Hooray for New Yorkers

736 Lake Avenue, which tried for $5.995 million in July 2020 before its owners gave up and rented it, came back on the market pst September at $4.995, dropped to $4.750 in March, and sold yesterday for $4,952,500. That’s not the $6 they originally hoped for, but that was never going to happen: Almost $5 is almost rational.

Sold to New Yorkers — SoHo — of course, and why not? It seems almost every sale I’ve been reporting here lately has been to people coming from west of the East River. That’s not unusual: NYC to Greenwich has always been a common move, because the city draws young people who meet, fall in love, breed, and look to the suburbs to raise their children. Many of the most successful of those couples choose Greenwich, not surprisingly.

Then, after the kids grow up and move to the city, the original couple flees Connecticut’s taxes, and frees up their home for the next wave. It’s a process that’s been going on at least since post-WW II, and probably even longer.

It’s to be regretted that the current swarms of new arrivals bring with them the same political values that are making the city they’re fleeing so undesirable, but that’s more a function of their modern, woke, education rather than where they’re coming from; we could expect the same result from migrants from New Jersey, say, or California. My personal advice would be to follow the example of Daniel Boone’s father, who moved the family further west as soon as he spotted smoke from a new neighbor’s chimney: upon sighting the first “Love lives in this House” yard sign, or a rainbow flag hung from the eaves, cash in and move out.