off around then and we never had the chance again. I guess my point is, don't pass up such opportunities - make it a point to catch up with friends, go that extra mile. Because it sucks when it's too late.

Rentals
These are hard to track because the data aren't reported in any easily accessible format but basically, rentals are holding their own. 35 single family homes rented in the past two months compared with 27 for the same period last year (there are currently an additional 211 SF homes available for rent, so we're not exactly burning through our inventory). What's harder to find, however, without examining each listing and comparing its original listing price: $15,000, for instance, and its actual rented price -$10,000, is how much rents have fallen, if at all. I know that each day the realtors' hot sheet is stuffed with rental reductions; what I don't have is a specific number from which to compute that decline. If I did any rental business I might be tempted to spend the hours necessary to determine that number but I don't, so I won't. But I do feel safe in suggesting that, if you have a good tenant in your property now and the rent's coming up for renewal,this isn't the time to do so.

(Non -real estate subject matter - reader discretion is strongly advised. Back later, after open house tour to report on that soggy mess.)

The decline of America, as predicted by Pete DuPont in the WSJ . DuPont's not the first to see and warn against this disaster but, given the likely result in next week's election, he may be the last - after that his type will be describing, not predicting. I have no reason to believe that,even if they were to read DuPont's article, Americans would vote differently. In Russia, most citizens, especially young citizens, feel no revulsion towards Stalin and would vote for him tomorrow, should he reappear. Lucky them if he does, eh? But I read recently in the WSJ of a focus group of likely American voters who felt that they wanted Obama in the White House because he'd bring us back to the Reagan era, "when the government ran all the big businesses and everything worked great."

Obama promises fat welfare checks to (almost) everyone but since few folks are willing to admit that they're on the dole, he calls them "tax credits". " Say ya don't pay taxes? No matter,son, here's a credit - go buy some food stamps fur that fine fambly of yurs and don't forget to vote Demmerkratic, cause we's the ones who done give you this, straight from the wallets of the rich." American voters are lapping this stuff up. Free health care, paid for with pixie dust! An end to suffering! Finally, a parking space right in front of the video store! And no one pays for any of this except the kazillion-trillion millionaires out there who'll just keep plugging away, earning income so the Anointed One can redistribute it to us. Glory, Hallelujah, mine eyes have seen the coming!

This kind of abysmal ignorance, coupled with the inherent greed of so many people who relish the idea of getting their paws on something someone else owns will ensure our decline. The people want change? Boy are they going to get it.

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.

Collect $20 billion from us taxpayers, pay yourselves $13 billion in bonuses -
That's what Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have planned. I try very hard to retain my enthusiam and support for free enterprise and capitalism. That's hard to do when the top pigs put their snouts deep into the feed trough and release the resulting byproduct on the rest of us. The Wall Streeters may think they're just enjoying getting fat on dumb taxpayers; their hoggish behavior may produce another result entirely.

Here's a surprise. Home sales go up as prices decline. Something tells me that there's an economic principle to be discovered here.

Update: Floyd Norris of the NYT says those are fudged figures and that new home sales are lower than they've been since 1991.

Well darn.
Tony Hillerman is dead at 83. I really enjoyed his books and will miss his writing.

If Bush is elected President our civil liberties will be .... Oh no, that's happening in liberal Canada, where real estate agents are required to snoop for the government. Name, federal id #, source of funds, etc. must all be collected by agents from their clients and forwarded to the government so that terrorists can be captured. If a buyer is even from another province he must personally prove his identity in a face to face meeting with an agent there before that agent can pass him along to an agent in the next province.

That sucks but if you don't like that aspect of Canadian life, consider this: I spent the weekend with a great bunch of Canadians in a very much apolitical setting. To a man, they complained about their health care system - if you're in pain, but the situation isn't life threatening, you can wait as long as 2 years for surgery. Those of us so joyously awaiting next Tuesday's anointment and the coming of the solution to our health insurance problems might want to schedule surgery now, rather than wait til after January's coronation.

Here's a dubious marketing idea: Selling real estate to fellow Christians. Apparently there are real estate agents out there who make direct appeals to Muslims and Jews, too, but I find the whole idea off-putting. If it works, though, look for a Crescent and a star and a cross on my next business card. I'm nothing if not polytheistic.

Well Good! U.S. attacks terrorists in Syria.
Syria's Ambassador to the U.K. says,

""This is an outrageous raid which is against international law. It is a terrible crime."

To which I say, "please sir, can we have some more?"

163 Old Church Road

This was reduced today a little over 6% from $3.750 Million to $3.5. I mentioned earlier this month that there were 3 houses on Old Church Road all in this price range and all unsold. One, 149, has dropped it price from $3.795 to $2.950, now 163 is seeing the light, albeit dimly. The hold out is #56, which came on at $3.750 million and has stuck fast at that price, regardless of what the market says. Good luck to all of them. Two of them, at least, are very nice houses.

276 Riversville Road has been returned to the market with a new price of $3.3 million - it didn't sell back in 2004 at $4.495 million, so one can't really say that this new price reflects an actual drop of market value but, as the property is owned by a real estate professional is is an indication of what he felt the market would sustain then and where he thinks the market is now. Of course, he was obviously wrong in 2004, so take this drop for what it's worth.

As of today, Monday morning at 9 AM, we have recorded 9 contracts for single family homes in the month. In October of last year, when the sub-prime disaster had begun to unfold and the market was beginning its nosedive, 33 houses went to contract. So we're down about 70% from there but the week is young - maybe we'll see a strong performance during the next five days. We saw 14 contracts in the last 8 business days of October, 2007 and it would be great if we duplicated that this year - I don't think we will.

Off to the woods

I'm heading inland and will walk until no one recognizes the computer on my shoulder. Back Sunday night. So why the picture of a sailboat? Captures the feeling and its title is "Truant Sailing Away". My kind of kid.

See you next week.

Interesting if true
I have no idea how to link to his individual posts (his blog setup's problem not mine, I think) but here's a lengthy quote from Greenwich Round Up on the future, or lack thereof, of Greenwich Time. I've heard the same rumor for months but his appears to be better sourced.

"For months Greenwich Roundup has been exclusively reporting what a confidential source at the Stamford Advocate source has been telling us.

We are told that the Corporate Suits at Hearst Newspapers are going to slowly combine all of the daily newspapers like the Greenwich Time, that are now currently being printed in Bridgeport into one paper with the Connecticut Post masthead.

This much like how Gannet folded the Port Chester Daily Item, the Mamaroneck Times, New Rochelle Standard Star and close to another dozen Putnam, Rockland and Westchester newspapers into the regional newspaper called the Journal News which has the regional news website called LoHud.com , which stands for Lower Hudson, New York.

"Later the old newspaper mast heads were changed into free weekly newspapers that carried grocery and drug store ads on Thursdays and Friday's to non-Journal News subscribers. Town that did not have a daily newspaper were covered by half a dozen or so weekly newspapers that have a masthead with the Express name.

And this is what the the Corporate Suits at Hearst Newspapers have planned for Greenwich and other towns in Fairfield County. The Connecticut Post will be thrown on your front door each morning and the Greenwich Citizen will be a mailbox wrapper for slick ad papers, weather you are a subscriber or not.

This why Hearst Newspapers did not want the Greenwich Time offices and chose to temporarily rent a small office space in Riverside, CT. Maybe the Greenwich Citizen offices in Putnam Avenue will become a local news bureau and advertising sales office. Or maybe this office will be folded into the Bridgeport facility when the lease is up."

351 Round Hill Road

Not content with demanding all my money for redistribution

My pal Claudette wants my time, too and keeps asking about this property. Once she put her glasses on and gave me the right address I thought I'd answered her question but now she reports that people seem to be moving in. Anything for a friend. So far as I know, it's still for sale, and there's no record of it ever having been offered for rent or rented - doesn't mean a bunch of poor folks haven't expropriated it in the name of the People, of course - just ask Dr. Zhivago about that. It came on two years ago, its price has ranged from as high as $7,275,000 to the current low of $6,450,000 (11% less). Two brokers, it's back now with the first. I suspect that its failure to sell is unrelated to the choice of broker.

Another brand to boycott

Baskin Robbins is peddling "Whirl of Change"
"an Election Special for 2008"ice cream with a little donkey on it. Donkey dung is more like it but, as my pal Claudette likes to threaten, when her Demmerkrats get through with people like me we won't be able to buy ice cream anyway, so what do I care? I care about the Little People, Claudette, those who, having crammed my money in their pockets, will flock to the slots and ice cream stores to spend it. God forbid they should choke on a bit of donkey dung.

Update: Just to the left (they were trying to trick me!) of the Obama donkey dung ice cream Baskin Robbins offers the "Straight Talk Express", which at least at first glance would seem to be a sop to Republicans and an attempt to be bi-partisan. But aha! You'll notice that it's covered with nuts! The vast, left-wing conspiracy is hard at work, even in our ice cream factories! Will they stop at nothing?

252 Milbank

Going down? I liked this house very much when I first saw it earlier this year. Seven bedrooms, 8,000 sq.ft. (or something like that), a nice location just two blocks from the Avenue, and all that. What I didn't like was its price and neither, apparently, did anyone else. Except its builder, who kept that price pegged at $7,775,000 from December '07 until October 2, when he finally succumbed to market conditions and dropped it 10% to $6.975. He didn't wait so long for the second drop: yesterday, he lowered it another 3% - $200,000 - to $6.775, a cool million off its original asking price. Whether that's enough to move it is another question - what fascinates me is the slow motion train wreck we're witnessing - how low are we going, and how quickly? I sure don't know.

So maybe you might want to wait on that $25 million place on Round Hill.

At least until Monday, to see how all this shakes out . According to Bloomberg News, things look rocky out there. And Mr. Bloomberg himself, speaking on the radio this morning,described the world economic scene as "a complete effin' mess" (well, there's a bit of translation in that, but he wasn't encouraging).

Here, thanks to a reader, is a WSJ article on real estate blogs. Heck, compared to what's going on in the rest of the country, this blog's awfully tame. I may have to step on the spice a bit.

Shattered Rice Bowl?

Chi-com real estate tanks .
One difference between our two countries is that when you screw up bad in America, Dickie Fuld sells some art . In China, they put a bullet in your skull, sell your organs and bill your relatives for that bullet (6 cents) pour l'encouragement des autres. Given the outrage in Congress, we may soon adopt the Chinese practice but if we do, I hope we start in the Congressional chambers.

Oh the Humanity! continued.

NPR's reporter, one Kaye Rosenfeld, just informed us that the Anointed One will be spending the weekend in a place called "Ha - wai -ee-ee" near "Hun-o-leu-leu". In the past, liberals didn't bother trying out native pronunciations of cities in the civilized world - you never heard people like Kaye Rosenfeld refer to "Par-hee", for example. The more blighted and God forsaken the location, however, the more these fine people tripped over their tongues trying to add a native inflection to show that they were one with the oppressed.

This blight on our language spread to any city with Spanish roots, except Los Angeles, oppressed or not. Now it's begun in our 50th state because, why? Oppression? Third world solidarity? I suspect it's because of the Native Hawaiian Restorative Justice and Recognition bill, introduced by Senator Akakka in the last Congress and promptly shot down as a Constitutional disaster that would wreak havoc in that and the other 49 states. It's now, with the coming Demmerkrat revolution, given an excellent chance of passage and our mainstream media reporters are stumbling around in shocked surprise:"Holy, s... - there are Indians hiding in the pineapples? Get out the 'Non-offending, Native American and Po' Folks dictionary and find out what these people call themselves! And what the hell is poi? - am I expected to eat this crap?"

Oh, we're in for a swell time. Just wait until the next time you fly over Iowa - wave hello to the ethanol plants of Day Moi, formerly Des Moines.

Why our schools are in such a mess: Board of Ed delays beginning of search for new Superintendent. It will take two weeks to even start forming a committee that, in turn, will decide on the "skill set" needed by the next person to run our school. That should consume a couple of months, I suppose, then they'll hire an "educational expert" to help conduct a national search, interview noted educators from around the world, negotiate an overly-generous contract and finally, with great fanfare, announce the latest in a long string of failures.

Why do these people speak in jargon? "Skill set" indeed. Why do they need two weeks to even begin to begin? Members are away? Let someone introduce them to the telephone or, gasp! email. And why, after 200 years, do they need to form yet another committee to decide upon the necessary skills required of a superintendent? Have things changed in 3 years? Was their previous effort in this regard a complete, colossal flop? Of course it was, but why, then, are these idiots allowed to try again? Could that have anything to do with the refusal of our local political parties to permit competition in school board elections? I report, you decide.

Right now, 40% of our students can't pass a basic reading test -70% can't perform at an advanced level. In Greenwich! The wealthiest, most highly-educated town in the nation is cranking out illiterates - great. It's going to take more than a new superintendent to fix this shameful situation. I'd start with adjusting the attitude of the parent quoted in the Time's article who objected to a new reading program because she wanted a "well-rounded skill set" for her child. Honey, you may be qualified to sit on the school board, but I suggest that, if your little darlin' can't read, she'll be flattened by the world, well-rounded or not.

Ethanol - fuel of the future!
Well darn - Iowa ethanol plants causing 15% of state's pollution.

I've always admired McCain for at least one act of political courage: he appeared in that farm state back in 2000 (? - 2004?) during primary days and said he imposed federal government subsidies for ethanol because the stuff was worthless. He lost that primary yet still opposes the crud. To my knowledge he's the only national politician who refuses to kneel at the corn altar.

Due to an outpouring of demand for more (one, actually, and he didn't really mean it), here's a limerick with a real estate theme:

A builder from sunny St. Barts
Made houses from modular parts
He said with a sigh,
As he watched business die
Damn Greenwichers have too many smarts!

But you'll hurt their feelings!

Here's a stupid bit of advice on pricing and low-ball offers

""Lots of buyers think the market is so bad that they can make any offer and have it accepted," says Carolyn Ratner, an associate broker with Fairfax Realty in Falls Church. "But people need to understand that hiring an agent to be your buyer representative means that you are interested in a fair deal, not that you are out to cheat the seller. You can't sell a home without a meeting of the minds, which means bringing both sides together."

Look: these days, buyers and sellers have different agents so "fairness" isn't an issue, if it ever was. "It's not personal, it's business." Still good advice. The lady quoted above is just silly to think that the choice is between a fair deal, whatever that is, and cheating, whatever that is. See house, like it, make offer. Seller accepts, rejects or makes counter-offer. We're all adults here, we all know how to count, so there's nothing to cheat about. I suspect that Agent Ratner feels uncomfortable presenting low-ball offers so she's set out to convince her buyers to offer more than they want to, all under the guise of being "fair". Phooey.

A tougher stance, one that I like much more, is also found in the article:

Ron Sitrin, a Realtor with Long & Foster Real Estate Co. Inc. in the District, says the nature of this market almost begs for low-ball offers.
"Buyers feel they have a choice, so if their offer isn't accepted, the chances are high that they will find something else they want," Mr. Sitrin says. "There's no fear of loss on the buyer's side."

Atta boy, Ron. My advice is, if your buyer rep starts sounding New Age lovey, lights incense in her car and begins humming Kumbaya, get another agent.

AIG to sell Stowe? The company's woes have everyone in town nervous, probably with good reason.

"The most expensive ski facility in the Eastern U.S., owned by American International Group Inc., is halfway through a $400 million renovation that began a decade ago when Maurice ``Hank'' Greenberg was running the insurance company. AIG's founder, avid skier Cornelius Vander Starr, began developing the resort more than 60 years ago after the Civilian Conservation Corps cut the mountain's first trails during the Great Depression."

I quit skiing Stowe in 1970 or so when I grew tired of paying $10 (hey - that was a lot of money back then) and standing in line - I used to sleep in my VW bus to afford lift tickets so I wanted my money's worth. I found it at Mad River, but I still have good memories of Stowe and I'd be sorry to see it go under. Doesn't sound like my kind of place any more, though.

Don't blame me, because it was "Retired IB'er" who broached the topic of bad limericks using Nantucket, St. Barts and Gay Head. He took the easy way out and chose Nantucket but has yet to touch upon the latter two. If he's so retired, what the heck does he do with his time? Oh well, nature abhorring a vacuum, I offer the following:

There once was a man on St. Bart's,
Who dined only on beans and his ....
His girlfriend said geeze, if you'll just eat some cheese,
we can swim at our ease,
drink wine as we please,
and the natives won't whack our rear parts.

Pretty bad, but for top of the head stuff, it'll have to do. How about,

There once was a girl from Gay Head,
whose boyfriend was desperate for er, you know -
He begged and he pleaded, she felt she was needed but said Darling, I'd rather be dead.

Your turn!

A reader asks, "any figures for us?" I have no idea what he means but this is a full service blog, so here you go:Female Figure

The Brooks Brother's set on a rampage - hate spills over. Racism!!

Obama supporter beaten, robbed and face mutilated

Windows shot out at Obama Campaign Manager's home

McCain supporters attack female Obama volunteer worker, strike her in face, body, throw her to ground. "It's this god damn election," one attacker explains. "It's made me so angry!"

Home, car of
Obama supporter vandalized in Maryland

Obama campaign bus shot, defaced in New Mexico

And on and on. Will this violence never end? Must we endure such hatred just as we approach the promised land? Oh, when will we learn? When will we ever le- Oh - all those reports are about attacks on McCain supporters? Well then, never mind!

Foreclosures in Greenwich?
Not a huge problem yet, and perhaps it never will be, but the Realtytrac.com site seems busier than before (hard to say because it lumps in Stamford and Port Chester when you just want to search Greenwich). It shows 525 pre-foreclosure an foreclosure properties right now which, if memory serves (and it often doesn't) is about 150 more than when I checked a month ago. Some are stale - 7 Dwight Lane has come and gone, and others were resolved. But some are recent: On October 18, a house on Tomac Lane in Old Greenwich had a lis pendens filed against it signalling foreclosure on a $2,750,000 debt (I found the exact address of the house by combining the limited information RealtyTrac provides non-paying visitors with the Greenwich Tax Assessor's on-line data base, but I won't provide further details - the owner obviously has enough problems). There's another fresh one on Dialstone Lane, in Riverside ($925,000) Havemeyer Lane, etc. Some of these debtors have a real problem: comparing their debt to the value of their homes, there may be no equity in the place, in which case you can probably expect the foreclosure to proceed.

My guess is that things are going to get worse from here because too many folks earning large-figure paychecks lived too close to the edge. Come bonus time, if there is no bonus, how is the mortgage going to get paid? I hope I'm wrong, both because I see no need to rejoice in another's misfortune and because foreclosures drag down the value of all houses in the neighborhood: $220,000 according to one report I read, and that was comparing things nationally - there's probably a worse effect on high-end towns like Greenwich.

So that's gloomy enough. We had one contract reported today, which makes three for the week. That should cheer you up.

Demmerkrats considering killing 401 (k) plans. But don't worry - they'll take care of your money for you and will pay you 3% a year. That should work every bit as well as the Social Security Trust Fund. But remember, "socialist" is just a code word for black - you criticize this plan, you ain't nothin' but a racist.

70 Pecksland

This was listed in July for $3,750,000 and sold yesterday for $3,002,000, or 80% of asking. That's a smart move from a realistic seller, I think. As an aside, you never know about personal taste in real estate. There's another house, right up the road, listed for $3.195 million. I saw both houses the same day and thought the second superior to the first. Of course, that day there was a $550,000 difference in the second house's favor, which would certainly have affected my judgment, but since either house could have been bought for $3,000,000 (I assume), clearly this buyer liked house number 1. As I said, there's a large element of personal taste in these matters.

Courtesy of a reader

OwlGore bundled up
You give me some real estate news to write about - buy a house, sell a house, sign a contract, anything - and I'll write real estate. Until then, you're stuck with fun filler; you have only yourself to blame.
Gore Effect comes to Harvard. Dictionary definition of that:

The phenomenon that leads to unseasonably cold temperatures, driving rain, hail, or snow whenever Al Gore visits an area to discuss global warming. Hence, the Gore Effect.

Addressing the efforts of the Harvard nitwits (I use their stupidity to remind myself that high SAT's are no guarantee of sound thinking - certain readers, were they to see my own test scores, would agree wholeheartedly) to keep warm during Gore's speech on global warming the author of the piece I link to says,

Cute! The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain but the best thing one can do when it's warming by 0.6 °C per century is to fight the climate, to redesign the Harvard logo, to unravel the modern industrial civilization (if you allow me to exaggerate just a little bit), and to serve people hot soup and cider so that they won't freeze during the celebration of their heroic fight against warming. ;-)

To think that these kids will be running the hedge funds of tomorrow.

The Quality of Gossip is Certainly Strained
By Amanda Von Stuckle

Look: who was it who first reported a Kathy Lee sighting at CVS?. Moi! Now that Greenwich Post's gossip reporter has taken to staking out my snooping grounds and - big whoop - she says she saw that poor old former baseball player, Lee Mazzilli at the same place, buying Grecian Formula 101 or something. Look, bitch, I'll give you Valbella's but stay the F off my turf! CVS is mine, all mine.

Regis's house, by the way, is on the market for $5.4 million not, as a CVS clerk must have told you, $2.5. Of course, given that it's not selling, maybe that clerk is on to something. Does she wanna sell real estate on the side? It would mean a cut in pay,of course, but she would get free tours of our celebrities' homes.

The Professor, Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds, is worried about another Brooks Brother's riot if McCain loses the election:Police prepare for unrest on Election Night

Long on scary headline, short on fact
The NYTs reports that Investors are fleeing hedge funds. It makes sense, and we've discussed this possibility here before, but, perhaps because hedge funds aren't public reporting companies, there's no data on how many investors are fleeing, how much they're taking with them and how many funds won't be around to pass out bonuses next year. Everyone's most cuddly hedge funder, Steven Cohen, is said to be sitting on the sidelines with a large pile of cash, but, speaking only for myself, I'd prefer to sit on a cushion of cash than on the cold, hard ground.

Anyway, the story should ruin some folk's train ride to NYC this morning and will certainly disturb realtors' morning coffee meditations.

(attn. BC: you'll notice that I waited until 5:50 to post this - who says I have no life?)

Woohooo!

Are you growing scared yet?

Al Franken is on his way to the U.S. Senate and this looney is already there. Worse, she's gone off her meds and is screeching about that vast, right-wing conspiracy again. We're doomed.

"Al Franken was taking on the vast right-wing conspiracy before other people even admitted it existed," she told a crowd of 2,000 supporters on the University of Minnesota campus, urging them to give her rival, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, a filibuster-proof margin in the Senate. "Al Franken, with your help, can be our 60th vote."

I don't know what Hillary's doing in this picture - measuring Bill for the guillotine?

Is now a good time to buy a home? This article says, yes, sort of, then backs off. Raises the appropriate issues for you to consider, anyway.

I'm not messing around!

Look sharp on the unemployment line:
The Extreme Banker look is back! (although that's not what the man in tights is wearing - I just thought it an amusing picture from last month's Fashion Walkway) Most pathetic line from a dumb article? The lawyer quoted below has my vote:

Some designers and retailers say formal, double-breasted or three-piece suits and contrast-collared shirts make sense even in an economic slump. These styles, they say, can help men appear serious and competitive at the office and on job interviews. Chicago attorney Francis Kowalik, for one, doesn't think that's far-fetched. A double-breasted suit "has a little more authority to it, a little bit of weight," says the 44-year-old, who owns a number of double-breasted suits and plans to buy more. "It says you're not messing around."

What a yo yo.

From the Wall Street Journal, which home improvements pay off?

Most don't, which I've said here before.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, there are two ways to go about making home improvements. Either you splurge for something purely for the sybaritic pleasure of having it — the Italian marble bathroom you've dreamed about; that skylight that your spouse has been hinting at for the last six years — or you take a pragmatic approach, buying an energy-efficient furnace or repairing a leaky roof because you want to increase your home's market value.

Don't expect to score on both counts. "Just because you pour $20,000 into your home doesn't mean that your house is worth $20,000 more," says Frank Dell'Accio, a real-estate broker in Lindenhurst, N.Y. "I had a guy who invested $100,000 in a $130,000 home after he lived there for four years. He put it on the market at $225,000. He was offered $170,000." His mistake: spending money on amenities that were only peripheral to the value of the house. "He wanted phones in the bathroom," says Dell'Accio, "but [who else is] going to pay for them?"

But there is one important area that you should pay attention to:

Basic Improvements
It may not be all that enjoyable, but it's the basic improvements that may have the greatest return on your home's value. "You could have a beautiful new kitchen, but if your roof is leaking, you have a real problem," says Cory. So if you're thinking of putting your house on the market in the next year or so, be sure to tackle any problems with the home's structure or mechanical systems before you, say, install that hot tub you've always dreamed of.

My advice parallels this article's: fix the important things and add the fun stuff only if you plan to stay in the house long enough to enjoy them. And oh! Pools? Pool sellers will tell you different, but here's another area where the Journal and I agree:

Swimming Pools
It's commonly agreed that a swimming pool has no resale value at all. "I've had clients spend $300,000 and fill in the pool," says one agent. The main reason pools repel more prospective buyers than they attract is that they require expensive upkeep. Running a close second is the fear of liability: Pool accidents are a quick way to end up the subject of a negligence suit. "A lot of people don't want the responsibility," says Cory.

Things aren't going swimmingly in India, either

With just about a week to go until Diwali, the mood is decidedly downbeat. The demon of impending economic doom refuses to die, and as tightened liquidity makes people put off larger purchases, the real estate sector is facing the worst attack. "This time last year, I was selling 10 to 12 properties every day," says Alok Gupta, who runs Advanced Real Estate in the New Delhi suburb of Noida. "This time, I haven't sold a single property all month!"

There goes my idea of opening a branch office in Bombay.

Greenwich Avenue Blues

Courtesy of a reader, here's a story from the New York Observer about Greenwich Lean Time(s). Seems that retailers have seen better days, which will no doubt astonish you. I haven't shopped on the Avenue since Al Oliver's (? - the record store) was pushed out by a Talbot's expansion; Given my tastes and what the Avenue stores sell, I'm sure they never missed my patronage. Still, people who buy $100,000 sapphires at Betteridge's are more likely than I am to buy expensive houses (like yours), so I'm sorry they're feeling pinched.

Cry for me, Argentina:
Government to nationalize all pension savings .
I have friends in Argentina and I'm sorry that, having seemingly weathered the financial chaos down there and about to emerge whole, they are now faced with this. How did the country get into this sorry mess? Here's a hint:

Government spending rose 40 percent to 19.8 billion pesos in August from a year earlier. Tax revenue rose 36 percent to 24.2 billion pesos over the same period. Argentina's borrowing needs will swell to as much as $14 billion next year from $7 billion in 2008, RBC Capital Markets a Toronto-based unit of Canada's largest bank, said yesterday, spurred in part by the need to refinance maturing debt.

My feeling of pity for my friends is mitigated by the dark suspicion that We'll be next. The U.S. will reach the tipping point under Obama's tax proposals next year, and more than 50% of the citizenry will no longer pay income taxes. They will thus have no incentive to restrain spending because the minority will be footing the bill while the majority will receive the benefits. Witness Hartford sucking Greenwich dry, for example.

I remain perplexed by the insane joy of my liberal friends, all purportedly well educated, who greet this man as their savior when he will in fact beggar them. Bertrand Russell said in 1950

When crowds assemble in Trafalgar Square to cheer to the echo an announcement that the government has decided to have them killed, they would not do so if they had all walked twenty-five miles that day.

The old Red would choke on his Nobel to think that his words were used in support of less government, but I do wish my friends would take up strenuous hiking.

As a completely unrelated aside, while hitchhiking across the country one summer I was stopped and my knapsack searched by a Pennsylvania State Trooper. He was looking for drugs but I, being not a complete fool even at 16, had none to show him. He did emerge with my copy of "The Collected Works of Bertrand Russell". Weighing the tome in his hand, he said something like, "this guy was alright so long as he stuck to metaphysics - he went crazy near the end, though, and became a communist. Watch out for him." My participation in this discussion of philosophy was a little distracted because I kept ruminating on the thought that I would never again engage in such an unlikely conversation with a state trooper in my life. Forty years on, I never have.

30 Nearwater Lane

No Comment

This Riverside house, north of the Post Road on Nearwater Lane, is asking $3,195,000 (details can be found here: ML # 69442). With 5,000 sq. ft., a buyer would be paying $639 per foot. I'm not sure how many can take advantage of the disparity, but there are any number of new houses for sale asking around $450 per ft. Of course, these come in units of 15,000, but hey - a bargain's a bargain.

Gloomy Gus?

This guy notes that shipping is slowing to 1931 levels, the economies of most countries suck and, in general, we're staring at a World-wide Depression. Of course, Googling the man, one Ambrose Evans-Pritcher reveals that he thinks the Oklahoma bombing was an FBI sting operation gone bad. On the plus side, when he returned to England (where he is now the Financial Editor for the Telegraph) Clinton sighed with relief and called him a pain in the ass. So he must have something going for himself. Anyway, interesting read. And when the DOW looks like this:

I don't have a secure feeling that he's wrong

154 Cognewaugh

Where the market's heading?

You can make up your own mind, but this new construction was listed for $4,895,000 in June, 2007 and, finding no buyer, slowly dropped to today's price of $3,750,000. It has 7,743 sq.ft. (no way to tell if that includes the basement) so at its original price the builder was looking for $632 per sq.ft. and now he's asking $484. So the price has dropped, by my math, a little less than 25% - you math wizards should feel free to correct me.

Interesting, the builder paid $1.4 million for the land in March, 2006 and put it back on as land in November of that year for $1.75 million. I guess he decided to go forward with the house when he couldn't find anyone willing to take the land off his hands. I wonder if he regrets that decision now or whether he still has enough built into the price to walk away with a profit? At $484 per sq.ft., I wouldn't think there's a huge margin remaining.

A reader has sent along this link to an article advocating a state Constitutional Convention wherein Connecticut could declare partial independence from the federal government and get them off our backs. I like the idea - I'm not so sure our national constitution permits it. Then again, I'm neither a constitutional scholar nor do I play one on TV. But many of the arguments the writer asserts for freeing us from the yoke of federal tyranny also apply to Fairfield County. How about seceding from the rest of Connecticut and letting Hartford find a new source of funding for its largess?

550 Round Hill Rd

A reader asked the status of 551 Round Hill Road. No such listing is in the MLS records but 550 is. Asking $22,500,000 with no takers, so far.

In California, "pain just beginning" for affluent neighborhoods. According to this article, people with more assets have been able to fend off foreclosure, until now. Anecdotal evidence (like an appraiser telling me that her firm's workload here in town is now 50% pre-foreclosure appraisals, up from nearly zero in past years) suggests to me that we're about to witness the same phenomenon here in Greenwich.

Oh, the humanity!

Illegal immigrants can't get mortgages. While I suspect that a hard working illegal would be an excellent credit risk (unless he were caught and deported, of course), surely there ought to be a few sanctions against violating our immigration laws. When I lived in Crete after high school, I believe Greece gave out visas good for 3 months that could, with a trip to Heraklion, be renewed, one month at a time, for an additional three. Working was not permitted and although I broke that rule occasionally by picking vegetables for a local farmer, I never felt that I was being discriminated against on the basis of race, religion or creed - I wasn't a Greek citizen so why should I resent their laws governing how I could visit their country?

I suppose that was the difference - I was visiting, even if I had no idea how long I intended to stay (like my latter-day Mexican counterparts, I hung out far longer than my visa allowed). Today's invasion of the United States is comprised of people who want to stay, work, raise families and obtain mortgages. With the exception of a few random raids on meat-packing plants, only the latter isn't allowed. But the howls of outrage continue to swell and, after the flood (that would be November's election), will only grow louder.

Another interesting day coming up?

European stocks, oil, both fall down.

if it weren't for the fact that low oil prices will retard the development of energy alternatives I'd be 100% delighted at the effect that, say, $45 per barrel would have on our pals in Venezuela and Russia. But we do need substitutes for oil and their development would be a boon if the politicians can be kept out of the process and the free market given free rein. It was politicians, after all, who struggled mightily to address this problem since the mid-1970s and came up with ... ethanol.

What does this story say about mortgage bailouts?

Nothing, that I can see. But it's in The New York Times so it must be important, right? One striking figure: the cost of bailing out everyone who doesn't want to or can't (both classes are being lumped together in federal plans) pay their mortgages: $4 trillion. Now that sum would make even a Democrat sit up and take notice, if only for a moment.

Update: NPR, of all media outlets, just aired an interview with someone from "Inside Mortgage" (I think that's the name) who expressed the heretical view that not everyone should own a home. He pointed out that someone who loses his house to foreclosure and then moves across the street to a rental for half his previous mortgage payment is probably better off. And, he asked, if someone can't keep up with his mortgage, is there any reason to believe he can keep his roof and furnace maintained? As I say, heresey.

Good heavens, now it's racist to describe Obama's economic policies:

"Socialist" code word for "black". Right wing whackos predicted that any opposition to Obama's policies would, were he elected, be denounced as racist. I thought they were being a bit hysterical, once. Now, I see that they were right all along, so I won't be so niggardly in praising their prescience.

Now you do it?!

San Francisco considers decriminalizing prostitution

New Construction on Cat Rock Road
No picture because it just came on today, but a good builder in town has listed 137 Cat Rock Road, 8,141 sq.ft. house for $5.495 million, or $675 sq.ft. But Cat Rock's a difficult sale, for a lot of people. It'll be interesting to watch what happens here.

When they came for my Mercedes I remained silent, because I drove a Bentley. When they came for my spec house .... Mercedes in a full-blown sales crisis.

And if you were one of those lucky ones who were accepted into the Tesla buy-a-car program, it must cause a few sleepless nights wondering where your deposit is, now that the company's laying off 25% of its workforce and looking for money. Nicest touch? They informed their employees they were being fired via a blog. Great.
Oft' promised, never delivered, Tesla sports car ($100,000?)

Update: I stand corrected - retail is $109,000 plus extra for tires, radio and seats.
This article says that the CEO remains upbeat , and that's nice. But I note that he's already sunk $55 million of his $300 million fortune into this deal, is also involved financially with tossing a private-passenger rocket ship into the air and is divorcing his wife, with whom he has five sons, all under six. California's a community property state so there goes 1/2 that $300 million, plus child support for all those kids whose mother will want to maintain a millionaire's lifestyle and, by gosh, I'm not sure I'd start clearing out a space in my garage for my new Tesla's arrival; at least, not quite yet.

Buy 'em all rubber boots
The paper version of Greenwich Time says that a "preliminary estimate" to correct drainage problems in town will cost $100,000,000. I don't know what the preliminary budget for Hamilton Avenue School was, but I'm a bit skeptical that this latest proposal will come in under budget, eh? I don't see how we can afford this. If you disagree, please write in to say so and please include your solution to financing this project.

By the way, there's no link here to the article itself because Greenwich Time chooses to keep it off its website. Brilliant idea, what? Keep important local news off your site but do include national stories that readers can, and do find elsewhere. But all is not lost - wanna know about a family turning its yard into a "fright fest"? That they've got. Splendid.

4 Old Round Hill Lane

This 15,916 sq.ft. stone/clapboard builder's spec. finally sold today (per contract signed Sept. 3) for $10,087,500 or $644 $633 per sq.ft. That's probably not what the builder was hoping for when he first listed this house in May, 2006, for $14,500,000 ($911 sq.ft.) but heck, that was then and this is now. The sales price represents 30% off the asking price, by the way. Is that a bargain? I guess it depends on your budget.