New Listings

11 Deerfield Lane, $3.3 million. This was a very pretty house, back in 2004, but needed work. A buyer did that: purchased it for $1.350 and sold it at the crest of the boom in 2006 for $2.9. Those buyers, alas, had to see it in 2019, and got just $2.475. Obviously, these owners are hoping that the glory days of the last market frenzy have not only returned, but gone higher.

3 Old Round Hill Lane

3 Old Round Hill Lane, $6.750 million. I first saw this house when it was newly built in 2002 and was impressed. I’d entered this racket a few months before and had been appalled and depressed at the garish, over-sized mansions that were sprouting like mushrooms on a manure pile throughout the town; this one was nothing like that, because it managed to combine elegance with mammoth size, and all the rooms were designed to human dimensions, for the purpose of serving the residents of the house, rather than being props to impress new acquaintances who’d also just moved to town. I asked, and learned that the architect was Alex Kaali-Nagy, and I became an instant fan of his work.

That said, and maybe because of its “modest” feel (if you can call any 10,000 sq.ft. house modest”), the selling history here has been disappointing. It sold new in 2003 for $6.5 million, but the buyer couldn’t get the $7.995 he asked in 2009 and ended up selling it to this owner in 2010 for $6.110. He, in turn, has been attempting to sell it since 2015, when he listed it at $8.995, dropping it as low as $5.995 in 2019 before renting it out. It’s been back on the market since July of ‘21, so I’m not sure why it’s being marketed as a new listing, but what the heck; it’s still a nice house built to an exceptional standard, and at that original 2002 price, especially with the improvements made over the years, it strikes me as a decent deal.