Quick sale in what now passes for the high-end of the market

75 Rock Maple

75 Rock Maple Road, off Stanwich, asked $5.695 million nine days ago and is already pending. 8,850 square feet, custom built in 2000, on five acres backing up to Mianus Park: I get it.

The street's seen sales at least close to this level, so there's nothing absurd about its price. What was absurd, years ago, was 54 Rock Maple, (ignore Realtor.com's sales info - it's wrong) which started off in 2007 at $12.4 million. I remember walking out of the house and down the driveway on open house day with Brad Hvolbeck, a keen judge of pricing, and confessing my bafflement: was this really a house that should be anywhere close to that price? What was I missing?

Brad assured me that I wasn't missing anything, and sure enough, it finally sold in 2011 for $4.3.

Number 75 seems more closely tethered to reality.

UPDATE: There's absolutely nothing of interest going on in the real estate market today, so I revisited (via MLS, not physically) this listing and compared it to its competitors. You may or may not like its style - I do, very much - but it compares favorably, in my opinion, to other houses in the $7-$12 million range. It's really a very good value, as apparently these buyers recognized. Helene Barre and the owners did a great job pricing it to sell, which I've always thought was the point of these exercises. Other agents obviously disagree.

(of course, it does have the zebra, which gave it  an unfair advantage over its COMPETITORs)