Murder!
The recent tragedy on Dairy Road elicited a frantic phone call to a friend and fellow agent from his clients. They were about to make the move from Manhattan but with poor Mr. Kissel’s death all over The New York Times, the wife was frantic with fear and the husband was reconsidering the move. Now really; this reminds me of people who refuse to fly after an airliner goes down even though they are one hundred times more likely to die driving to the airport than they are once in flight. Manhattan had 450 murders last year – Greenwich has what-one every fifteen? But murder at a good address, says Pete Hamill, is a tabloid’s best story and that tribe of reporters was certainly out in force last week.

By the way, over the weekend our First Selectman admitted something that I posited in my forthcoming book, Greenwich Mean Time (coming next month!): because there are so few murders in town, our police aren’t very good at solving them. In fact, in my 51 years in town, I don’t remember a single third-party murder being solved (the State of Connecticut may, or may not have solved the Moxley murder but no thanks to our local force). They say that, if you’re looking for heart surgery, go to a hospital that does lots of them. Similarly, if you want to get away with murder, come to Greenwich!

Over-Priced in the Mid-Country?
I toured a very nice house last week that was priced, at least in my often-erroneous judgment, at least $2,000,000 too high. Great location, so-so yard, and a beautiful house built in 1987 that is already obsolete, in terms of what most of today’s buyers insist on. This house had low ceilings, Formica (gasp!) in the kitchen and baths, and, all in all, a rather dated feel. I hope I’m wrong on this, and that the sellers will find a buyer who appreciates the house exactly as is but at its price range, I fear that buyers will opt for new construction. If so, then this less-than-twenty-year-old house is doomed for the dumpster and should be priced as land. Scary thought, eh?

Market Conditions

I don’t buy into the bursting-bubble theory, at least here in Greenwich, but things have definitely slowed down. Plenty of inventory and even plenty of buyers but in my own experience and the experience of other agents I’ve discussed this with, the buyers have no sense of urgency. A few years ago, if you found a house suitable for your buyers they would snap it up immediately, fearing that if they passed on it the next one they liked would be even more expensive. That’s not the case currently. I don’t see prices dropping, overall, but the pie-in-the-sky priced houses are sitting, and their prices are, slowly dropping. Dropping to a realistic level, not to bargain bin clearance. My advice to buyers is, if you find a house you like, go for it. Make a real bid, even if its below asking price, and get it. As for sellers, this is not the time to reach for the maximum conceivable price. Listen to your Realtor, look at the comparables that have recently sold and those that make up your competition, and price accordingly. What we really seem to be returning to is a normal market. Not a bust, and not the easy seller’s market of 2003.


Little Thai Kitchen

A friend (thank you, Peter) tipped me off about this little hole-in-the-wall on St. Roch Avenue and I’m glad he did. It’s reasonable priced (lunch specials are $7-9) comes with cheerful service and the food is delicious. I haven’t tried everything on the menu, but I can recommend the chicken satay, the gang ped yang (that’s duck with curry, pineapple and coconut) and definitely the larb, which is an appetizer of chopped beef with lime, scallions and mint. In fact, I haven’t encountered a bad dish yet. One warning: I like my food spicy and that’s how they serve it, unless specifically instructed otherwise. If your taste buds are more delicate, tell your waiter. The Kitchen serves Thai iced tea and cranberry juice but lacks a liquor license, presumably because its within 100 yards of Hamilton Avenue Elementary School (although the image of a little fourth-grader sidling up to the bar seems a stretch). That’s fine with me but if you wish to bring something stronger, you can. Nice place, and they deliver. Closed Mondays, you can reach them at 622-2972.

Land Values
I’ve recently noticed a number of what are basically tear-downs come on the market that are priced at $2,000,000 and above. That’s fine for certain addresses: Round Hill Road, for instance, but way too high, I think, for less expensive areas of town like Riverside and Old Greenwich (excluding waterfront, naturally). Think about it: if a builder pays $2,000,000 for a piece of land, he’ll need to get at least $4,500,000 for anything he builds there. Right now, the new construction I’m seeing in the areas I’m talking about are selling for between $3,000,000 and $3,500,000. Builders are great guys, but I doubt they want to build new spec houses for free. So if you’re selling your old, 1954 house on a third of an acre and you think that its worth $2,000,000, think again.

Penthouse Living
Gloria Chin Bestoff recently gave me a tour of her listing at 11 Lafayette Court, a one bedroom penthouse asking $899,000. I liked it. The views are spectacular: Long Island Sound, the New York skyline and during the summer, Gloria tells me, the Playland fireworks. Pretty cool. Everything: appliances, windows, wiring, etc. has been recently upgraded with the exception of the greenhouse – apparently the owner has the right to convert that to an outdoor terrace and was holding off work on the greenhouse while he made up his mind. Personally, I would trade the warmth and great winter-time ambiance of a greenhouse for a terrace, but either way, this is a very nice unit, in a great location. Comes with parking, too.

Private Schools and Real Estate
Real estate activity always slows down when public schools go on break but it seems to me that it really takes a hit when the private schools take vacation. “Seems to me” because I don’t have statistics to show that decline (I’m waiting for Bob Fossum at Shore & Country to do my work for me) but it was very, very quiet a few weeks ago. I’m not at all sure why, because surely not every home buyer sends his or her kids to Brunswick – check out Greenwich High’s parking lot if you disbelieve this; it’s parking lot is jammed with cars most of us would envy and I’ve got to believe that the parents buying those cars for their kids are fully capable of affording a house in town. So what gives? Is it the brokers who flee town with their kids? I don’t have the answer but I’m sure a reader will enlighten me.

So How’s the market?
As of March 31st, inventory is up 20% higher than last year, which is never encouraging news for sellers. There are a lot of buyers out there – I had fifteen showings over the weekend for a newly listed condo at Old Greenwich Gables – but there’s more to choose from, so buyers are being choosey. Still, with the exception of Rick Loh’s listing on Oval Avenue, every house I’ve mentioned recently as a good value has gone to contract (Rick’s listing is a mystery to me – great house). So as always, the way to sell your house is to price it right.

A Rose by any other Name

Those nice condos I wrote about on Valley Road are being built by the Santora brothers, not Santoro. David was nice enough not to mention my lapse, but I do try for at least a semblance of accuracy in this column.

Dolly Powers

So last week a bunch of us Realtors loaded onto a bus and went to Hartford to meet our legislators. This is a once-a-year thing, scheduled long in advance, but only Dolly was there to meet us. Hmmm. Two of our reps were in Greenwich (who knows where the other was?) and it seems more efficient if next year, we just meet them here. In any event, there are lots of bad things in the air up north, including extending the doubling of the conveyance tax, a “trial” buyer’s tax, a lead-paint abatement law that should make affordable housing unaffordable, and so on. In Texas, they used to say that no man’s women or cattle were safe while the legislature was in session. I suspect those Texan legislators have moved east. Dolly was great, by the way. She opposes the idea that all of the state’s woes can and should be cured by raising transaction costs for real estate and was unfamiliar only with one bill, the lead paint abatement plan (which is outside her legislative jurisdiction). When its provisions were explained to her she said, “why that’s just stupid”. I do love a leader who can succinctly summarize a pending bill.

David Van Hosen Realtor/builder
Van Hosen has completed the second of three houses he's building on Orchard Street and this one is as nice as the first. All three back up to the Pomerance/Pinetum parks so you can be assured that no one will be building in your back yard. I like that a lot, but here's a caveat: if you're one of those people who absolutely can't stand the thought of strangers wandering around within sight of your house; you know, dangerous folks like ice skaters and picnickers, then this site is probably not for you. Try a graveyard, instead.
For the rest of us, this is a terrific house. I understand that Van Hosen purchased the land for $1.4 million and then engineered a third lot out of the deal. My understanding of most things is always a bit vague so don't hold me to this but it would explain how the builder could put so much expensive quality into this house and ask only $3.8 million for it. Custom moldings, Brazilian cherry wood and all that are expensive, but it's the high price of land thatis driving things over the top. He avoided that here.

Church Street
I see very few houses on the weekly circuit that I personally want, mostly because I have no desire to own a 10,000 sq. feet dust collector. But Ira Fenig has just brought on a single family house on Church Street that, had any of my film scripts sold, I'd be in contract on today. Everything used in the construction is first rate, from the beautiful bricks and Federal cornice work outside to exquisite cabinetry and beautiful proportions inside. I don't get wildly enthusiastic aTV'st plasma tvs because I don't watch much tv but if you do, it's all here waiting for you. I liked the elevator, the private rear terrace and even the heated driveway to make sure you can leave your snow shovel behind when you move from the Back Country. This is the perfect house for a down-sizing couple. It has the size and the elegance to continue corporate entertaining, if you must, plenty of room for visiting children and grandchildren but small enough to feel very, very comfortable when it's just the two of you. $4,995,000 which should make the downtown market sit up and take notice.

Window Smashing Spree
According to Greenwich Time a pack of vandals has been roaming around town smashing car windows. Always infuriating, of course, but what caught my eye was the statement that the level of bad activity was surprising because "school is in session". Public schools are in session, yes, and presumably those students are too busy writing college applications to devote weekday nights to mayhem but private schools have been closed for two weeks. Assuming that not all of them are sunning on the slopes of Gstaad, isn't it possible that a few of the little darlings are home, and bored? Bad behavior (and drug use) do not stop at the gates of private schools; just ask a student. And besides, you sent the little troublemaker away to boarding school for a reason, didn't you? Well he's back!

Jesus Saves
But Christ Church recyles. I stopped by the other day to watch a guy operating a portable sawmill to convert storm-felled limbs of that great copper beech on the Annex's front yard into planks. Turns out, the church will use the lumber to build a chair for visiting dignitaries, which I think is a great idea (using the wood for something other than firewood; I have no opinion on visiting dignitaries). Even though these were just limbs, they were large enough to yield beautiful, wide planks. I hate seeing high-quality wood turned into stove fuel; if you lose a tree, you might want to look into selling its wood for lumber. The price is sky-high these days (even if your tree no longer is) and one good log, peeled for veneer, would probably pay for a very nice replacement.

The Easter Egg Hunt
Easter approaches and with it my family's traditional viewing of the great Easter Egg Hunt, a family video started twenty-plus years ago and added to each year. My favorite scene: my then three-year-old son John, sitting in a dogwood tree, watching in amazement as an egg drops from a higher branch straight into his basket. He looks up and says in a high, excited voice, "Thank you, God". If I have only one wish for that boy, now twenty-three, it's that he never loses the sense of gratitude and wonder when good things fall into his life. Even if that higher power is just gravity.

Private Schools
Admission letters went out two weeks ago, spurring all sorts of activity. Riverside families whose kids got into Brunswick are suddenly interested in the western side of town, New Yorkers whose little darlings didn’t get in are no longer interested in moving out, and so on. Tom Gorin, principle of Cleveland, Duble & Arnold, reminds me that the process works the other way, too: New Yorkers who can’t get their kids into that city’s private kindergartens start looking in towns with good public schools, like Greenwich.

24 West End Avenue
This is an almost new (built 2004) house listed by Francoise Levinson that I admire very much. The lots on West End are long and very narrow, which yield, as in this case, very nice backyards but present a challenge to anyone building on them. In this instance, the builder erected a long narrow house that looks great, both outside and inside. Because he used steel I beams to span large distance, the house is bright, open and should withstand anything a hurricane can throw at it. Three car garage, five bedrooms (four up, one down) and a really attractive finished basement. A block from Old Greenwich so train commuting’s a snap. I liked this house when I watched it going up and it’s just as nice today.$2,750,000.

Woxtra! Woxtra!
I notice a headline in The National Inquirer announcing that Atlantis has been found. I wonder how many times in that fine newspaper’s history it has found the lost continent only to lose it again. Careless.

Your Name is Destiny
Seen on the Post Road, a panel van emblazoned, “Shock Electric”.

Downtown Parking
Back in the 1960’s my family enjoyed making fun of our neighbor Joe’s long, rambling letters to the editor complaining about the lack of downtown parking and proposing various ways of providing it. We wouldn’t have thought he was so humorous had we known that nothing would be done about parking for the next forty years. The defeat of the latest proposed project, just off Elm Street, astonishes me. I haven’t shopped on Greenwich Avenue for years because of the lack of parking and I realize that the parking shortage will self-correct, eventually: more people will join me in shopping elsewhere and parking spaces will free up. But we, unlike so many New England towns, have a thriving downtown. Why would we jeopardize that when, as Joe pointed out, there are many solutions. All that is required is the will and I’m perplexed that that will is lacking.

Paint that House!
I toured a perfectly nice house in Riverside recently that is not selling and has just had its price reduced by $200,000. I think I know why: it’s empty and has the feel of a long-time rental property that has been neglected by its owners. If those owners had taken the time and gone to the expense to repaint inside and spruce up (not even replace) the bathrooms, I think the house would have sold months ago and the $200,000 price drop would have been unnecessary. Buyers like a house to be in move-in condition – this one looks like a project.

Press Releases
This will come as a shock to most of you, but not every press release is exactly accurate. The Greenwich Time recently ran an article on the sale of 382-84 Greenwich Avenue that quoted one commercial broker, as having represented the seller in the deal. “We advised the owners to take advantage of the historical highs we are seeing … and sell the property in its present condition….I think the result clearly speaks for itself. The owners, I know, are very satisfied….” Well not anymore. Turns out, the owners paid that broker $25,000 to go away and used another firm, Karp Associates Advisors, Inc. to represent them. The commission on a $10,000,000 sale is a tad more than $25,000. But hey, if it works for one guy, maybe it will work for me: I hereby advise each and every one of you to take advantage of the historical highs we are seeing and sell now. There – now I can claim credit for every sale in town and stop the annoying necessity of having to name other agents.

Open Houses
I’ve said this before but here goes again: out of the approximately 1,500 agents in town, you will see the same 100 regularly out at open houses. Not every one of those active agents is a top producer (I serve as an example of that) but every top agent is out there. Cause and effect? I think so. You can’t sell what you don’t know about.

Dodo birds, Travel Agents and Realtors
The New York Times Magazine section devoted an entire issue to real estate and, in a pleasant departure from recent practice, filled it with interesting articles. The one creating the most buzz among my fellow agents was by the author of “Freakonomics”, in which he predicts that the rise of the internet, which gives what he claims to be full, complete information on every house for sale, will soon put an end to this profession or at least reduce it to a fee-based service: $40 an hour for showing a house, $250 to list it on the MLS, and so forth. Depressing news for some of us if he’s right, and he might be. After all, lawyers in Greenwich used to charge a percentage of a house’s selling price for representing buyers and sellers but switched entirely to fees when our practice was ruled, er, a tad anti-competitive. Lawyers are still around, you’ll have noticed, but we certainly rued the loss of that percentage when, over the years, house prices soared.

But I’m not so sure the author is right. For one thing, services like Zillow.com, which he cites as an accurate source of pricing information, are anything but. They offer out-dated information, missing entire renovations, for instance, and usually are way off on the square footage of a house – I don’t know why. An error in pricing either way could cost a seller a lot of money. Assist to Sell offers to list your house on the MLS, stick a lock-box on your door and then leave you to it. Emanual Kant might have something to say about this because he wrote that, before imposing a system (in his case, moral, in this case, business model) one has to expand things a bit and see what would happen if everyone were to do it. Assist to Sell, so far as I understand its model, requires that there be buyer’s agents to screen customers and escort them through your house. If no one is paid to do that, or gets $40 an hour, same thing, then who is going to be willing to conduct these tours (I read recently that unions have been paying homeless men minimum wage and no health benefits to picket Walmart protesting its low pay but is that really the labor base you want to show your house?)

I was discussing all this with Valerie Sanantonio, a very bright person who, with Bill Andruss, has just listed a huge house on Wyckham Hill for a reasonable price (more on the house next week) and she pointed out possibly the biggest error in the theory: the idea that sellers and buyers are solely interested in price – they’re not; both groups want service and information, and lots of it. The internet will not warn you about FAR limitations, proposed zoning changes that will effect the use of your house, pre-screen customers, wait at your house for 45 minutes when those same customers run late, call the plumber when a pipe bursts in your vacant house, etc. Of course, I may be just whistling past the graveyard here. If so, I hope the author’s predictions, if they do come true, hold off long enough for me to get my kids through school.

200 Lake Avenue
Debby Huffard has just listed what she calls a single residence and I’d call a town house with party wall, for $2,995,000. Whatever, it’s neat. Originally built in 1889 for the headmistress of Rosemary Hall, it has its own, very private walled back yard and once had, according to June Peters, who knows everything, a tunnel in the basement connecting it to the attached house next door. Restored, nicely finished, close to town. I like it.

Santoro Brothers
These three brothers (Joe, Paul and David) are continuing a construction business started by their father just after WW II. The current project on Valley Road is not dissimilar to the Rosemary Hall house described above. Technically, it’s a condominium but the only common wall is the garage. This end of Valley is a work in progress so to overcome that the brothers have loaded quality, size and top-end appliances into what feels like two, single family homes. Four bedrooms in each, 4,000 sq. ft., two-car garages, walk-out basement, decent yard, all for around $1,500,000. As Joe told me, their business carries their family name and they have no intention of demeaning that. The pride of that statement shows in every inch of this project – A good buy and, as the neighborhood continues to go upscale, which it will, a good investment.

The Power of the Multi-List
A property in Havemeyer came on the market last week priced, by its Stamford real estate agent, at $739.000. Don’t tell Bud Dealy but Havemeyer land is worth far more than that. Whether the listing agent was clueless about Greenwich values or slyly intended to set off a bidding war is irrelevant because, thanks to the property being exposed to every agent in town, she got that war. The property went via sealed bids two days after being listed and I’m quite sure it sold for far more than its asking price. As I’ve noted before, you simply can’t under-price your house in this market; so long as you put it on the multiple listing service and expose it to everyone, its price will be bid to it’s proper level. Over-pricing, on the other hand, is quite another story.

Not Over-Priced in Riverside
I saw three really nice, well-priced Riverside houses during last week’s snow squall: 10 Knoll Street, 22 Oval Avenue and 9 Willow Road, priced at $2,150,000, $2,195,000 and $2, 695, respectively. (And listed by, in order, Mairead O’Sullivan, Rick Loh and Randy Keleher). The first two houses are almost certainly gone by today and I expect Willow will go quickly too. As an aside, the Oval Avenue house is graced with Thomas Moser furniture in the dining room and master bedroom. I don’t think the furniture is included in the price but a shrewd negotiator ….

Riverside is always an active market and anything remotely well-priced will be snapped up, but there are buyers out there for all areas of town, at all levels. I heard from one friend that when she went to show a new, $10,000,000 listing she learned that hers was the 40th showing of the week. I find it reassuring that there are that many bonus babies wandering around town with huge wads of cash in their hip pockets. Even if they’re still at the tire-kicking stage, their presence should give comfort to every builder of 10,000 sq. ft. starter homes.

Have You Hugged Your realtor Today?
I received the nicest email from a client recently, simply thanking me for my efforts on her family’s behalf. While writing venomous complaint letters is more fun, I’ve learned that there is a particular satisfaction in drafting a complimentary missive, precisely because they’re so rare. So find something your satisfied with (I realize that’s impossible for some of you, but try) and tell someone about it. But please, do keep your hate mail coming here – it’s so much fun learning that one of my darts has hit home.

Selling It
My number one pet hate is, every six years or so, having to subject myself to the intellectual pond scum that poses as car salesmen. They have one script, probably drafted by Henry Ford himself in 1915, and try to persuade me to visualize a new car in my driveway, defer any questions of price to the always-mysteriously absent “manager” and appeal to my ego and what they think is my sense of pride. It’s awful and I can’t stand it so this morning, when offered a chance to attend a sales meeting where I could learn to apply those same techniques to my own clients, I passed. Out – of – towners think that slick sales tactics will fool Greenwichites into buying houses they don’t want or can’t afford. I disagree: anyone who has amassed the wherewithal to buy property here is a lot smarter than I am, so how am I going to trick them? Any good Realtor will tell you, I think, that the key to success is building relationships. You provide solid facts, an honest opinion and information that addresses objections and you’ll do just fine. You can also sleep at night, which is nice. Plus, you save the cost and time of a seven-week course on hucksterism.

Apartment Conversions
I feel bad for the tenants of Putnam Green and Weavers Hill which were sold last week (for $223,000,000!) and will be converted to condominiums at an average asking price, I read, of $1,000,000. I don’t dispute the right of the new owners to do what they want with their property and the real estate agent in me gloats at the prospect of 464 new condos to sell but it’s sad to contemplate what is about to happen to all those families who’ve rented there. There are almost no three bedroom apartments for rent in Greenwich and certainly not at the prices these have historically rented for so, once again, we’ll see another exodus of young families and old folks shoved out of town.

Pricing Your House

A reader from Cos Cob recently asked about two houses on the market: one, on a slightly better street, had five bedrooms and a large yard yet is priced $150,000 less than a three bedroom house on a tiny yard. What gives, he asked. A couple of things. One is that asking price and selling price are often not the same, so the discrepancy may not really exist; we’ll know when they sell. Another is, value is in the eye of the buyer. The smaller house was completely renovated this year, and is in beautiful condition. The larger house was renovated five years ago. Someone with one or two kids may not value a fourth and fifth bedroom and may prefer what is in effect a brand new house. If so, she may be willing to pay more to get it. Someone with different needs may prefer the five bedroom house.

But if your house is for sale, listen to the market. Lots of showings but no offers probably means that you’re a little over-priced. No showings at all means you have completely misjudged the value of your house – the real estate agents know it and aren’t wasting their or their clients’ time by even bothering to drive by. That’s bad. Remember, if three different agents give you price opinions within a close range of each other and a fourth agent is, say, 25% higher, it’s probable that the last agent is trying to buy your listing, by which I mean grabbing the listing at a wildly inflated price in the hope that she can get you to lower your sights down the road. That’s going to give you nothing but headaches and frustration.

Swan Update
The swan that I wrote about awhile back is back in the wild. Meredith Sampson took it home, kept it four days and then released it on the Mianus River, where it flew down stream headed, Meredith suspects, back to its home base on Mill Pond. Her guess is that the bird hit power lines and, stunned, fell to earth. Whatever happened, it’s okay now. Meredith, by the way, rescues wild birds out of goodness of her heart. Our family likes to donate a little cash now and then to help cover some of her animals’ expenses. If you’d like to do the same, I’m sure she’d appreciate it. Her address is: Meredith Sampson, 27 Park Avenue, Old Greenwich, CT 06870.

Super-Size Me
I was in a really nice house in Old Stone Bridge the other day but it felt a little small compared to others I’d toured the same day. Upon reflection, I realized that we’ve all inflated the idea of what size a “normal” house should be. The Old Stone Bridge development went up in 1979 and at that time were perfectly acceptably-sized. Twenty-seven years later, we expect 10’ ceilings, five bedrooms (with baths for each) an eat-in kitchen, etc. It’s no wonder prices have gone up – we’ve doubled the size of what we want.

More Numbers
Shore & Country has a pretty neat website, “liveingreenwich.com” where, thanks to Bob Fossum, there are all sorts of interesting statistics on Greenwich real estate: price appreciation over the years, current inventory and so on. Try it, you’ll like it. I do, anyway, because it allows this lazy columnist to effortlessly gather column fodder. For instance, our current inventory of single family houses is 429, a 28% increase from last year. That’s good news for buyers, not so good news for sellers. Available condo’s on the other hand, have dropped 6%: 100, down from 106. One thing the statistics confirm is what you already know: Greenwich real estate has been an excellent investment over time. Perhaps not the same appreciation as Worldcom or Enron enjoyed in their day but then …

Adventures in Home Building
A couple of readers have emailed me wondering whether I had anything to say about the new Victorian Hansel and Gretel house going up on Park Avenue South in Old Greenwich. I have mixed feelings: one the one hand, it’s not my taste; on the other, when so many houses being built today all look the same, it’s nice to see a house reflect its builder’s personality. From a re-sale perspective, this one may be a little too individualistic to sell readily but its owner clearly couldn’t care less and, for that I say, more power to you. Definitely worth a drive by. You don’t need the street number because you’ll know this house when you see it.

Market Conditions
A bit of a slow down in the past few weeks. Sixty-eight single family houses went to contract between January 1 and February 17 this year, compared to eighty-one in 2005 and ninety-five in 2004. The market is not moribund, by any means, but there are a lot of tire kickers out there. It doesn’t help that the main stream media continues to declare a bursting of the housing bubble; just last week, the New York Times wrote that speculative pre-construction condo buyers are losing their shirts. There is a big difference, I think, between speculators operating in Miami and families buying homes in Greenwich. The Times disagrees but then, we rarely see eye-to-eye on anything.

Renovated and Still Going
I really liked 395 Stanwich (or 53 Rock Maple, take your pick) when it was first listed a year or two ago. It was a 1938 classic in need of some updating but I personally wouldn’t have changed all that much. Ann Benedict (Country Living Associates) bought it and, while sharing my own tastes as to what needed doing, bowed to market demands and added the now-requisite eat-in-kitchen, a huge new master bedroom suite and even baths for each of the bedrooms. No sharing for today’s princes and princesses! But she did a great job of preserving everything that made this house so appealing to begin with: graceful proportions, cedar (I think) moldings and the prettiest living room in town. The house was bumped out a bit, sideways and forwards to accommodate the new kitchen and master bedroom but I didn’t even notice that when I first pulled up. So, beautiful house, terrific grounds with an additional two-acre conservation buffer and a price of $4,950,000. Well worth it, I think.

13 Edgewater Drive
Another example of how to renovate a house. Originally built in 1915, it was expanded 1981 and new owners renovated it last year. It’s still relatively small: 2,600 sq.ft., four bedrooms, two baths, but I think it will perfectly suit the needs of a young family. Walking distance to the school, train or, going the other way, the beach. Susie Schruth (Prudential) has listed it at $1,735,000. If it doesn’t sell for more than that in a bidding war then we’ll know we’re in a downturn. But I’m betting it’s gone in days.

Planning & Zoning
The P&Z is allocated eight staff members, who keep busy reviewing applications, dealing with the public and so forth. Of the eight positions authorized, however, only three are currently filled. This is a huge problem, as you will discover when you go to get a permit for a simple addition. For instance, if your property is within 1,000 feet of the water you will need a Coastal Area Management (CAM) review. In the past, projects within the CAM area but not actually on the water were put through an “administrative review” which meant you filled out a lot of paperwork, the staff read through it to make sure all the proper forms were filled in and you were approved; ten day delay, at worst. Now, because of the staff shortage, that same simple review takes at least two months. And it is not just CAM reviews that are being delayed, everything is. Want to add a deck this summer? Expand your kitchen? Better start applying now, or you’ll be sweeping snow off your unfinished project next January. I don’t hold any personal grudge against Diane Fox, who runs the P&Z, but one of the responsibilities of an administrator is to ensure proper staffing levels. This problem has persisted for a long time and is getting worse, not better. Why? And, assuming Fox is incapable of curing the shortage, why doesn’t one of her superiors step in?

School Vacation
It’s been pure bliss getting around town this week with the schools closed and so many families away. No fighting frenzied, whippet-thin anorexics in Starbucks, no need to dodge SUVs, it’s even been possible to find a parking space. All in all, it feels the way Greenwich did decades ago and I enjoy it. Perhaps we should close the schools permanently.

It May Be Time to Retire When …
One of our older Realtors donned those paper, over-the-shoe booties agents pass out at open houses when the weather’s bad. She toured the house, came down the stairs, searched around the front door and exclaimed, “but I can’t find my shoes!”. In fairness to her, I suspect we all have days like that.

Renovate or Dumpster Bait?
One of the more frequent questions we agents get asked by our clients is whether it is simpler (and cheaper) to load an existing house into a dumpster and start anew. The answer depends on the house, of course: its design, condition, location on its lot and so forth. If I were to do it again on my own house, I’d scrape the thing rather than make so many compromises in working around the existing layout. But that doesn’t mean, as some builders think, that every house should be torn down. Some, like the Italianate on Riversville Road, were just too beautiful to tear down (not that the builder was deterred- he loaded everything up in a dumpster and has built a boring, conventional house. Idiot).
And regardless of age, some houses can be expanded very nicely with less effort than
starting anew. Some recent projects that caught my eye were 422 Riversville Road, Jan
Miliken’s listing, asking $4,750,000. Totally renovated last year by its owner who works,
I think, as a kitchen designer here in town and obviously has an eye for more than just
kitchens.

Shelly Tretter’s listing at 97 Lockwood Road in Riverside is one of the original Lockwood family’s houses, built in 1828 and renovated and expanded slowly over the years. I think it’s great as is but at $2,025,000 there’s probably room to spend some more if you want to.

John Cooke’s new listing at 4 Kinsman Lane, off Bruce Park, has not been renovated, but it should be. $1,295,000 – add a few hundred thousand and you’d have an excellent house.

The Eagle has Landed
Well, a sick swan, anyway, that collapsed on the center line of the Post Road the other Saturday morning and refused to move. A couple of drivers parked on either side of it to prevent it’s being converted to road kill, so we called Meridith Sampson, Old Greenwich’s only (?) federally certified wild bird rescuer and the police. Meridith arrived to find the bird surrounded by four police cars. No word on the outcome, although Meridith brought the bird home and began feeding it antibiotics, but I think it’s a telling, and nice testimony to our town that we can send out four patrol cars for one bird. We’re still, in many ways, a sleepy town, and I like that.

Perils of Winter Construction
So did you notice that, after spending a week preparing and pouring a sidewalk for the new Cos Cob Starbucks they sent in a machine to dig it all up and do it again? I did, and the curiosity was killing me but I feared that the workers redoing the job might be grumpy so I waited until a cop was dispatched to direct traffic around the second pour and I asked him. Turns out, it rained the afternoon of the first pour, then froze, and the expanding ice popped the whole job out of the ground. Ouch. Whatever the profit margin is for this type of job, it probably isn’t enough to cover doing it twice.

Over-priced houses
A perennial theme of this column is, price your house to sell. Most agents get it; many owners do not. Still, I was shocked to see a house come on the market recently that was at least 25% - $1,000,000 too high. That’s not just my opinion. I asked several other agents for their suggested asking price got the same answer. There are some really nice houses in the threes – all nicer than this one, and I suspect this owner is going to discover that to his sorrow.

Nicely Priced Houses
25 Hendrie Lane, Carlton MacLean’s listing, $1,995,000. Hendrie is a quiet, dead-end street just steps from schools and the train. This is a nice, big house that, at this price, is probably gone already.
A little distance away, Ginnie Ridenour has listed 11 Owenoke Way for $2,195,000. It has been renovated a bit more recently than Hendrie, which may account for the price difference but either house would be a great buy.
A long distance from either of those two houses Walter Durniak has listed 14 Chateau Ridge Drive for $4,795,000. Great views, wonderful yard and in excellent condition. I see this as appealing to either parents with teenagers or grandparents who want a place to stash grandkids on visits because the master bedroom is on the ground floor while four additional bedrooms are on the second and lower floors, respectively. You could host a visiting rock band and never know it.

Mama, Mia, That’sa Spicy Meatball!
From the New York Times: “Correction – a recipe last Wednesday for Super Bowl meatballs misstated the amount of chilies to be used. It is one or two canned chilies, not one or two cans.”

19 Shannon Lane
Ellen Mosher (Coldwell Banker/Curtis) has just listed this house for $1,395,000. If that’s your price range, hurry over and buy it because I don’t think there’s a better house available. Unprepossessing on the outside, the inside is really nice – tastefully renovated with a lot of useful space. I am not fond of driving Cognewaugh and Shannon is off of that street, but this property directly abuts the Mianus River Park; I’ll trade a little inconvenience for the ability to walk out my backdoor and go hiking. If I owned it I might work on making the exterior a little more interesting but that’s a quibble; this is in move-in condition and, again, a great value for this price.

20 Maher Avenue
One of my favorite in-town streets, this is a very nice family house. It’s an older home updated with a new kitchen/family room, wrap-around porches, six bedrooms and a decent backyard. Lynn Stevens has priced it at $3,250,000, which I think is about right. Of course, what I is irrelevant – the market decides these things, so I’ll be watching with curiosity. Whatever price it fetches, someone will have a great family house on a great street.

Finney Knoll
That’s Riverside Lane to most of us, overlooking Hay Days. Regardless, this new, seven home complex looks like a terrific value. I wrote about its great exterior architecture (by Mark Strazza, brother of the builder, Ralph) a few weeks ago; last week I saw the interior of the first one and was just as impressed. Russ Pruner, principal of the listing broker, Shore & Country, told me that Stazza essential put a $3,000,000 finish into a $1,990,000 house, and it shows. This is a smart move, because the location is not ideal, and you’re going to need some incentive to move in. I don’t believe there’s a house this nice anywhere in town at this price range and, when all seven houses are finished, they will comprise a nice little micro-neighborhood on their own. This particular house is a loss leader, in a way, because the developer intends to raise prices on the others. If you’re in this range of the market, I’d go snap this up.

14 Nawthorne
Lauren Muse’s own house, asking $3,375,000. That’s a fantastic price for this house. So fantastic, in fact, that by the time your read this it is probably already gone in a bidding war. If not, go get it.

The Numbers are Here
Year end sales statistics are out, and they tell an interesting tale. I’m proud to announce that I listed and sold the cheapest house in town last year, 3 West End Court, $475,000 (someone had to do it so I’m glad it was me). I doubt we’ll see another house under $500,000 again. Carolyn Sarsen sold the most expensive, 18 Simmons Lane, for $18,500,000. Hey Carolyn, let’s switch places this year, just for fun! For the full year, almost every category: single family, condo, etc. was up about 11%. Average sales price for single family homes was $2,470,000, median was $1,750,000, compared with 2004’s figures of $2,221,312 and $1,550,000 respectively. Condos, 2005: $812,169 and $675,000; 2004:$733,664 and $606,250. Land didn’t do so well, though. Average was $2,801,625, median was $2,000,000, compared to 2004’s figures of $2,303,573 and $1,945,125.

Of particular interest, perhaps, is to compare the last quarters of the two years, to see where we started and where we ended up. In 2005’s last quarter, 181 single family houses sold with the average and median prices of $2,912,952 and $2,070,000. In 2004, 215 houses sold, at $2,344,949 and $1,495,000. On average (the figure varies wildly from neighborhood to neighborhood), single families sold for 2.16 of their assessment this past quarter, compared to 2.1 in the same quarter in 2004. For the full year of 2005, that same factor was 2.24 this year, 2.09 last.

In 2005’s last quarter, 25 houses sold in the $3 - $4 million range, compared to 19 in 2004. $2 - $3 million, the numbers are identical: 33 in each quarter. Greater than $5 million, 21 this past quarter, 19 in 2004.

So the price appreciation is reassuring; the 15% drop in the number of single families sold (12% drop for the year, 865 vs. 978) is probably not ominous because 2004 saw the largest number of homes sold in town, ever. We’re probably just regressing to the norm, but it’s obvious (or seems to be) that, as the prices increase, fewer families can afford them. I’ll be watching this year’s quarterly reports to see if this trend continues or whether Wall Street continues to generate new young billionaires (bless their little hearts) to take the place of normal folks.

Estate Taxes
The New York Times ran an interesting article recently on Qualified Personal Resident Trusts, or “QPRTS”. Basically, they work like this: when your spouse dies, you, assuming you hold the property in joint tenancy, get the house at a stepped up basis – that is, not what you originally paid for the house but its value at the time of your spouse’s death. Place the house in a ten year (or longer) QPERT, and keep living. At the end of ten years, title to the house passes to your children but you can continue to live there, paying rent, if you wish to pass more income downstream, or not. Your children benefit because their gift is valued at the present value of the house at the time you placed it in trust. The present value of a $2,000,000 house is far less than $2,000,000 (the IRS does the math so I don’t have to). When you die, your kids pay capital gains tax (15%) instead of inheritance tax (46%) if they sell – the Times reporter points out that for vacation homes, selling is probably not desired anyway. Best of all, everyone escapes paying taxes on the appreciation over the past ten years. I am certainly not an estate lawyer but, with the federal government and now Connecticut chomping at the bit to get at your assets, it seems sensible to consult such a lawyer and see if QPRT makes sense for you.

Synthetic Roofing
Have you seen the new “slate roofing” that’s made from recycled rubber tires? I have, but didn’t realize it until it was pointed out to me. I saw the product discussed a few years ago when “This Old House” used it for one of their projects and now I’ve done some research on the web to check it out. Pretty neat. Antique slate is used to make molds for the rubber ones which emerge looking exactly like their parents (up to seven different molds are employed so that, when randomly installed, the appearance of genuine slate is maintained). The manufacturers price the stuff at close to the price of real slate (which, according to a 2005 article I read, was $500 per square – 100 square feet- in Massachusetts). Asphalt shingles are less $200 per square. But, the synthetics look better than asphalt, come with a fifty year guarantee (and a hundred year life expectancy) and weigh about a quarter of what real slate does, so your builder doesn’t have to add extra reinforcement. Because they are so light, can be cut with a razor knife and installed with a pneumatic gun, This Old House estimates that, installed, the synthetic slate would run between $700 and $900 a square while real slate will cost $1,300 to $1,500. The same people are now making roof shingles that look like wood – same fifty year guarantee vs. ten to fifteen years for wood. I like the idea of keeping tires and old plastic hose out of landfills and, if the product serves as well or better than what it replaces, and costs half the price, how can you lose?

18 Old Wagon Road
Here’s a bargain, I think. This new construction by a really good local builder (and listed by Ellen Roth) is asking $2,195,000. A similar house by the same builder using exactly the same high-level finishes recently sold on Winthrop for around $3,100,000. Obviously, Winthrop is not Havemeyer, but then, not everyone can afford a $3,000,000 house. This one has all the luxuries you’d expect in new construction: huge eat-in-kitchen with top of the line appliances, master suite, beautiful (and expensive) trim, finished basement and so on. I like it a lot and I think it’s a good value right now. As prices in Havemeyer continue to climb, this house will look like a really good buy in retrospect.

15 Shoal Lane
Ann Simpson’s new listing on Shoal Point Lane is right on my favorite body of water, Ole’s Creek. The creek forms a “creek neighborhood” on both sides – Riverside and Old Greenwich. We fish off each other’s docks, chat up each other from kayaks and canoes and the kids swarm from yard to yard. It’s a short row or paddle to Long Island Sound, as long as you do such rowing within a couple hours of high tide. Visitors might be appalled that the water disappears twice a day but we residents know that that’s when blue herons, egrets and all sorts of other wading birds appear; I find low tide to be at least as interesting as high. Ann’s listing is in the heart of that neighborhood and if you’d like to join us here on the water, you know who to call.

37 Hickory Drive
I think this house is one of the best buys on the market at $849,000. Its owners have kept it in absolutely mint condition: new baths, a new kitchen and updated mechanicals, so it’s in move-in condition, with no hidden costs to meet. Hickory Drive overlooks the Byram River and is, by my measurement, only three miles from the top of Greenwich Avenue and just a few minutes from the Merritt. If your kids have been priced out of the Greenwich market, I suggest you have them look at this home. Helen Maher’s listing, at Prudential Old Greenwich.

4 Orchard Hill
And if your kids aren’t priced out of the market but instead are pocketing hedge fund salaries that make your life-time earnings look like chump change, then perhaps you should steer them to this listing of Mandy Fry’s. It’s a beautiful cape set high up on two and a half acres with really nice views. It’s in great shape - I wouldn’t touch a thing. Five bedrooms, $2,795,000 – maybe your kids will buy it for you.

Ice Storm Anger
First Selectman Jim Lash appeared at last week’s Riverside Association annual meeting to explain, inter alia, the town’s response to the two storms that so disrupted our lives. He mentioned, as is discussed every time something like this happens, that when the electrical network goes down, it does no good to restore “downstream” houses until the problem upstream is corrected. If you do, it just fails again. So, while it is frustrating to sit for two days (as I did) watching a large tree lie across your wires, patience is advised; you’re not being ignored. My personal opinion, perhaps tempered by the fact that we got our power back in two days and did not lose it again when Round Two arrived, is that the town and CL&P did a pretty incredible job repairing the damage. I have spoken with several people who, like me, have lived in town for fifty years, and none of us can remember a hurricane causing so much devastation, all around town. Sometimes, bad things happen and even Greenwich’s wealth can’t spare us that.

Taxes
At that same meeting Ted Gwartney, Greenwich’s Assessor, bravely showed up to answer questions about the new assessment. I was impressed by both his courage and his demonstrated knowledge. You can like your new assessment or not, but you ought to be reassured that the assessments are not being plucked blindly from a hat. Gwartney pointed out, correctly in my opinion, that the driving force in our market is the value of land; older houses are depreciating rapidly and are less and less a factor in your property’s value. Any house older than, say, fifty years is probably headed for the dumpster and its shelter value is insignificant to the value of the land it sits on. Not surprisingly, the larger a house can be built on a lot, the higher the value, so a non-conforming small lot with a minimal allowable FAR is worth less than an over-sized lot. The Assessor’s office is aware of this, and makes the appropriate adjustment.

One item of note: Gwartney said that his office has already heard around 1,000 informal appeals and, of those who presented significant information (as opposed to a general complaint that a property owner’s taxes were too high), forty percent were granted a reduction (and eighteen houses’ assessments were raised, so be careful here). If you don’t like your assessment, my advice is to forget about your house-its condition isn’t much of a factor-and concentrate on your land. If it’s a tough building site, hilly, rocky, swampy, what have you, you can probably argue that its worth less than a flat building lot next door. And check your FAR – if the tax people are calculating that you have a half-acre of land in the R-12 zone, but a quarter of that land is a long driveway, point out that FAR regulations won’t allow you to include the access strip in your building size. The Assessor might not have picked that up, and it matters.

Beach Card Fees Revisited
It looks like we’re in for a town-wide debate over whether to reduce visitors fees. I’d merely point out that Westport has for years collected ten bucks at the gate for each non-resident car and let joggers and bikers in for free. Their beach is far smaller than ours, is right next to a big city and yet, whenever I’ve visited, seems to be surviving quite nicely. I love our beach, but I think some folks over-rate its attractiveness to non-residents. My advice is, don’t sweat. If the reduced fee causes greater congestion, we can always raise it back. My bet is, we won’t have to.

Suburban Hell?
The New York Times’ real estate section recently profiled a number of people who, having fled Manhattan for the suburbs, came screaming back to their beloved delis, bagel shops and restaurants. According to the article, they made no friends out here, couldn’t get a decent meal and were stuck in a commuter’s nightmare. While the comments of these unhappy ex-suburbanites were a bit over-wrought, I sympathize with them. The suburbs are geared toward school-aged children and married couples. If you aren’t in both those categories then, ironically, the supposedly anonymous city life can be a lot more fulfilling.

Up, Up and Away!
Another local real estate columnist has cited a 28% annual appreciation rate for Greenwich homes. That’s bad news for the rest of us because when we go to give a price opinion we’ll be smacked in the face with that statistic by the unhappy homeowner, who, after telling us we’re idiots, will then list his home with another agent. Before you decide that your house has appreciated by such an amazing figure, get the facts: several houses that were cited to support this astonishing appreciation were, between original purchase and resale, expanded and completely redone with new kitchens, baths, etc. It is true that the prices for waterfront lots have soared, but ordinary houses are just doing well – not losing value, but not exactly reaching stratospheric heights, either. You can still do very well by improving your house but, when you calculate your gain, be sure to deduct the cost of those improvements. Apples to apples, oranges to oranges – mix them together and you end up with fruit salad, not useful statistics.

Beach Permits
I am delighted to read that the town is considering dropping the visitors fee (when accompanied by a resident or when riding a bicycle) to a mere buck. Unfortunately, another proposal will raise the cost of a residential beach card to $40 from $25. If that will help cover the substantial costs of maintaining our beaches, fine; I wonder, though, whether revenue will actually decrease because of infrequent resident-visitors deciding not to bother buying a card. Time will tell
67 Pecksland Road
This is a very impressive new listing from David Ogilvy. Originally built in 1930, the present owners have completely rebuilt it, inside and out and made it new again. While it seems, superficially, to be exactly as originally built, everything has been replaced: windows, plaster walls, wiring, the furnace (a super-efficient European brand), pool, and so forth. So, new construction in a classic envelope. It even includes a heated dog house, which should appeal to husbands on the outs with their wife, especially if they remember Hank William’s tune, “Move it on Over”. $8,750,000, if petty things like price matter to you.
69 Cedar Cliffe
Don’t have $9,000,000? Barbie Jackson (Cleveland, Duble & Arnold) has just listed this Riverside house at $5,399,000. Cedar Cliffe is a great street and this is a neat old house (1935) renovated just a few years ago. Five bedrooms, four fireplaces, balconies to take advantage of the water views, and so forth. On an acre of land, with an abutting conservation lot, plus deeded beach rights.
Okay, So You Can’t Afford That
Sandi Klein has 15 Boulder Brook for sale, asking $2,395,000. Boulder Brook’s a close-to-town dead end off of Dingletown and this house, on an acre-and-a-half, is terrific. A somewhat-dated, five bedroom 1955 house, with a slate roof, it could be expanded, updated or just left as is. A good value, I think; Boulder Brook is changing, quickly, into a high-end neighborhood and whatever money you sunk into this house would be well protected.
The Ice Storm
Last weekend’s storm was quite the blow. I went out around midnight to investigate the high winds and discovered a half-inch of ice on everything – never a good portend in a windstorm. That extra weight was further increased when the snow arrived, and by 3:45 A.M. a blizzard was howling. Amazing amounts of snow and the streets were littered with everything from tree limbs, whole trees and even a huge trampoline, blown off of a Hearthstone Drive resident’s property. Power failed sometime during the night and, as of this writing (Monday), has yet to be restored. I was impressed, however, that, sometime between Sunday night at 8:00 and 7:00 Monday morning, a crew managed to remove the huge tree lying across the wires down the street – the temperature dropped to around 10 degrees that night, but they were out there. I assume that that crew’s diligence will soon be followed up by linemen – if not, you can contact me at the Hyatt.

New York Condos
The New York Times recently reported that new condominiums at the former Plaza Hotel are selling like hotcakes at prices beginning at $9,500,000 for 2,000 square foot units. Now I realize that mid-Manhattan across from Central Park is very much not Milbank Avenue in Greenwich, but still, Greenwich appears to be a relative bargain. For instance, if you'd like a bit more space than is afforded at the Plaza, you could trundle off to 230 Taconic Road and purchase Heather Platt (Cleveland, Duble & Arnold)'s new listing: Hobbs built, four plus acres and 14,000 square feet, not including a restored antique guest house, all for a mere $10,500,000. Go for it.

Or, as an Alternative
Kaye Lewis (who has gone out on her own as Kaye Lewis & Associates) has just listed 14 Sunshine Avenue in Riverside for $975,000. I liked it a lot. Very nice back yard, some renovations on a quiet street. Three of the kids bedrooms are tiny, reflecting the house's 1921 heritage, I suppose, but the owners have architectural plans available for a large expansion. Most buyers today shun building projects but if your funds are limited, buying and expanding will produce far more house than one that's already been finished. That's the case here, I think.

On Second Thought
Two weeks ago I wrote that one of the more meaningless statistics compiled by the Realtor's board was the "sales to last asking price ratio". In fact, that ratio (96%, average) does provide some important information because it shows that, contrary to what many sellers believe, an asking price that's too far above what a house is actually worth will deter buyers. If it didn't, you'd expect to see a lower average, reflecting say, accepted offers at 70% of the asking price. What happens instead is that houses sit forever, attracting no offers until their price is reduced to an appropriate level. And then they sell. So here's your choice: place a whopping, ridiculous price tag on your house and see if some sucker comes along (he won't) or price it within five or six percent of its true value (your agent can help you here, if you'll listen) and sell the thing quickly.

Days on Market
Linda Hodge, president of our local association, emailed me to point out that the deceit of "days on market" has finally been addressed and calculations of that statistic will now show cumulative days on the market if a property is re-listed by the same firm within 90 days of an expired listing. Will this rule apply to brokers who delete listings before they expire and then re-list them? We'll see.

Housing Stylist
Ann Simpson has listed 19 Shoal Point Lane and has had it "styled" by Christine Irvine, from Darien (655-1771). I have my qualms about the house itself: its architect made an awful lot of compromises to stuff fifty pounds into a paper sack, if you get my drift, but the staging, or styling by Ms. Irvine certainly made it as attractive as it could possibly be. As I understand the process, Irvine will, for a fee, consult with you and recommend everything from repainting to removing clutter to buying, moving or disposing of furniture. If you think your house could use some of this (and it almost certainly does) call her soon because now (January through March) is the time to list your house and depending on what needs to be done, you'll need a few weeks to get it ready. Of course, if you do go to this expense, please see my previous comments about pricing – there's no point going to this trouble if you're going to price the property at an unsellable level.

Effective Ad
Round Hill Partners just ran a full-page ad showing a large number of its recent listings and the days they took to go to contract. Obviously, not all listings sell that quickly and, just as obviously, every firm could probably create a similar ad for their own listings but my point is, few do. Yet isn't the whole point of this business, to sell your house quickly, at a good price? An advertisement demonstrating prowess at achieving this result is, in my opinion, more impressive than all the gauzy photos in the world.

Mystery House
Some houses languish on the market for reasons that seem inexplicable – their location seems fine, their price seems right and yet they don't move. Carol Davis' listing at 26 Spruce Street, in Riverside is just such an orphan. I like it, and I have since it first came on more than a year ago. A decent backyard, a good street, five bedrooms and a price of $1,835. It was a bit too small for my clients who have a blended family but for a couple with two or three small children, I think it's perfect.

Goose Busters
I gave my college-aged son, John, a copy of “Backyard Ballistics” for Christmas and together we assembled a four-foot-long “spud gun” – 2” and 3” PVC, a compression chamber with a barbeque sparker inserted in the end. Ram a potato into the barrel, squirt a 5 second (the book recommends no more than 2 seconds, but what fun is that? – blast of hairspray into the compression chamber, screw in the end cap and fire away. Very gratifying results: a loud boom and the potato flies three hundred yards down the creek (don’t try this in your living room). Our local population of nuisance geese do not like it one bit. The women in our life seem to find John’s and my glee in setting it off a bit, er, juvenile, but manly men know different!

18 Simmons Lane
This huge house just sold for $18,500,000, which is impressive. But it sold five-and-a-half years ago for $18,000,000. Deducting what I assume was a five per cent commission, the seller lost $425,000 on the deal. So is this a mark of the dreaded bubble bursting? I doubt it; I think it is more a reflection of how very, very thin the high end of the market is. There just aren’t that many buyers out there for $18,000,000 houses, even in Greenwich. And, if it flopped as an investment, the house provided some very comfortable shelter value – dividing $425,000 by the sixty-six months the seller lived there, the “rental cost” was a mere $6,400 per month.

Not a Creature Was Stirring
Unlike the week preceding it, the Holiday period between Christmas and New Year’s was just about silent (but wasn’t it nice to so effortlessly get around our nearly-empty town?). Five houses went to contract during those ten days (new construction at 96 Husted, asking $7,825,000 led the way), four new houses came on and sixty-seven listings expired or were withdrawn. I wouldn’t worry about the latter category – they’ll all be back soon with brand new listing dates.

Ryan Zimmerman
On Saturday night, December 17th, my daughter Sarah hit black ice on Glenville Road, spun out and, while hitting trees, stone walls and telephone poles, demolished her car. She seemed perplexed when her mother and I told her that we couldn’t care less about the car so long as she was safe. That confusion was resolved, alas, when just a week later her close friend, Ryan Zimmerman, had a similar accident and died as the result. I didn’t know Ryan, but Sarah tells me that he was “the nicest boy from the nicest family in Greenwich”. An A student at the High School, he enlisted in the Marines both to serve his country and to pay for college. Ryan faced the risk of death or dismemberment in the Marines but who knew that he’d die in a car crash in his home town? This is not a lecture on eighteen-year-old driving – we were all there and we will all be parents of kids that age – rather, it’s a reminder to hug our kids, every day, tell them that we love them and pray for their survival. Ryan’s father told me, “we lost a good one.” I’d say that our country did.

Patrolman Mark Zuccerella
It is easy to be annoyed with some of the petty, chip-on-their-shoulder attitudes of some of our local cops and I do wish they’d be a little slower with their citation books when dealing with kids, but just when I think there’s little good to say about them they’ll respond to a real emergency and perform heroically. Mark Zuccerella did just that last week. He was, as I understand it, the first officer on the scene of Ryan Zimmerman’s fatal accident and, seeing the car upside down and in the water and with no way of telling how long the car had been there or whether its driver was still alive, plunged straight into the ice-cold water and attempted to rescue Ryan. Zuccerella suffered hypothermia from his exposure and ended up in the hospital; I am awed by his willingness to put his own life in danger for another. The shame of it all is that the two men sound very much alike, and now will never meet. But hats off to Mark Zuccerella – I’ll think of him next time I’m tempted to criticize his colleagues. Him and, to be fair, the various other cops who have responded so ably to the various crises and tragedies that have cropped up in our family over the years.

Useless Statistics
Of all the data the Greenwich Association of Realtors collects, those for “days on market” and “Sales Price to Listing Price ratio” are the most misleading. Not intentionally, of course, but because of how these numbers are calculated. The actual sales price is solid – we are required by the Association rules to accurately report this sum and I’m unaware of any incident of over or under reporting here. But days on market is a figure subject to gaming and a lot of that goes on. If a house is way over-priced and lingers on the market, it is perceived, accurately, as a stale listing and, often inaccurately, as a house to be shunned. So deleting the listing and bringing it back on serves the home seller’s interest, as well as improving the listing broker’s record for how quickly his listings sell. But I can recite many, many instances of houses that sat for years before selling and, when they did, showed up in the statistical calculations as being on the market for just a matter of days, because they’d just been re-listed. Similarly, don’t be mislead by the statistic that shows that the average house sells for 96% of its asking price. That’s actually 96% of the last asking price, which is a self-fulfilling number. A lot of over-priced houses suffer a death by a thousand cuts as their prices are slashed, again and again, until, finally, they find a buyer (whereupon they are hurriedly re-listed and show up as selling after just days on the market, as described above). Of course they sell for 96% of the asking price – but that only reflects that, finally, they found a buyer. Again, I know of many houses that sold for 60%, even 50% of their original asking price and it’s that statistic I’d like to see my Realtor board publish. It would be educational for all of us and might damage a few reputations, which is why it won’t happen.


Riverside Lane Houses
Strazza Construction is building a number (six?) of new houses on the former Finney property next to Hay Day on Riverside Lane. I haven’t been inside them but I’m impressed by their exteriors. The architect has taken the care to reflect, if not mirror exactly, the original Finney house (which is also being renovated) so that the entire complex looks related, in a very nice sense. As nice as the original meadow? Probably not, but I’ve long since abandoned hope for preserving large pieces of land in Riverside and, if they have to be developed, this is not a bad way to go. When I spoke with Mr. Stazza last spring, he told me that he was planning to bring these on in the $2.1- 2.3 million range. If he can stick to that, I think these will be good buys.

Other Developments in Riverside
A reader emailed me to alert me that the Howard Johnson’s motel has been sold to commercial developers. If so, we can probably expect something new going up. I have never joined those residents who oppose every new business on the Post Road – it seems to me that that’s exactly where commercial operations belong – but I do hope our P&Z will be watching this one closely.

Bidding Wars
If you thought that the week before Christmas was quiet, you’re wrong. Bidding wars broke out all over town. Bramble Lane, asking $1.495 went to sealed bids, as did 4 Park Avenue ($1.195) in Old Greenwich, 1 Grove Lane, in Greenwich, and 33 Club Road ($4.0 million). Of all of these, 33 Club Road, my brother Gideon’s listing, perhaps best illustrates the changes in the market. When Gideon last had the listing (he was the third broker) it sat from June, 1994 until July, 1997, when it finally sold for $1.300. Eight years later, it went for well over $4,000,000. I lost the bidding war, by the way but fortunately learned this in time to exchange Gideon’s intended Christmas present for a big lump of coal.

10 Copper Beech
Lyn Stevens finally came up with a buyer for this great house. Greenwich real estate is a funny business; houses that you’d think should sell in a heartbeat sometimes linger, unwanted while inferior houses go in a flash. This was one of those – it sat for 287 days – and neither I, nor other agents I discussed it with, could understand why. The single story house was near town but far enough off North Street for quiet, on more than two acres of beautiful rolling lawn. I’d have moved into the place as is, but if someone had wanted to update it a bit, that would be justified financially. Anyway, too late now, it’s gone. You missed a good one.

Grove Lane
Not much in the way of new listings this time of year but one that impressed was Renee Gallagher’s at 1 Grove Lane. A neat old Victorian, close to town yet on 1.3 acres, this house was written up a few years ago when its owners repainted it in its original Victorian style, which means multiple colors. It looked great then and still does today. If you have a collection of Stickley furniture and want a beautiful house in which to live with it, this will do nicely. $3,350,000.

High End Condos
They continue to sell, with yet another one at 211 Milbank going to contract – asking price, $4,600,000. Wow.

Low End Condos
I checked out the Greenwich Gate condos on the Port Chester/Greenwich border recently and thought they were pretty nice – granite kitchen counter tops, decent bathrooms, etc. But the developer has already sold out the few two bedroom units available and now has only one bedrooms left. This is ironic because there was a long delay on this project while the builder fought to include moderate income units in his plan. I’m no foe of such housing – Greenwich needs far more of it – but I suspect they fought so hard out of a desire to build more units than zoning would otherwise allow, and for what? The market in Greenwich is for multiple-bedroom units, not single. The developer could have complied with zoning, built fewer, but larger and more expensive units and hit a home run. The builder’s from Stamford and I think he confused the two markets.

House Organizer
I recently met with Ms. Carolina Wurster to discuss her new business venture, organizing houses to prepare them for sale. Wurster is a personal assistant, travel organizer, etc., but thought that many houses in town could use a good organizing and boy is she right. For a modest hourly charge, she’ll plow through a house, eliminating clutter, organizing closets, kids bedrooms and even the refrigerator, tossing out that half-empty jar of anchovies you’ve been saving for the past two years, just in case. The difference between a tidy house and an un-holy mess is tremendous, in my opinion (and I should know, I fall in the latter category) and your house will sell more quickly, for a better price, if potential buyers don’t have to strain to imagine what a room might look like under different circumstances. Your real estate agent might treat you to a few hours of this service or, if she’s as cheap as I am, you can call Wurster direct at (203) 531-0889, or mcwurster@aol.com. The service is also available for buyers – Wurster will show up on moving day or soon thereafter, unpack everything and put it away neatly. A nice home warming-gift.

Grace McCarthy
Grace has recently moved her practice down to Old Greenwich, where she’s happily ensconced in what she calls the Hirshburg Building and what I remember as the location of Fairfield County Trust before they became Union Trust and moved across the street. Anyway, she’s with Prudential Connecticut and likes her new digs. So if you’re loking for her, now you know.

Let It Snow
Because I recently decided to buy out my Honda at the end of its lease I went out and treated it to four new snow tires. The car is a great car most of the year but it came with all season tires which are fine as long as you spend all four seasons in Florida. But put four snows on the thing (not two, as in the past) and it’s a tank. I knew this – the same process worked wonders for our Volvo, but the idea of owning eight tires for one car is always a bit daunting. It was all worth it during our recent snow storm and, in my business, I need to get around. I bought Blizzaks by Bridgestone (from Mavis, in Riverside) based on recommendations of Consumer Reports and the testimony of friends but I imagine almost any brand would be a huge improvement over all seasons.

Speaking of Blizzards
Just in time for Christmas our police force has announced a ticket blizzard on Greenwich Avenue to free up that street from double parkers and the like. Good idea, but I was struck by their admission that most of the tickets they’re handing out are for seatbelt violations. How pulling someone over and blocking the street while you write them up for an unbuckled seat belt will ease traffic escapes me but I learned regular logic when I studied philosophy, not cop logic. A different discipline entirely, it appears.

Bah, Humbug!
Call me a Grinch, but I’m not at all moved into the Christmas spirit by the sight of these ten foot tall inflatable cartoon characters sprouting on lawns around town. Somehow, the sight of Homer Simpson, dressed as Santa and locked in a make-believe snowball just doesn’t scream out “Merry Christmas”. To me, anyway.
Christmas Pranks of Old
On the other hand, I was watching some friends place a Christmas tree on their dock the other day and was reminded of one of my father’s great pranks, played as a yearly ritual on our neighbor on Gilliam Lane, Joe Ryan. Each year, Joe would carefully dress a small tree entirely in blue lights and, just as carefully, as soon as Joe retired for the night, my father would sneak across the road and replace one of the bulbs with a single red one; gave it sort of a Rudolph look, I suppose. It drove Joe nuts. Because the statute of limitations may not quite have run yet I’ll spare you details of my own Christmas Eve tradition but it involved an inflatable Santa on my Scoutmaster Art Brown’s roof and, first, a pellet rifle and later, when the wise guy started stuffing it with newspaper, a quiver of arrows. Such fun.
Our Hartford Geniuses
As of October, drivers under 18 are forbidden to drive after midnight. Whatever the lame-brained thinking was behind this, its immediate effect has been to cripple Operation Safe Rides, the Red Cross-sponsored program that gave kids a ride home, no questions asked. The drivers are all high school kids and - surprise! - almost all of them are under 18 and thus unable to drive.
Pricing
Two houses that went to contract last week caught my eye: one, originally listed at $775,000 back in July of 2004, finally dropped its price to $699,000 and found a buyer. The other, listed at $959,000 in May of this year, dropped to $799,000 and enjoyed the same happy result. My point, as always, is that the wrong price repels buyers. If your house isn’t worth, say, $959,000, then buyers who can afford that much for a house will purchase one that is worth it and shun yours, while the $799,000 buyer won’t look at it, let alone make an offer, because he feels that he’s wasting his time. So you lose both ways, and your house sits. This applies to all houses in all price ranges and it always has. You just don’t believe it.
20 Sherwood Avenue
This was one of my favorite houses, set back from the road on wonderful grounds. It needed (a lot) of work but it seemed clear to me that it was well worth the effort. Yet it sat, unwanted, from September 10, 2001 – a bad day to list any house, obviously – until last week, when Jean Ruggiero found it a buyer. Someone got a great buy for under $4,000,000.
13 Suburban Avenue
This is a wonderful renovation by one of Sheila White’s (New England Land) clients. The house was a wreck when it sold this past March (for $755,000 in a bidding war that started at $715,000), but the new owner has added new windows, knocked down some walls to free up space, put in new wiring, plumbing, mechanicals, added a slate roof and copper gutters and so on. It’s vacant, so nag your agent and go see it, if only to discover for yourself what you can do to an old house other than knock it down. Or call me – I’m happy to take the time if it spares us one more dumpster. $1,495,000 which, in my opinion, is a great price. This house confirms my belief that the greatest values in town are fixer uppers. You could have bought this house, put in, say, $300,000 in improvements and enjoyed an instant appreciation of $440,000. Wall Street doesn’t return that kind of money. Yes, I could do the same thing but, unlike you, I don’t have any money.
Support Our Troops
Have you noticed that many of those yellow ribbon magnets on cars have faded to white? Unless there’s been a significant change of heart among those drivers and they’ve all become Howard Dean supporters, I think the wrong message is being sent. My suggestion for faded-ribbon displayers is, rather than further enrich Chinese magnet peddlers, check out the website, Soldiersangles.org, which offers a number of ways to help out soldiers, from adopting them as pen pals, to care packages etc. You don’t have to favor the doings in Iraq to care for the kids who are there.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Greenwich buyers tend to want a lot for their money and who can blame them? Two million dollars is, in most parts of the world, a big chunk of change and you’d think it should buy you at least a small mansion, instead of the average house in town. But it doesn’t, not in Greenwich. If you want 9’ ceilings, marble baths and granite kitchen counters, you’re going to have to pay more, often much more. Especially if you insist on high ceilings because houses just weren’t built that way until a few years ago and, if you’re buying new, you’re going to have to pay for inflated land prices. My advice? Adjust.

Speaking of Land

Growing up in the 60’s, most of my contemporaries lived in pre-war houses, which meant plaster walls, solid wood doors and the like. Then a fellow named Murphy came to town and started building “Murphy Houses” – sheetrock, hollow doors, flimsy quality. We despised them, even as we became friends with the kids who lived in them. But they sold for $27,500 (a plywood sign advertising that fact made a midnight conversion into a bed for my VW Microbus), cheap even then. Today they are still standing, remarkably, and sell for $1.3-1.8 million. It’s not that the houses have improved; they have not, but the price of a Riverside quarter-acre has soared. You should have bought some.

The Tax Man Cometh

I recently represented the estate of a woman whose property was assessed at $1,500,000. Assuming the normal ratio for selling price to assessed value, the house should have theoretically sold for $2.3 million. It did not and, alas went unsold for $1.475. I don’t know whether the late owner refused the assessor access to her home or whether the assessor just blew it but this house was never worth anything close to what the town taxed it for. My point: if you have an elderly relative who is perhaps incapable of dealing with our bureaucracy, keep an eye on her property tax, among other things. This woman was over-taxed for years, and no one noticed.

And the Taxpayer Fleeth

Two of my older friends have just moved their residency to Florida, permanently. Not because they tired of Greenwich, but to avoid our newly re-imposed estate tax. So there are two estates that Connecticut will not get to tax, and two incomes that will also avoid the Commissioner of Revenue Services.

Lawns

This is probably not a logical time of year to discuss lawn maintenance but I saw a truck the other day on the Post Road from an outfit called Natural Lawns and I was curious enough to check them out on the web (nl-amer.com). The company claims its program reduces the use of pesticides 80% and that its fertilizers are “all natural”, whatever that means. It seems to me that nitrogen is nitrogen regardless of whether it’s derived from petrochemicals or crushed lima beans, but in view of the fact that everything we put on our lawns ends up in Long Island Sound, anything we can do to reduce that flow might be a good thing. Certainly, reducing pesticides can’t hurt. They also sell an ice melter, tick controller and mole repellant (three distinct products, I assume). The closest service provider is in New Canaan @ (203) 348-7665 but for you do it yourselfers (if anyone in Greenwich still maintains his own lawn) the web site offers direct shipment of Natural Lawn products. Again, I have not really investigated this company or the merits of its products but the concept appeals to this L.I.S. neighbor.

“We apologize, but this recipe is back in our kitchen for testing.”

Message found on the web when I clicked on “New York State Blue Ribbon Apple Pie Recipe”. Makes you wonder what exactly what went wrong and how many Thanksgiving day deserts were ruined, eh?

Cheap Furniture

I recently noticed a Bob’s Discount Furniture truck making a delivery in Riverside, which surprised me. You know Bob – that cheesy guy who is all over the cable pitching his sawdust and glue furniture. Given the price of housing in Riverside, I was as surprised to see Bob and his cheap goods as I would have been to spot a tiger on someone’s front yard but I suppose that, after scraping up the dough to buy in that part of town, the homeowners might be living on folding camp furniture and sleeping on straw bedding. In which case, Bob’s stuff is a (modest) step up.

Price It, Sell It

Doug Fainelli’s listing at 25 Shore Acre Drive, which I wrote about last week, had an accepted offer within days. Why did this house sell while yours hasn’t? It was priced right – yours isn’t.

The Market

Not a huge amount of activity recently but we have seen some notable houses go to contract; notable because of their high prices. 147 Round Hill, $12,000,000 (Jean Ruggerio found the buyer), 140 Indian Head Road (my brother Gideon’s listing) $6,500,000 15 Stillman Lane, $5,525,000 (Jan Milligan had the buyer), and 67 Club Road (Jan Milligan’s listing, Barbara Cioffari’s buyer) $4,595,000. And, defying conventional wisdom, a beautiful contemporary at 33 Sherwood, priced at $3,750,000, went to contract in twenty-one days. Contemporaries usually take far longer but I suppose in this case, the right buyers showed up early. Cate Keeney found them. So all this is encouraging, but read on for what I consider to be some daunting news on inventory.

Selling it by the Pound

Or by the square foot, actually. I recently looked at the selling price of all twenty-nine new houses that have sold this year and, dividing that price by the square footage, determined what they sold for per square foot. Tossing out the lowest (Byram, $287) and the highest (Round Hill Road, $1,005) I reached an average of $591. I then looked at the sixty-three newly-built houses that have not sold this year and, because I’m lazy, picked thirty-six at random. Again tossing out the lowest (Sawmill Lane, $433) and the highest (Khakum Wood, $1,030 – when it was originally put on the market it was priced at $1,667 per square foot, and its builder was angered when I suggested that that was a stupid price), and calculated an average asking price of $668. Is that enough of a difference to explain why these houses haven’t sold? I don’t know but, if I had a new house to sell, I might want to calculate its price by square foot and, if the result is wildly out of line with the $591 average, either reduce the price or come up with an excellent explanation for why my product is different. Of course, like all statistics, you should take these with a grain of salt. Doug Fainelli’s listing, mentioned above, was priced at $837 per square foot. Ah, Old Greenwich! The most expensive real estate, per square inch, in town.

What a Difference a Day Makes

In running those numbers I stumbled upon one house that, in July, sold for $629 per square foot. The buyer placed it back on the market three months later priced at $670 per foot. That seems a steep premium to pay for the honor of her brief ownership, but ….

Mega Price Tags

Of the sixty-three new houses built this year that haven’t sold, twenty are priced at over $6,000,000, compared to nine in the $5-5,999,999 range, nine in the $4’s, thirteen in the 3’s and six in the $1-2,999 range. If you add in houses that were built in 2004 and remain unsold, the $6,000,000+ total is increased to twenty-three. So just about half of the un-sold, new house inventory is priced above $5,000,000. I wonder if the bankers are nervous?

Arbor Day

If you buy property near a noise generator like the Merritt Parkway the time to plant trees, shrubs and the like as a noise barrier is when you buy the place, not twenty years later when you are getting ready to sell. It seems, from viewing a number of houses along highways, that the owners quickly grow used to the noise and ignore it. But buyers aren’t used to it, and an effective wall of shrubbery and mature trees will mitigate that perceived drawback.

What Not to Write in a Listing

While reading the “Sold” catalogue for the past quarter I was struck by one listing that proclaimed, “a house that others will clamor for”. It must have been a very faint clamor, because the house took nearly six months to sell. Oops.

Speaking of Noise

If the state proceeds with its plan to replace the Indian Field Road bridge with a bigger better brighter one, the perfect time to sell your house on that street to an unsuspecting out-of-towner is while the bridge is closed. Without the steady flow of I-95 commuters rushing down the street, Indian Field will appear to be a bucolic country lane. Snicker.

Danielle Claroni

It’s Danielle who is the tireless volunteer at the Boys & Girls Club, not her lazy son Daniel (just kidding, Daniel). Anyway, no thanks to my original mistyping, now you know.