Why do people screw good things up?
Starbucks has stopped selling Columbian beans. The kids behind the counter confirm that it was a huge seller (in fact, I believe Starbucks was the largest purchaser of Columbian coffee in the world, but I could be wrong on that). I don't like what the store does to coffee once they try to brew it themselves but their beans, freshly ground and prepared in a French press, made a very good cup of coffee. And no, I'm not going to buy one of their even pricier blends, I'll just have to find a new source for my morning brew.

Similarly, the idiots who ran the Sitemeter spot which runs on this blog and offered readership statistics to anyone curious to see them have now improved their product to require sign-in, extra clicking and God knows what else. I've always been lazy so "leave well enough alone" has been my life's mantra. Others obviously have more energy.

Does "green" equal $green?
Not as far as I can tell. A number of builders have gone to extraordinary lengths the past few years to incorporate sensible energy-saving features like super insulation, really sophisticated heating and cooling systems, "E-glass" windows and so forth. I think these houses are great so it disappoints me that the home buyers seem unwilling to pay anything extra for such features, even if they'll save a lot of money in the long run. I know, I know, "in the long run we'll all be dead" but this kind of construction makes a house immediately more comfortable to live in and payback should come in just a few years. But I've been informally keeping track of the selling price for these houses and it seems to me that they sell for just about what their less sophisticated brethren sell for. Location, number of bedrooms and all that still rule and buyers just aren't interested in saving on heating and cooling costs. Maybe $4 a gallon fuel oil will educate them. In the meantime, if you are a buyer, keep your eye out for these homes - you can buy them for no more than a regular house so you'll be getting a nice subsidy from the builder.

Update:
Here's a thoughtful article asking whether "green" houses have to be ugly. The author is too kind to post actual photos of what she considers ugly brutes (a softness I don't share) but she's on to something. I like the looks of the green projects I've seen here in town, mostly, but ugliness is not going to help these things sell. I'll go look for examples with which to embarrass some people.

More good news!
According to some of my peers quoted in the Stamford Advocate, the federal bailout of Fannie Mae
will return sweetness and light to the housing market. I disagree, but never have I so wanted to be wrong.
Update:
Here's someone in Arizona who's being fed the same line and is similarly unimpressed.

Sign of the times?
Greenwich doesn't permit broker "for sale" signs but our Board of Realtors has just added a new category for listings: short sales, which are tedious, cumbersome proceedings that may permit a seller to sell his house for less than he owes. The new category serves as a heads up to buyers' reps that this isn't going to be an easy sale. For details on just how involved this is, see
this article from the Hartford Current.

Bargains?
I checked out
Realtec.com this morning and its site claims that there are 29 properties in Greenwich in "pre-foreclosure" mode. Now this just means that a notice of intent to foreclose has been filed on the land records, which is mostly an attempt to cut off more creditors from getting ahead of the lender. It does not necessarily mean that the property will be foreclosed and, historically, few Greenwich properties go so far. But these may be new times and some of the addresses: Perkins Road, Stanwich, Taconic, Buckfield Lane and the like could all offer some value. Depends on either the seller's willingness to get out early or the bank's desire to unload once they take title.

A ray of hope?
Maybe, but don't hold your breath. I've heard of several sellers who have accepted offers in the past few weeks but have not reported their houses as "under contract" because mortgage contingencies are taking longer to be met. So it's possible that last week's dismal performance (3 contracts all week, compared to 8-10 a day this time of year) can be explained and that we'll see the traditional surge of sales a few weeks later this year.
My personal feeling is that, while there are indeed buyers out there, they've been offering much less than the sellers are looking for and, so far, the sellers aren't bending. If the financial world collapses tomorrow, as seems possible given the seeming lack of progress resolving the Lehman mess, these sellers may regret their intransigence.

No good news here
A friend with reliable sources has given me very bad news concerning Sally O'Brien. I won't pass it along in the hope it's false but her friends might want to make inquiries.

A Home Run?
Local real estate columnists seem to think that the federal salvage of Fannie Mae is going to save our industry. I disagree. Look, people will always need housing and Greenwich will, at least until the School Board finishes destroying our educational system, continue to be an attractive place to live, so we're not going to see Fargo, North Dakota prices here in town - I hope. But the Fed's action is a huge admission that the mortgage business is in deep, deep trouble. One reader of this blog has commented (and if you're not reading the comments, you're missing much more wisdom than you'll find in these primary postings) that we have $11 trillion in mortgage liability outstanding and something like $600 BILLION (corrected by reader) backing it up. That's not encouraging. We'll all survive, and I continue to believe that buying a house now at the right price will prove a great investment a few years from now, but federal intervention in the lending market is a sign of desperate times, not a ray of sunshine; in my opinion.

By the way - it's been a while since I ticked off Franklin Bloomer, head of our Land Use Commission and chief of silliness for the Floor Area Ratio regulations. He wasn't pleased when I reported that he'd torn down his house in Riverside and replaced it with a Westy's self-storage center as reparation for denying Greenwich residents the use of their attics, and I just realized that he's still wrong, and still in office. So here's my vote for his well-deserved retirement. Perhaps he can start a hedge fund.

Hedge fund envy
This article is on the Times' most emailed list today so I suspect that there's a fair bit of schadenfreude floating around concerning the fate of hedge funders. I suppose the most truthful, and painful aspect of all this is that "hedgers" were supposed to be able to churn out profits regardless of market conditions because they were so much smarter than the rest of us and knew how to hedge their bets. Turns out, many of them were just Bozos on the bus, just like the rest of us. Phew! I can go back to being proud of my philosophy degree.

What happens to this project?
The Antares UST project is supposed to be fully leased and ahead of schedule, according to this press release. I wonder, though, whether the events of the past few weeks and events yet to come will cause some of those tenants to disappear. Regardless, this portion of the press release seems almost quaint, now:

"One Hundred West Putnam is another major victory in an already
distinguished Antares track record for creating massive real estate value in
their projects," said Bruce Mosler, Chairman and CEO of Cushman & Wakefield.
"C&W is excited to be working with Antares to bring more global leading
companies into their groundbreaking office development at Harbor Point on the
Stamford waterfront as C&W knows we can count on Antares to provide Class A +
buildings on schedule and on budget."

19 Dingletown
I haven't seen this listing that just came on today but it's on an acre of land, has a slate roof and looks pretty nice. It's priced at $2.495 million and was purchased 10 years ago for $1.6 million. That seems like a reasonable rate of appreciation - I hope I'm right. In any event, I congratulate the seller and the listing broker (Round Hill Partners) for acknowledging that this is not the market to shoot the moon.

Of this and that
The Google map feature I was playing with does seem to be slowing up the page loading, as several readers have observed. Plus, coincidentally or not, my iPhone has started crashing on the site since I added maps, so they'll be gone. You can always go to "Googlemaps.com" and type in the address yourself.

The posting about 77 Sheephill Road did not get disappeared - it just got bumped over to last week's postings, found to the right.

And how's this for a straight-forward warning from our government regarding Hurricane Ike?

LIFE THREATENING INUNDATION LIKELY! ALL NEIGHBORHOODS…AND POSSIBLY ENTIRE COASTAL COMMUNITIES…WILL BE INUNDATED DURING HIGH TIDE. PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH.

Yesterday, after this warning, The New York Times found a 46-year-old Galveston woman perched on a milk crate and sipping brandy. "It's just gonna be a lot of wind and rain" said she. Last words?

Hmmm
No one seems very cheery about Lehman's prospects. I'm taking no particular joy in their demise because I have friends who work for them or did until today and, friendship aside, these people and their peers in the financial industry have been driving the Greenwich real estate market. It's all very well for commentators to celebrate their demise but for those of us who wanted to sell houses to them, it's a bummer.

Along that line, did you know that only three single family homes went to contract this week? One, 7 Ginko Lane, priced at $1.150 million, went via bidding war. of the other two one was under a million and the other not much more.

Perhaps reflecting this, Mark Mariani has reduced his 11,000 sq. ft. spec house on Sabine Lane by 25% and it can now be yours for just $8.950 million. If your Shearson stock lost $2.8 million this week you can still buy this house and be right where you were.

Can we now, at last, close this case?
Rosenberg really was spy - his co-conspirator finally admits it.

Lehman's woes
I doubt that this firm's difficulties all stem from their commercial lending arm but whoever worked in that area certainly didn't help the parent stay strong. Case in point is Lehman's loan to Antares to buy those aging apartments in Byram. The purchase price worked out to something like $800,000 per unit which any real estate agent, if asked, would have said was crazy. So far as I know, they never asked.

My brother Gideon tells an illustrative story of receiving a late-night phone call from an investment bank client almost 20 years ago. The bank was considering buying a failed condo project in town and wanted Gideon's opinion on what they might sell for in a worst-case scenario. Gideon opined, the bank passed and someone else stepped in and lost their shirt. The bank that thought to ask Gideon (and presumably a few other Realtors) is still in business and doing well. So the lesson is, if you don't know what you're doing, ask someone who does.

What part of "restructuring" don't sellers understand?
I have been seeing some reasonably priced listings recently but I'm still struck on open house days how many sellers (or their agents) haven't noticed that we're undergoing a restructuring, downward, of prices. I won't list specific addresses here (it tends to upset owners) but there are a lot of houses out there that will still be for sale in the Spring unless they drop their price substantially. A good indication that you've over-priced your house? 12 showings and no offers. If that happens, take out your meat axe.

10 Cat Rock
So-so picture but terrific house
New listing at the entrance to Cat Rock Road (I realize that there are people who love that street but I personally prefer houses on it that are close to either end). This was built a year ago and it's beautifully done. Three floors, decent yard backing up to conservation land and lots of Count Rumford fireplaces (which are large and shallow and throw heat into a room, rather than sucking it out. Designed by Count Rumford who, because he was a Tory, had to flee to England where he made a living fixing smokey fireplaces). I think Ann Simpson has priced it well at $2.995 million but these days, who knows? It would certainly have sold at that price a year ago and I think it should today but I am not the market.

$13,000 to power 19 lightbulbs?
But the symbolism is priceless.

Lehman Tumbles
This is not good for Greenwich real estate, I fear.Watch it fall in real time here

Price reduction on Indian Head
I thought this house was priced well when it came on two weeks ago at $3.895 but the market being what it is, it's already dropped $300K. For its Indian Head Road location, that's pretty good. Disclosure: it is my brother Gideon's listing, and I can't say mean things about it or our Sunday family dinners will be awkward, but I really do like the house. As an aside, know that I will always disclose any personal interest I might have in a listing I discuss, so if I make no such mention, you can be certain that none exists. 23 Byram Terrace, for instance,mentioned below, is listed by Diane Dutcher, who is with Coldwell Banker in Old Greenwich.