Readers may remember when the NYT Magazine ran an article on failed housing developments and used the services of one Edgar Martins to illustrate it. Well, once he admitted digitally altering the photos, including one of Patriot Bank’s 14 Baldwin Farms South, the entire article was yanked and there went my own exposure in the [...]
Entries from July 2009
July 31, 2009
Correlation is not causation
I’m extremely skeptical of any theory that events of the past foretell the future, and I don’t give a fig for astrology but nonetheless, this chart reprinted in BusinessInsider is kind of cool, in a “gee, what if…” sense.
July 31, 2009
But the debate is over!
From Archaeology daily news
Carbon dioxide (CO2) gets a bad rep for contributing to global warming, and deservedly so. But scientists say they can’t entirely blame the greenhouse gas for a curious spike in Earth’s temperature 55 million years ago. New research reveals that something else also seems to have warmed the planet during that time, [...]
July 31, 2009
This will help the price average
25 Sherwood Avenue sold today for $19,000,000. It was never listed for sale so I wasn’t aware of its presence, but it looks like 15 acres with a couple of buildings all renovated in 2004. In fact, from the areal, it looks like a heck of a place.
To balance that, 11 Green Lane, a bank-owned [...]
July 31, 2009
Andres Piedrahita: We’re so sorry, we’ll give it all back!
So he says now. Walt Noel, however, has already emailed us to say that his dumb son-in-law is high on horse flatulence and no money is going to be returned, ever. I’ll bet Walt is right on this, and that Andres was put up to this egregious lie by Fairfield Greenwich Group’s PR guy, Seth [...]
July 31, 2009
Has Riverside waterfront really gone up this much?
This nice old (1888) house sits on over 1.6 acres and was beautifully renovated in 2000 – it’s come a long way since the Crossman boys were antiquing it in their own special way back in the 60s. It sold exactly two years ago for $12,000,000 and, nice as it is, I found that astonishing. [...]
July 31, 2009
Old chestnuts back on the open fire
Like Winston Churchill, some builders never give up, never surrender. Case in point is this aging spec house at 1 Butternut Hollow Road (ML#74012). Built on land purchased for $2 million in 2004, it has been for sale since April, 2005, starting at $5.895 and dropping to $4.350 in June, 2008, when it was yanked [...]
July 31, 2009
Cash for clunkers
The House has voted to put another $2 billion of borrowed money into the deal. I’d love to read an economist’s take on this program. On the one hand, I resent having $4,500 taken from me so someone else can buy a new car, but if they’re going to take it anyway -and this new money [...]
July 31, 2009
12 Ledge Road sells
Bank owned, this post and beam started at $3.795 (ha ha ha) and was sold by the bank today for $2.640 million, a lot more than I might have suggested but it’s a nice street and a good neighborhood so there you have it. I wonder if the bank threw in a dinghy for those [...]
July 31, 2009
Chris Dodd has prostate cancer
I wish him well. Fortunately, this seems to be one of the cancers medicine has gotten the better of and he should be fine. He says it won’t stop him from running for reelection and judging from the experience of friends of mine who’ve had this disease, it shouldn’t. Naturally, I hope that a Republican prevents [...]
July 31, 2009
Stanwich sale price reported
I missed this property’s reported sale last week. $2.450 million, which seems a lot better than its asking price a year ago of $3.685. Next time you’re insulted by what you consider to be a low offer, understand that it’s sales like this that encourage them. I usually don’t show houses when first listed if [...]
July 31, 2009
Contemporary houses
I like (a few) contemporary houses and if I were building new and didn’t care about getting my money back, I’d have one designed for me, just as I’d prefer a trimaran sailboat, if resale weren’t an issue. But often, it is and in Greenwich, contemporaries are very much passe. A search through the inventory [...]
July 31, 2009
Soak the Rich! Oh, we’re already doing that
Top 1% of taxpayers now paying more than bottom 95%. That’s 1.4 million taxpayers paying more than 134 million and of course, there are millions more who aren’t taxpayers at all. The problem with this, aside from the fact that we’re going to run out of top taxpayers to fund all our bright ideas, is that [...]
July 31, 2009
Here’s a price cut of note
This new construction was listed for $3.6 million at the end of April. It was put up by an excellent builder and is of very high quality. But, it’s right on the road, and that doesn’t help its chances of selling in this market. So today the seller took a second price cut, down to [...]
July 31, 2009
Ct. budget deficit solved: they’ll just surtax Brad Hvolbeck
Two sales for Bradley yesterday that should keep him around and available for a quick loan, if you’re short on pocket change these days: 24 Conyers Farm, $18.7 million, 98 Round Hill Road, full price, 4 days, $8.995.
July 31, 2009
Their first blunder was picking a Chickahomony house to rob
Two burglers arrested after bungled robbery attempt in Chickahomony. Ah, fellas? Ya want high-end stuff to pawn, may I suggest the Back Country? The Merritt provides easy-on/easy-off shopping and you’ll be back in the Bronx in no time.
July 31, 2009
Long term expertise
Cleveland, Duble & Arnold, Greenwich’s oldest real estate company, celebrates its centenary. I’ve always been grateful to the firm: it’s provided gainful employment to my little brother Gideon for more than twenty years and Tom Gorin, its co-owner, years ago had the wisdom to refuse to hire me, thus freeing me to find my own [...]
July 30, 2009
Whack-a-mole in the House
No sooner does Nancy Pelosi cut a deal with Blue Dog Democrats on limiting (a little) her version of ObamaCare than black and hispanic representatives say they won’t go along. What’s Nancy to do? If she gives away the country, she pisses off the Blue Dogs, if she doesn’t, she’s got every Congressman of color [...]
July 30, 2009
Draining the moral swamp that is D.C.
Democrats refuse to issue subpoenas that would reveal Friends of Angelo in their ranks. The Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee says he’s “too busy” for such nonsense and he’s right; these poor folks are just snowed under with investigating Roger Clemons and his possible use of steroids years ago.
Nothing to see [...]
July 30, 2009
Housing sales jump – the Mother of all head fakes?
Some people think so – I’m inclined to agree with them. We are certainly seeing more activity than last winter, but there’s no robust recovery here yet. Here are some statistics for single family house contracts:
2007 2008 2009
May 58 44 35
June 63 49 39
July 40 39 36
