Stop Him Before He Kills Again!
In the aftermath of a Federal court’s ruling that the SEC lacks jurisdiction over hedge funds our would-be-Senator, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has announced that he’ll seek to regulate them himself. How is this related to real estate? Simple: two-thirds of Greenwich’s commercial real estate is rented to hedge funds or hedge fund service industries, according to the recent Vanity Fair article on our town (surprisingly accurate, by the way), and 10% of all hedge fund capital is based here. I won’t try to guess how much of our residential real estate is owned by hedge fund principals and lower ranks, but it’s a lot. One of those people, a client of mine, explained that the funds moved from New York to Greenwich when New York sought to tax the earnings of non-New York residents. They moved once, they can move again. All that’s needed to trade securities these days is a high-speed internet connection, something that is as readily available in, say, Colorado as it is in Greenwich. I sympathize with Mr. Blumenthal’s desperate desire to move up in the political world, but destroying Greenwich’s economic base seems too steep a price for us to indulge his ambitions.

Insulated Concrete Forms
A reader brought to my attention a new house that’s being constructed on Bramble Lane in Riverside with what I now know are ICFs – Styrofoam molds filled with reinforced concrete. I was curious and looked the subject up on the net. While that hardly makes me an expert, this type of construction seems to hold promise. It is incredibly energy efficient and, because there’s no wood framing, the resulting house is impervious to termites and other pests. But I found enough horror stories out there to make it clear that you do not want to be the first house a builder tries this out on – there seems to be a bit of a learning curve. A Bramble Lane resident, also a builder, happened to be outside when I stopped by to see the project and he expressed skepticism while allowing that, in a place like Hawaii, where man-eating termites go through houses in a few years, it might make sense. And certainly in a place exposed to hurricanes, a house made from reinforced concrete sounds a lot more secure than a stick-built home. I’ll keep my eye on this one and tell you how it comes out.

Inventory
The single family home inventory continues to decline and is now just 9% higher than this time last year (533 vs. 488). That places us 18% higher than 2004 but, I’ll repeat, 2004 was the best year for sales in town history. I keep hearing of buyers who are “waiting for prices to fall”. They haven’t yet (we’re way above last year for both average and median prices) but buyers’ borrowing power has dropped 15% since last year due to interest hikes. So keep waiting – you’ll get less house for the same monthly payment but, by God, you won’t overpay for that muffler!

Still More Numbers
Sales this year, to date (and I dislike using sales statistics because they’re a lagging indicator) are 294 compared to 344 (all figures as of June 29) last year, or a 15% drop. Houses that went to contract between January one and now, 363 vs. 407, for a 10% decline. These are not scary drop offs, in my opinion. Price your house right, and it will sell. The only exception to all this non-alarming news might be the condominium inventory which is 78% higher than last year (160 now vs. 90 then) and sales/contracts are down 30%. There’s been a lot of new construction going on, and now might be a fine time to cut a deal with a builder.

752 North Street
When the purchasers of the beautiful 1839 home located at this address tore it down many of us were horrified. I, at least, was a bit mollified when a new, tasteful, modestly-sized house replaced it. When I toured it the other day, I learned for the first time of the ultimately futile struggle to save the original building. Sadly, the house was beyond repair and as walls were opened, new, ever more horrifying discoveries were made, necessitating still more modifications and demo work until nothing was left. But the new house is very nice and perhaps it will be as admired 160 years from now as the house it replaced. Barbara Zaccagnini listing, $4,995,000.

Birds of Prey
When John Augustin, proprietor of Augustin Farm up on King Street, lost his leg in a tractor accident this spring he received a lot of support from friends and customers. What he probably didn’t need was a barrage of calls from Greenwich real estate agents, all seeking to buy his land for their developer clients. “They’re like a bunch of buzzards flying around a dead carcass” he told Greenwich Time, and I share his disgust. It’s this kind of behavior that’s earned Realtors a reputation right down in the sewer with politicians and lawyers (well okay, I considered laminating my lawyer business cards so I could scatter them around accident scenes, but I didn’t do it). Mr. Augustin doesn’t want to sell; he would like some assistance in paying his huge medical bills. A committee is being established to accomplish just that and, when it’s up and running, I intend to contribute. Perhaps some of those ghoulish callers might do the same.

Selling It
I see that, after two years on the market a certain house finally sold this week for $2,500,000 less than its original asking price. I’m sure the unhappy seller is convinced that this is proof that the housing bubble has burst but I remember touring it back in July 2004 and, while I like the house, I thought that it was at least $1,500,000 and perhaps as much as $2,000,000 too high. In a super-hot market, comparable prices might have risen during those two years to catch up with the owner’s desired price but that market doesn’t exist today (and it would never have caught up with the 50% premium this one asked) so the seller had to come down to catch it. I don’t see the final sales price as evidence of anything except what has always been true: if you over-price your house it won’t sell and, eventually, you’ll pay a penalty for being exposed to the market for so long.

On a related matter, the listing for a renovated house in Cos Cob has expired and the house remains unsold. I heard through the grapevine that its builder could have had a deal but refused to correct some open construction items which violated our building code. This is not the market to play hardball, especially if you’re quibbling over details that, under law, you’ll have to fix anyway.

“Nervous about the Market”
Many agents tell me that their buyers use this phrase to explain why they are unwilling to bid on houses. If you’re among that crowd I think you’re missing an opportunity. The market is not dead, nor are prices falling. Your braver competitors (and when you’re looking for a house, you have competitors) are picking up some very nice houses at reasonable prices while you sit on the sidelines. Are there over-priced houses out there? Sure, but you and your agent can sort those from the good buys and proceed. I realize that Wall Street is determined to see everyone pull their money from real estate and invest it with them but I hunted stock brokers for a long time and watched their shenanigans and pure stupidity (best example, the fellow who pitched Winstar Communications as “that GM company that puts call buttons in cars”. SmartMoney.com called WinStar "a prime example of the tightrope financing, shameless stock promotion and blind faith in the future that ran rampant across Wall Street over the past few years."). In short, these are the same folks who brought us Enron, Pets.com and chains that (briefly) sold fifty varieties of popcorn. I don’t trust their financial advice and I certainly don’t trust their supposed knowledge of the current Greenwich real estate market. If you do, you may end up like the plumber I met who was still renting an apartment because, when he had a chance to buy a house for $15,000, was told by his father to “wait for prices to fall”. He is still waiting.

To update some statistics from two weeks ago, 177 houses have gone to contract since April 1, in all price ranges. We’re on track to equal last year’s volume and last year was the second best year (surpassed only by 2004) in Greenwich real estate history. And, finally, I’ll repeat that houses are not “investments” – they’re a place to raise your family. It’s just a nice bonus that, over the years, Greenwich homes have returned a sizeable premium for money spent.

Do As I Say …
Saw a cop using a hand-held cellphone the other day as he cruised the Post Road. Do you suppose that he turned himself in when he reached Headquarters? Neither do I.

Dig This!
Last week I turned over the soil in my vegetable garden in preparation for planting. Just as I was finishing I looked down at my feet and spotted what I took to be a large, perfect arrow head. Thanks to Greenwich native Tod Hinlicky and his friend, Professor Ernie Weigand of Norwalk Community College, I learned that I had discovered a prehistoric spear head from the Late Archaic Period, 2,500 B.C. to 1,700 B.C. I’ve been looking for this sort of thing since I was a young boy and I choose to find it - er, encouraging that one turned up after 4,000 years just two days after I finished my book on Siwanoy Indians. Or it’s just a matter of frost heaves – I prefer the former. There are some interesting reflections here, aside from the nature of the universe. One is how slowly technology changed back then – these stone points were made in the same, identical fashion for 2,000 years before someone dreamed up something better. Another is the ephemeral nature of real estate “ownership”. I wonder who’ll be on this piece of land, and whether the land will even be above water (water level fluctuates - when the point was made, the sea level was 20 feet lower than today) 4,000 years from now. Neato, says I.

How to Sell your House
The owners of 11 Old Wagon Road (disclosure: my listing, but it’s an apt illustration) did everything right to prepare their house for sale. First, they maintained it during their years of ownership – nothing fancy, but they kept it in good shape and repair, moved a few walls to open up the floor plan, etc. Then just before listing it they power washed the siding, fixed a dented downspout, trimmed the shrubs and so forth; all those little things that make a first impression positive or negative. They redid the master bath and, finally, priced it right: $1,035,000, fitting it nicely in between the few Old Greenwich houses it would compete with. Has it sold? Tune in next week but as of this writing, two days after it hit the market, it’s being shown constantly and I predict good things. So that’s about it: maintain your house while you own it, get it looking as appealing as possible before hitting the market (I’m not talking “staging” just putting away clutter and such) and price it so that it will look better than its competition. It will sell, and sell quickly.

No Mow Grass
Awhile ago I mentioned that Scotts is working on a genetically-engineered grass that requires minimal mowing and maintenance. There’s a condominium complex on the corner of Orchard and Valley in Cos Cob that’s gone Scotts one step better: plastic. They’ve swathed the entire yard in Astro-Turf and, actually, it looks okay. Whether it will look odd in winter when everything around it is brown, we shall see but no one’s spending a dime on lawn care right now and that must help the budget. Wave of the future? I hope not.

The Beach, Revisited
Just in time for free publicity for my book, another law suit has been filed concerning access to Tod’s by non-resident pedestrians and bicyclists. I don’t understand why we as a town are fighting so hard over this. The main concern over limiting admission, so far as I know, is over-crowding and lack of parking. Bicyclists and joggers seem to loop around the Point’s road network and then go home; at least, I’ve never seen one toting coolers and blankets. Besides, as a bicyclist myself, I find it annoying to have to remember to transfer my beach card from my wallet to my sock and than back again. I love the beach and consider it one of the town’s finest assets – I just don’t see an open admissions policy for pedestrians to be a threat. Now, fireworks every night . . . .

Going, Going Gone
Twenty-two houses went to contract last week, including several in bidding wars. There’s still plenty of inventory and I’d prefer to be a buyer than a seller right now but if you are a buyer, don’t delude yourself and think that a well-priced house is only attractive to you. I did see that one house that went to contract did so after five years on the market. I ran the history and see that it was originally listed at exactly it’s last asking price way back in 2001. It came on and off the market since then with, first, an ever-increasing asking price and then a steady decline until it returned where it started. Burst bubble? I think not; rather, a seller with an unrealistic opinion of his house’s value. It’s a very nice house but I never showed it over those years because I didn’t think it was worth what was asked. Once it was, it sold.

The State of the Market

A real estate column (not this one, thank goodness) recently opined that “a pattern has emerged in the real estate market in lower Fairfield County ….[S] ingle family home sales have spiraled down or remained stable. Prices continued their upward run in Norwalk, Westport and Darien….Condo sales may be up, or down, but prices are still on the increase.”

So there’s your pattern: we’re either in a death spiral or soaring or staying level – okay?

The market is a bit confusing right now, but, despite what Barron’s says, there’s no death spiral here. I heard another agent say that our market is down 56% from last year. That’s absolute nonsense and, since rumors and nonsense can (sometimes) be defeated by facts, I looked some up. Turns out, prices are actually up, not down. Inventory has grown, but well-priced houses continue to sell. Here are the numbers for single family homes, 1st quarter: 2006: 156 sold, $2.8 million average, $2.1 median; 2005: 166 sold, $2.37 avg., $1.675 median; 2004 (best year ever): 173 sold, $2,21 average, $1.550 median; 2003: 136 sold, $1.757 average, $1.175 median.

There are at this writing (June 9) 151 single family houses under contract in town, most of which, presumably, went to contract after January. I can’t dig up the number under contract for the same period in 2005 but I do find that 85 houses sold in July of that year and 107 in August (192, total). As a rough rule of thumb the majority of contracts close within 90 days, especially when school starts in September, so I think most of these can fairly be traced back to May and June contracts. If we average 4 contracts per day (a modest expectation) between now and the end of the month, we’ll have 215 houses in contract. “The bubble has burst! The bubble has burst!”

Inventory as of June 1st, 2006: 542; 2005: 468; 2004: 425. Our inventory is 14% higher than at this time in 2005, but that’s an improvement from January, when we were 34% higher. Houses are being picked off.

In summary, like politics, real estate is local. Stocks are traded worldwide, and what happens in Urkistan may very well effect a hedge fund in Greenwich. But before you believe that condo gluts in Florida or layoffs in Flint mean the value of your house in Greenwich is collapsing, check things out around town. How’s your hedge fund doing? Anyone lost her job at your firm? Nice bonus last year? Chances are, you and your peers are doing just fine. If so, guess who’s ready, able, willing to buy a house in this town?

On Top of Old Smokey

Well, on top of Round Hill, anyway, David Ogilvy has just listed a fantastic old house that is one of the last of “The Great Estates”. The house is very nice, with all its original (1939) charm including beautiful moldings and carved woodwork but forget that, what sets this house apart from anything else I’ve seen are its views. To reach the house, you climb a long, winding red gravel driveway and arrive in a courtyard that has views of Long Island and Long Island Sound – I swore a felt a sea breeze, in fact. From the house, and its beautiful lawns, those same views are present, as well as the Manhattan skyline. I’m told that, when the leaves are down, the Berkshires can be seen. All those views are protected because the top of the hill is 570’ and the adjoining properties are at least 60’ below. Until we rezone for high-rises in the Back Country, no one’s going to spoil your day. Twenty-two acres of gardens, lawns, meadows and woods, a pool, tennis court. And all the usual accoutrements you’d expect at this price which, by the way, is $38,000,000. I’m a little short this week but if your year’s going well, there’s not another property in town with this nice a location. It’s a real estate cliché to describe a property as “truly unique” but in this case, it’s true.

Memorial Day Parade
I don’t want to sound ungrateful to its organizers, but this year’s Memorial Day parade in Old Greenwich was the most disorganized, skimpiest creation ever. I understand some of the difficulties, including, from what I’ve read, the recent practice of various marching bands to demand an appearance fee which has drastically cut their numbers from our little march. But when I participated in the parade, both as a kid and later as a parent, there was an organizer back at the starting point who ensured that everyone stepped off at the right time. Judging from the half-hour delayed start and the straggly gaps between Little Leaguers and gardeners this year, that person must have retired. I’ve always enjoyed the parade and liked the fact that anyone who wanted to could join in. Nothing against Brownies and kids on bicycles, but I miss the soldiers (we did have one, Christopher MacDonald, back from a year’s duty in Iraq- thank you, Mr. MacDonald) and the marching bands. And send more bagpipes!

Computer Wizaard
I've been a Mac guy all of my computer life (that would be since 1988), so I never had to learn anything about the machines – just plug them in and off you go. That innocent life changed recently when I bought a new Mac that also runs Windows so that I can access the MLS from home. It took me twelve hours to get the Microsoft side up and running- sheesh.

So when I wanted to install a wireless network I didn’t try to do it myself but instead Alex Lahuerta here in Greenwich. What a smart move. Alex is a 2001 GHS grad, a former engineering student at UCONN now working as a consultant to earn the rest of his way through college. When he sat down at my computer and started keying in like mad it was obvious that he's a pro, completely at home with computers and multi-tasking. He simultaneously dealt with getting his dog home to his native Norway via Icelandic Airlines, SBC's DSL voicemail hell for obtaining system configurations and explaining to me what was going on and what he was doing. Fabulous effort, fabulous results. And he charged all of $45 per hour (he tried to discount his time to an actual elapsed time of 45 minutes, but, having recently paid $120 for an hour of completely ineffective “repair” service, I wouldn't hear of it). Bottom line is that I'm now cruising the Internet effortlessly and speedily, all thanks to this young man. Alex will tutor, install, repair and consult on all things computer. He's gracious, polite, smart as a whip and, although he doesn't realize it, dirt cheap. You can exploit all this (and help him finish school) by calling him at (203) 940-1403 or emailing him at solutions@AlexLahuerta.com. If you run a small business or just want help with a home computer, I can't recommend him more strongly. Go for it.

Mea Culpa
A few years back I described Cary Road in Riverside as the worst street in town. Not surprisingly, I heard from a number of the street’s residents who disagreed with my opinion. I said somethng snarky about the rusted chain link fences on the road and let it drop. But I recently sold a small house in the area to a young family and, in the course of repeated viewings, inspections etc. had the opportunity to meet some of the neighbors. They’re absolutely great. Friendly, unpretentious, generous and welcoming. And I wasn’t tarred and feathered. So I was completely wrong, and I apologize. If you’d like to join the fun you have an opportunity via Lynne Stewart’s new listing at 10 Cary. Small bungalow right on the Mianus, asking $779,000. I’d suggest that it’s a teardown but then I’ll probably re-offend a new crop of people, so I’ll just say the setting will support a very nice house in a very nice neighborhood.

19 Shannon Lane
At $1,225,000, this house seems to be priced way below market value. Looks rather boring from outside and it's a split level (horrors!), but absolutely pristine inside, with a very nice layout. With what you'll save on this house's price you can afford a decent architect to redesign the exterior and you will have a real bargain. Ellen Mosher’s listing.

Unidentified Location
I just toured a very expensive new house and was disappointed to see that its builder took every opportunity to skimp on finishes. It shows, and shows badly. Unfortunately, most buyers couldn’t care less about how a house is built: sophisticated drainage systems, quality of framing, efficient furnaces, etc. What they notice, and what they will pay for, are finishes. So load up on the marble and expensive trim work if you want to receive top dollar.

Venting
I’ve noticed that builders of many of the new, hugely expensive houses popping up like mushrooms spend a fortune on the exterior: cedar roofs, copper gutters, etc. and then ruin the effect by venting fireplaces and dryers with cheap aluminum pipes stuck through the side. It looks like hell, so I checked with Old Greenwich’s Jan Ivarsson, my source of knowledge for everything involving high-end houses to see if there are alternatives. He assures me that there are, including more attractive and expensive vents, and designing a chimney ahead of time to incorporate a pocket to shelter (and hide) the now mandatory outside air source. Jan points out that appliances are usually the last things to arrive at a new house and the vents are often an after-thought, which explains why so many end up protruding at eye level, right next to the front door. Dumb. A good architect and a good builder will think things through before ever starting construction.

Bidding Wars
They’re still going on, despite what you read in the New York Times. And houses continue to sell: in Old Greenwich alone, four houses in the $3,500,000 - $4,000,000 range went to contract recently. Many buyers are certain that, these days, they’re the only ones interested in a house and they refuse to feel any sense of urgency. That’s fine, and entirely justified when dealing with an overpriced property. But, priced well, houses are attracting multiple bids, so listen to your Realtor. And if you don’t trust her advice, what are you doing with her?

Inventory
On the other hand, our housing inventory continues to build. Single family homes are up 14% from this time a year ago, condominiums 54% (both numbers courtesy of Bob Fossum, Shore & Country). What this tells me and should tell you is that this is not the time to try for a record price. There are plenty of choices for buyers out there and if your house isn’t offering good value for the dollar, those buyers will go elsewhere.

Overlooked on Oval?
When Rick Loh first listed 22 Oval Avenue in Riverside for $2,195,000 I thought it was a good price for a great house and said so in this column. My powers of persuasion aren’t much, obviously, because the house is still available and is now priced at $1,895,000. This is a funny business - some houses that we agents love can sit, ignored, while dreadful, overpriced (in our opinion) monstrosities get snapped up instantly. The marketplace dictates what happens out there rather than any one agent’s opinion, but here’s my recommendation again. This is a wonderful house, built in 1926 and renovated in 1999. Nine-foot ceilings, very nice back yard, on a great street within easy walking distance to the train, Eastern and Riverside School. I don’t know of anything as nice in its price range.

Risk Aversion
I see that our Selectmen have repealed the 1957 ordinance that offered a $1.00 fine for parking tickets paid within 24 hours. It was fun while it lasted, but I suppose the repeal makes sense. I noticed that when doing a quick risk/benefit analysis at parking meters last week the reduction of the possible penalty from fifteen dollars to a measly buck resulted in my quarter remaining stuck in my pocket. That’s no way to run a railroad.

Not In My Name
(Readers who become infuriated when I diverge from real estate should skip this paragraph) Richard Blumenthal seems to think that the best way to become Senator is to oppose every attempt to bring energy to this region. As the official legal representative of this state he has blocked, repeatedly, cross-Sound electrical cables, a LNG terminal and a natural gas pipeline. His latest effort, an injunction against the natural gas pipeline, was denied by a federal judge two weeks ago. Coincidentally, on that same day Connecticut’s National Public Radio station aired a story about impending blackouts this summer. I sail, fish and even swim in Long Island Sound, and support any reasonable plan to clean it up and keep it clean; I also live and work in this state and want to see it prosper. I don’t see an incompatibility in those goals but our Attorney General does. We’ll see what happens, but Connecticut already has one of the lowest growth rates among the fifty states, one of the highest costs to do business in and some of the most expensive energy. A proponent of those policies doesn’t seem like a good candidate for higher office, to me.

Popping Bubbles?
There are probably more price reductions being filed with the Board these days than there are new listings. Evidence of the great bubble burst? I think not; rather, we’re just seeing prices adjust to where they should have been all along. Jean Ruggiero, for instance, just took over a Lake Avenue listing that had been previously priced at $5,700,000. Jean dropped its price to $3,150,000 and had it under contract within ten days. We’re not witnessing a $2,550,000 drop in value – the house was never worth $5,700,000. Another example: a builder bought some land a couple of weeks ago for $2,500,000 and re-listed it the next day for $3,500,000. When it eventually sells for something much closer to its original price, will we have seen a bursting bubble or just a market place intervention that separated the builder from whatever he was smoking and returned him gently to earth? The latter, in my opinion.

Insurance
The other week I mentioned a beautiful old house on Cliffdale Road that, while in the process of being restored, burned down. Chubb Insurance paid to have it rebuilt exactly as it was, even down to antique floorboards and moldings. The telling of that story reminded me that it might be time to once again discuss the various types of coverage out there, so I called Raveis’s Insurance guru and fellow Greenwich resident, Mary Dowd to discuss it (no, I get no kick-back for mentioning Mary – that would be immoral, illegal and fattening – but I try to find knowledgeable people in this business and exploit them mercilessly). Mary says there are three basic types of insurance: market value, which banks care about, just protects the bank’s interest, reconstruction and guaranteed replacement value. You’ve probably got more invested in your house than just the amount of the mortgage and, since part of that mortgage reflects the value of the land, you’ll want better protection than market value. Replacement cost insurance is okay (I have it) but beware of caps – many firms limit payouts to 125% - 150% of the face value of the policy. This caused a lot of heartache in California when homeowners lost their houses to wildfires and discovered they didn’t have enough coverage to re-build (same thing happened after Katrina). The most expensive type of policy, guaranteed replacement value, means just what it says: they’ll rebuild your house, regardless of cost. So if you have a very special house, with a lot of exotic custom features, you might want to have your policy reviewed by an expert to see what coverage you actually have. Your current agent can do this for you, and I’d recommend scheduling a checkup. Or call Mary at (203) 767-9049. She can interpret your current policy and tell you about others, all, I understand, without pressuring you or moving permanently into your home.

24 Rocky Point Lane
This is a great listing of Bill Schoonmaker’s that should have flown off the market but, a month after it was listed, it’s still available. The original 1932 house was raised above the high waters that occasionally afflict this section of Old Greenwich and completely renovated. There are fabulous water views from almost every room, a huge (for OG) backyard and a purchase on this street moves you to the head of the waiting list for the Rocky Point Club. As a sailor, I never liked Rocky’s unprotected mooring field but it’s a wonderful neighborhood beach/swim club filled with very nice, unpretentious people; something that can’t necessarily be said about some other “neighborhood” clubs which seem to have strayed from their origins. $2,995,000. Buy it.

Zillow.com
Have you tried this site yet? It purports to tell you what your house is worth but it’s not yet ready for prime time. Example: it claims a five year 125% appreciation rate for one street, based on one address and zero appreciation for the same street if you plug in an address on the opposite side. Another example: it gives a price range for another house $1,987,260 (sounds so precise, doesn’t it?) to $2,958,810. “Official” price, $2,200,000. I valued the house at $3,250,000 while the agent who listed it says $3,650,000. I think I’m closer to the mark than the listing agent but both our estimates are a long way from $2,200,000. Zillow’s a work in progress but, so far, it’s not much of a threat to my industry.

Painter Follow Up
Charlie Ford’s phone number is (203) 536-9106. Good guy.

Ah, Entitlement!
From the New York Times comes this story of the working poor: an agent was showing a couple $3,000,000 weekend homes out on Long Island. The wife didn’t like the selection and, turning to her husband snapped, “If you had a good job, we wouldn’t have to live like this!”

Days On Market. Sale to List Price Ratios
I’ve mentioned these two worthless statistics before but it won’t hurt to bring them up again. At first blush one would think that these are two numbers of vital interest to buyers and sellers; they would be, if they weren’t so often manipulated. The Board claims to be doing something about days on market but so far, a remedy has eluded it. So here’s how the process currently works: A house come on the market in, say, January ’05 at $10,600,000. It sits unsold through numerous price reductions before its listing is deleted or expires and it’s immediately re-listed at yet a still lower price. It finally sells in April of this year for $8,500,000. Time on market would appear to be, to a rational person, 16 months, and the sales to list price ratio would be 80%. Ah, but you aren’t a professional Realtor – if you were, your logic would tell you that days on market only began at the time it was re-listed and you’d calculate the sales ratio based on the house’s last asking price of $8,995,000, giving you 48 days and 95%, respectively. I am not picking on this house, by the way; this is done all the time. I use its example only to illustrate that, until our Realtor Association’s data collection methods are revised, you should be highly skeptical of numbers that show the average days on market is 118 and the average sales to list price ratio is 96%. It ain’t necessarily so.

Takikomi in Cos Cob
Because I’ve never detected any evidence of use of those ten-burner professional stoves and million dollar kitchens that are now standard in town, I assume that Greenwich does takeout. If so, here’s a great opportunity to expand your taste horizons. Takikomi is a hole in the wall at 395 East Putnam Avenue, just beyond (heading east) Dunkin Donuts in the Minute Man dry cleaners mall. It specializes in absolutely delicious Japanese foods and, while it holds two tiny tables, it’s really a takeout and catering operation (free delivery on orders over $25). I’ve driven by the place every day for three years and only just discovered its existence. I’ve been eating my way through their menu ever since. Lots of fish, but also many cooked items: Karaage (chicken), pork cutlets, teriyaki, hibachi, etc. Everything is served in large, divided trays – easy dining, easy clean up, and everything is good. Inexpensive– complete meals run from $7.50 to $10.95 and nice, pleasant sales help. There’s a separate menu for corporate and private party catering. (203) 422-0448 or you can order online at takikomi.com

21 Hendrie Lane
Mary Louise Morgan has just listed this Riverside house for $2,295,000 and it seems well worth its price. Its present owners completely renovated it three years ago and it shows nicely. Four bedrooms, huge eat-in kitchen (see above) and a reasonable backyard, for Riverside. I still miss my family’s acre+ on Gilliam Lane but, like the pick-up baseball games we held there, those days are long gone.

Summer Jobs for Kids
Just as no modern, responsible parent would let their child engage in any unsupervised sport activity, every summer job for the little darlings must somehow nurture their future as investment bankers, or so it seems. I ran into Charlie Ford the other day and we discussed just this issue (as well as the crummy, disposable houses being built these days, but that’s another article). Charlie’s father taught me how to paint houses years ago and after he retired his son took over the business (he’s great, but I can’t find his number. Check back next week). Although Charlie is flooded with job offers he can only accept about half – not enough good workers in town and during the summer, the busiest time for exterior painting, no college kids. “Greenwich kids don’t do painting” he says, and I’m sure he’s right. Most seem to be off in the corporate world serving as unpaid interns. I think the children and their parents are missing something here. By working for Charlie’s dad, I learned all sorts of things: showing up on time, customer relations, time management and, once our crew was experienced enough to work unsupervised, responsibility and decision making. We made good money, too. Did the experience pad our resume? Probably not as much as an internship at Goldman Sachs, but I never worried about that. I still don’t.

Listing Your Home
Two agents I know recently lost the chance to list a home because they each told the owner that her house was worth something like $2,350,000. Who got the listing? A third agent, who gave her price opinion as $3,350,000. The hopeful seller obviously believed that the third agent was a kindred soul who saw value where lesser agents couldn’t. In fact, the seller has probably done herself no favor and is in for a long, long period of showing her house to non-buyers. A case in point is a house in Greenwich that sold last week for $3,725,000. An impressive sum, but this house sat on the market since September, 2002, when it was priced at $5,500,000. That’s an awfully long time to keep your house in showroom condition. If you want to sell your house, price it competitively. If you just want to annoy yourself and give house tours to strangers, then stick a ridiculous price on it, buy yourself an open house sign and stick it on your front yard on Sundays. You don’t need a Realtor for that.

Fools Rush In?
An interesting Old Greenwich property showed up on the market last week and I alerted four different builders to its possibilities. All four, all experienced builders, passed – they have other projects going and didn’t want to over-extend themselves in this uncertain market. I can’t say for sure, but I think that, a year ago, at least one of them would have stepped up and grabbed it. Despite my own clients’ lack of interest, the property still sold, at a premium, in a bidding war, so there are still some bold builders out there. To paraphrase the old saw, there are old builders and bold builders but no old, bold builders.

As evidence of the above, two properties went to contract last December and between then and early April, when they actually sold, the buyer combined and reconfigured the lots and then designed and got town approval for two new 10,000 sq. ft. houses. The lots are back on the market, asking a $1,250,000 premium for those approvals and plans. It seems obvious that someone has developed cold feet and, if I were a spec builder of a $10,000,000 house, I’d be donning wooly socks too.

And the Reason for the Above?
Borrowing power has dropped. A year ago, a 5.75%, $500,000 30 year jumbo fixed cost $2,917 a month to service. Today, that same loan is at 6.75% - to keep the same $2,917 monthly payment, the buyer must borrow 10% less: $449,740. $1,000,000 in borrowing power last year? So sellers, adjust accordingly and buyers, get off the dime, because next year, things may well be worse.

Great Houses
Taste in housing is an entirely subjective thing, but I think Patte Nusbaum’s listing at 6 Jofran Lane, $2,950,000 and Diddle Mcallister’s at 230 Round Hill Road, $5,450,000, are two of the nicest, most interesting houses I’ve been in in a long time. Both are (gasp) contemporaries, which means they’re open, airy and filled with light. Taking nothing away from another listing on Jofran, a traditional colonial with low ceilings and lots of walls, if I were trying to sell No. 6 I would first show the colonial and, if a sense of claustrophobia set in, move the client next door to see and experience what $450,000 less can buy. They’d be blown away, if they shared my taste. That said, I bet the colonial sells first.

Classics
Don’t like contemporaries? Then check out David Ogilvy’s 1925 house at 40 Park Place ($3,995,000) or Dianne Carnegie’s 1917 house at 31 sawmill Lane ($9,850,000). Both houses have been completely renovated and restored and are absolutely beautiful. Park is one of my favorite central-Greenwich streets and demands and deserves a premium, so $4 million seems like a fair, intelligent price. The Sawmill Lane listing is far more expensive but it’s probably twice as large as the other, sits on its own three acres vs. 0.85 on Park, and abuts an additional sixteen acres of conservation land. Obviously, two different houses for two different buyers, but both are splendid.

Riverside Run Saturday May 13
When my kids were younger they’d make me put down my cigarettes, tug on my tennis shoes and pant through the entire three mile loop of this race. Lots of fun seeing my neighbors and their kids, some walking, but I was always amused at the sight of a few guys so desperate to win something, anything, that they’d come from out of town and sprint around the course, outpacing five year olds and family pets to claim a cheap trophy. That’s a pathetic cry for help, if you ask me.

Price it, Sell It
For all the doom and gloom expressed over the current state of the market, houses that are priced right are still selling. My fellow office-mates, Bari Taylor and Dee Webber, listed 2 Lakewood Circle South for $4,500,000 on a Friday, showed it Saturday, had an agreed on price Sunday morning and it’s now under contract. So there are buyers out there, and they are buying, at the right price. This was obviously one such price.

The End of Lawns as We Know Them?
I read an interesting article in the Times last week about Scott’s new product, a genetically engineered grass that doesn’t need mowing, pesticide, fertilizer or (much) water. Environmentalists are generally supportive but worried about an “Ice-Nine” effect if the grass’s spores invade the world. Assuming that issue is addressed, this sounds like a nifty product, but bad news for the lawn care industry. Heck, between global warming ending snowstorms and now no more mowing, what are these guys going to do for three quarters of the year?

Building the Old Fashioned Way
Fine Homebuilding’s annual “House” issue contains a provocative essay from a builder who thinks the conventional method of building frame houses is out-dated, inefficient, unduly expensive and just plain wrong. He makes some good points. These days, a builder is more construction manager than craftsman, over-seeing as many as twenty different subcontracting teams, of varying skill, training and criminal backgrounds, all of whom show up and leave when they want to and often fail to arrive at all. One study in Arizona concluded that anywhere between 25% and 45% of the total time of construction of new homes is spent with absolutely nothing going on. That’s a lot of money to pay for carrying costs. Another point: the author, a builder for thirty-five years, confesses that it’s hard to do your best work when your fingertips are numb and you’re standing in five inches of semi-frozen mud. And so he advocates more factory-built components and less on-site creation, which he quotes an M.I.T. professor as saying “makes about as much sense as assembling a car in your driveway.” Commercial construction has already moved in this direction, with a buildings skin, structure and mechanicals built as three separate components. Anyone who has ever carefully framed a house and then watched as the plumbers and electricians cut it merrily apart to accommodate their product will appreciate the merits of a new approach. You can read more at the builder’s website, bensonwood.com.

Gas Prices
Okay, I realize this is a real estate column but as a real estate agent I do an awful lot of driving and $3.00 gas is a real annoyance (although I am glad I drive a Honda Accord and not an Escalade). Far more annoying than the price of gas, however, are the howls from politicians that this is all George Bush’s fault – there’s plenty of blame go around: who dreamed up mandating 55 different blends for different areas of the country, thus fragmenting our national distribution system? Who decided to dictate the use of ethanol, which, many experts say (it’s debatable) consumes more energy to produce than it yields and definitely adds additional cost? Who has stopped new, efficient power plants, natural gas pipelines, LNG terminals, the Long Island Sound power cable, offshore drilling, onshore drilling, arctic drilling, and on and on and on? In fact, we all did and if the trade off we chose was higher prices - the only thing, government subsidy and mandate fans notwithstanding, that will force conservation and make alternative energy sources economical – in favor of NIMBYism and Iowa primary politics then so be it. But let’s stop the whinging, eh? It doesn’t produce a single drop of gasoline. Repeat after me: demand (world-wide, see China) is up; supply is down – price goes higher, all over the globe. Even the dumbest, most cynical politician knows this in his heart, but demagoguery is such fun they can’t resist its allure.

Trees
And while I’m annoying my tree hugger readers, may I say a word against the latest proposal working its way through town, an ordinance granting third parties the right to bar tree cutting on private property? I like trees (almost) as much as the next guy, and massive clear-cuts like that which occurred on Langhorne Lane last year appall me, but we are already so over-regulated in town that the thought of yet another board is, in my opinion, nuts.

Poll Numbers
According to Gallop, 7 out of 10 consumers think the housing bubble is soon to burst, but only 4 out of 10 believe that their own neighborhood will decline. Why the discrepancy? Probably because more people actually know something about their own area and ignore scary news stories about “national” conditions, whatever they are. This seems similar to that other recent poll which found that we all think that 90% of the population is fat but only 40% think that we ourselves are.

Zoning and Walls
For years, Paul Pugliese, architect, and principal of Greenwich Land Co., has been a one man band at our P&Z hearings, criticizing their proposals but, far more important, offering solutions to the problems the P&Z (dreams up and) seeks to address. They routinely ignored him so now the Board of Realtors has created a committee, headed by Paul and Sabine Schoenberg, that will, we hope, bring a multitude of voices to join Paul at hearings. Will it work? Who knows, but here’s one of the P&Z’s proposed regulations that ought to stir up some interest: all walls, fences (including split rail and picket) or plantings over three-feet tall must be set back 10’ from any public highway. Now, there are certainly safety issues involved here, and no one should be forced to proceed blindly onto a public highway, but, enforced on neighborhoods like Riverside, Cos Cob, Byram or Old Greenwich, this regulation would, at the least, bifurcate front and side yards, leaving 10’ strips of (taxable) yards outside the province of the owners and yielding 5’-10’ yards inside the fence. That’s a crummy idea that doesn’t even begin to address the perceived problem of sight lines. Some lots should not have fences or hedges on their perimeters – other lots can block out traffic noise with no effect on public safety- so what’s called for here is, I suggest, a lot-by-lot approach, not a sledgehammer rule that hits every front and side yard in town. If you happen to live in a neighborhood of smallish lots – Old Greenwich, Riverside, Cos Cob or Byram, say, take a stroll outside and see how much (or how little) of your front yard will be left if this regulation passes. Then call up the P&Z and register your comments. Or wait for a petition we Realtors have ginned up to come your way, and sign it. We’ll try to take it from there.

New Houses
I drove up Riverside Lane the other day, took note of the many new houses being built and realized that like New Orleans, Greenwich is seeing the complete replacement of its housing stock, albeit piece-by-piece here, compared to the post-Katrina construction wave down there. This isn’t necessarily good or bad, I suppose, but the implications are (a) the town will continue to get more expensive to live in and (b) there are a lot of houses here that are rapidly approaching only their land value. The latter doesn’t necessarily mean your house’s value will depreciate but any increase in value will be limited to whatever rate land appreciates. I’m painting with a hugely overbroad brush here, but, as a generality, I think it works.

And More on New Houses
We have seventy-one new single-family houses on the market right now, fifty-one of which are priced at $3,000,000 or above. Many builders I know are shuffling their feet nervously, wondering whether to proceed with new projects, but I don’t think that statistic is as daunting as it appears. Sixty-six new houses in that price range sold or have gone to contract in the past twelve months and thirty of those went this year. One thing that does give me pause is seeing so much new construction going up that, so far as I know, is not yet on the market. Unless these are all custom jobs, which I doubt, there will be a large new influx of inventory in the next few months, which will render the reassuring statistics cited above, moot..

A Sight I Never Thought to See
I toured a beautiful new house the other day, priced at the top of the price range and was struck by my feeling that the woman’s closet was too small. Not too small for normal people and normal houses – this one could accommodate the belongings of a family of five – but, at this price level, the lady’s closet/dressing area is usually the size of a small house (the guy’s remains tiny, regardless of the size of the house). I believe I’ve been in this business too long if I, an oblivious male, can walk into what is essentially an airplane hangar and think, “gee, this feels a little cramped”.

Old, New, Cheap

No, not all three at once, sadly, but three nifty houses caught my eye last week, each different from the other and all three real standouts from the usual run of the mill offerings we usually see.

Joan Epand has listed 66 Cat Rock Road for $2,195,000, one acre in the R-2 zone, but how much land do you need? Part of this house was built in 1760 and, while it’s been added onto over the centuries, it’s still a terrific, rabbit-warrenty dwelling that meanders all over the place, from a real tap room to a airy master bedroom and so forth. Its owner is a noted author and screenwriter (“Summer of ‘42”, “The Great Santini”) and this place looks and feels exactly like what a writer’s home should be. Very much not a house for young Biff and Hillary, eager to impress their Wall Street friends with how much house they can by, but for more creative folks, a unique find. Comes with a pool.

6 Cliffdale Road, Diane Carnegie’s new listing, is an exact replica of another old house, again built in 1760 and added onto in the 1800’s. The present owners were three-quarters of the way through a renovation of the existing house in 2001 when it burned down. Undaunted (and armed with a great insurance policy from Chubb) they started anew but rebuilt the original structure, using old oak flooring, for example, and superb moldings. The result is outstanding: every bit of the grace and smooth flow of the original structure but with none of the worries and headaches antique buildings usually bring: termites, powder beetles, sloping floors – you get the picture. It’s set high up on a hill, with wonderful views, a free-form pool, beautiful gardens and lawns, and, as Diane says in her English accent, “garaging for six vehicles”. $5,695,000, this, too is probably not for Biff, but his boss will love it.

George Crossman’s house on 7 West End Court in Old Greenwich lacks garaging for even one vehicle but at $895,000 it’s definitely the best value in town. George built this for himself back in 1989 and he did a very nice job (my law office was around the corner at the time and I’m sure he owes me a huge debt of gratitude for my constant supervision). Three bedrooms, a huge eat-in kitchen with fireplace and a study with an curved ceiling, planked and varnished, that seems as snug and pleasing as a well-crafted ship’s saloon. Go for it. By the way: how whacky is the Greenwich real estate market? I commented to cop who was directing traffic for George’s open house that I’d just seen the last affordable house in Old Greenwich. “You call $900,000 affordable, sir?” he asked. Well in Greenwich, yes. From the perspective of the real world, the policeman was entirely right.

$500,000 too High?
Last Thursday’s open house circuit held three houses (at least) that were each, in my opinion and the opinion of a number of very experienced agents, priced a half-million dollars above what they were worth. That may not be an issue when the asking price is $20,000,000 but when you’re in the $2-3 million class, it is fatal. Time to adjust, owners.

Statistics
No good news here. Bob Fossum, curse him, neglected to do my homework for me this week so I had to search for myself. An on a holiday weekend –tch, tch. In any event, last year 303 houses went to contract between January 1st and April 15th. This year, for the same period, only 262 did (contracts, rather than sales, afford a better view of market activity because sales reflect what went on, say, three moths ago. Contracts show what’s happening now). A drop in sales activity by some 14% is not great news, for sellers, but it does allow buyers to be more choosey, and they are. Price accordingly.

One Owner Who Gets it
Saw a new Riverside listing come on the other day, priced (after deducting commissions and other expenses), to yield about 9% more than the owners paid for it two years ago. That, for the mathematically-challenged, is 4.5% a year. Ouch. Far different than past appreciation rates. My advice? If you’re in the market for new construction, call your agent (or me!) – there are some very nervous builders out there who would be pleased to exchange a large pre-construction discount for the ability to sleep at night.

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.