An exception that proves the rule, or a hint of trouble for this particular house?

282 Round Hill Road, purchased for $1.850 in July 2019, gut-renovated, and put back up for sale for $4.295 in May, 2020 just as the Covid boom was starting, has still not sold, and today has dropped its price to $3.395.

Which is a (non) result different from the rest of the market’s performance. Here’s an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal written in April, 2019, describing the pre-COVID state of affairs in Greenwich. Coincidentally, it features this exact house. “Wealthy Greenwich Home Owners Give in to Market Realities”.

After four years on the market, and three price cuts, a stately Colonial-style home on Greenwich, Conn.’s tony Round Hill Road is being sold in a way that was once unthinkable in one of the country’s most affluent communities: It is getting auctioned off. Once asking $3.795 million, the four-bedroom property will be sold May 18 with Paramount Realty USA for a reserve price of just $1.8 million.

Seller Isaac Hakim, a real-estate investor, said it is time to move on. “We are ready to sell and I don’t want it to drag on,” he said. After raising their children there, he and his wife moved to Florida several years ago. 

While luxury home auctions are utilized in other parts of the country, they have rarely been seen in markets like Greenwich. Once a beacon for Wall Street’s top brass and still one of the richest towns in the U.S., Greenwich is facing a slew of issues.

Many wealthy New Yorkers are opting to live in the city, rather than in the suburbs. Some of the wealthiest, like Mr. Hakim, have decamped to Florida in search of more favorable tax rates. Banking executives who propped up the market with their yearly bonuses have also experienced cuts in compensation.

The seemingly never-ending slump is leading some sellers to accept less — sometimes a lot less. Owners who paid top-dollar for their homes in the Fairfield County town in the mid-to-late 2000s are routinely selling for less than they paid. Dramatic price cuts are the order of the day. There were 45 properties in Greenwich priced at more than $5 million that had their price reduced by 10% or more in the 12-month period between April, 2019, and March, 2019, according to Realtor.com

It’s probably mean to suggest it, but this home’s failure to perform in either the pre-COVID era or the current boom may suggest that it has difficulties beyond just price.