That Russ Pruner ....

8 Dairy Road

He's brought 8 Dairy Road on at $7.295 million, despite it having sold new (newish - it sat on the market forever) in 2010 for $8.2. That Russ managed to convince a homeowner that he was facing a one-million-bite right off the top and yet still got the listing is testimony both to Russ's persuasiveness  and the owner's common sense and ability to accept reality, because while I think Russ is right (in fact, I suspect there's more carnage to come on this one, but you have to start somewhere) very few people want to hear things like this from an agent pitching for their business. I know that personally.

Russ, by the way, is the guy who at lest fifteen years ago was wondering what the market was going to do with all the huge houses going up in the back country when they became white elephants instead of trophy houses. He and I had that discussion over several years, but I'm pretty sure he said the same thing publicly. Smart guy.

However, and this is just my personal taste intruding here, if I had this kind of money to burn, I'd go make a deal with the owner of 67 Pecksland, and get myself a real house. 

Fun facts: Real estate developer fraudster Andrew Kissel was found dead in the basement of the house that originally stood on this site back in 2006 (the house was subsequently razed and the address changed from No. 10 to No.8). Originally labelled a suicide, our police squad eventually concluded that the fact that Kissel was found with his arms and legs bound behind him and he'd been stabbed 11 times in the back were probably signs of a homicide, so they went out and arrested Kissel's chauffeur. That guy was eventually convicted, and, I believe, has long since been released from prison, the short sentence based, presumably, on Kissel's having been a rotten guy who had it coming. 

On the other hand, Andrew Kissel's sister-in-law Nancy has not been released from the Hong Kong prison cell she's been occupying since 2003, when she was convicted of slipping her husband Robert Kissel a milkshake of barbiturates and bashing his head in with a valuable piece of oriental statuary. By all accounts, Robert Kissel did not have it coming, so that probably accounts for the discrepancy in outcomes.