Greenwich housing prices

24 Gilliam Lane (expanded and modified by successive owners, but basically the same 1954 house)

I noticed in the post below that the cost of that Jacobsen mower in 1954 was $375, and, curious, I plugged that number into this inflation calculator to see what its present value would be: $4,71.02. That’s a bit pricey, but I don’t think similar lawnmowers cost much more than that today.

So that set me thinking about what’s happened to Riverside housing prices over the past 70 years. Hmmm. They have outperformed lawnmowers, certainly, and that’s completely transformed who can afford to move in now. The current value of the $50,000 my father paid in 1954 for a beautiful house on Gilliam Lane,with an acre-and-a third of land is, according to that calculator, $582,802.97; the smaller house my grandmother bought for $15,000 in 1957 would cost $167, 374,38 today. I’m guessing here, but I’d be surprised if those houses couldn’t sell for at least $4.5 and $1.750 million, respectively, in 2024. Obviously, changes have been made to them over the years, and, especially in the case of Gilliam Lane, some expansion has been performed, but the point is, someone with a $600,000 house buying budget today won’t be looking on Gilliam Lane or even William Street — or anyplace in Riverside, for that matter.

granny’s “magic cottage”