North Street sale

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As predicted here, back when it was reported pending in June, 822 North Street has not only managed to struggle back to its original 2002 sale price of $7.590 (the builder had started at $9.250), it’s exceeded it. Listed this time at $7.495 million, it has sold today for $8. These owners paid just $4.480 for the place in 2017, so they’ve made out well; other owners have not been as successful.

No surprise, as the increase in home sizes and prices has made obvious

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old greenwich, 2013

Old Greenwich's median income changed significantly between 2013 and 2021

The average income in Old Greenwich in 2013, according to the IRS, was $515,838. Eight years later, that rose by 74 percent to $898,202. Compared with other areas of Greenwich, Old Greenwich had the largest income change between those years. 

The next two neighborhoods with the higest median income increase were Riverside with 68 percent and the backcountry with 66 percent. The lowest, in compartison, was the 06830 zip code, comprised of the midcountry, downtown and over into Byram. It saw an increase of only 37 percent. 

With wealth on the rise, the town has changed what it offers, merchants say.

"Ten, 15, 20 years ago, sure, maybe you needed a shoe repair shop or more hair salons or nail salons," said Richard Fulton, owner of Chilly Bear and an Old Greenwich Merchants Association board member.

Nowadays, he said, "less true retail and more services" are popping up around Old Greenwich, partially a result of the internet creating convenient ways for people to shop for clothes and other items. But, he said, it also is due to what residents want from their hometown: "More higher-end dining and yoga studios and exercise and workout."

"The butcher, baker, candlestick makers are going away and it's services that are coming along. So it's interesting, but that's what that affluence wants and that's what they're going to get," he said.

Hooligans & Lawyers chief whip-wielder David Huffinpuffer weighs in:

"Since you're coming out of New York, which is frequently where many of our buyers are coming from, they're looking for some sort of proximity to something, whether it's school or walkability to a coffee shop or whatever it might be, which is typically one of the many reasons why people might land in Old Greenwich as the first landing spot when they get here," he said. The "method by which buyers come to Greenwich or Old Greenwich has remained the same despite the ebb and flow of wealth generation."

However, the average price of a home definitely changed from 2013 to 2021. 

Haffenreffer said the average price of an Old Greenwich home as of Dec. 31, 2013, was $1,753,566. In 2021, it was $2,624,038. 

I’ve lived in a couple of small, dying towns over the years, and given the choice between vibrant growth and slow deterioration, growth is better; even if I don’t personally welcome it (or any change at all, damn it, harumph harumph).

Mid-Country sale price reported

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32 Pheasant Lane, listed July 19th @ $3.895 million, reported pending in 7 days (the usual time it takes to draw up contracts, so assume it went the day or the day after it was listed), and closed today at $4 million. The house was built in 1952 and the listing shows the last renovation completed in 1991, but it looks perfectly livable to me, and Pheasant Lane is a great location, so I’m not surprised it attracted multiple bidders.

Then again, given the market these days, it may have been snapped up a builder, rather than an end user with renovation on his mind; we’ll see.

Here's a Riverside property that fared better, probably, than the one on Meadow Road discussed below.

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16 Wesskum Wood Road, listed in June for $3.795 million, went to bid, and closed yesterday at $4.5. Built in 1935. These sellers paid $2.375 in 2020, and did some fairly-extensive renovation, but I assume that their original asking price of $3.795 would have allowed them to recoup the cost of those improvements; if so, the extra $705,000 on top of that price must have come as a pleasant surprise.

Here to stay

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you ain’t goin’ nowhere

Border Czar

A signature Biden-Harris administration program to quickly remove families who entered the US illegally is allowing nearly 90% of migrants to stay in the country, new data reveal.

Of 24,000 migrants who were put into the Family Expedited Removal Program since May 2023, more than 22,000 were allowed to stay in the US — and only 2,600 have been deported, a little over 10%.

More than 3,600 migrants have also absconded from the program and are believed to be unaccounted for in the US, according to the internal data.

“These numbers are further proof that the Biden-Harris administration’s policies have nothing to do with actually securing the border or enforcing the law, but instead masking its utter refusal to do either of those things,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) told The Post.

“Such a dismal rate of removals makes clear that President Biden, ‘border czar’ Kamala Harris, and now-impeached DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are committed to ignoring U.S. immigration law, while attempting to hide that fact from the American people. Ultimately, these individuals have a simple responsibility — detain and remove those who have no lawful basis to remain,” Green added.

The program, which was announced in May 2023, was touted as a way to instill “consequences for unlawful entry to the US” by placing an ankle monitor on an adult family member.

The idea was that migrant families are difficult to deport from the US if they arrive with children, but the Family Expedited Removal Program was meant to keep families together while officials processed them for “expedited removal.”

However, from the start it had major loopholes — allowing those who were meant to be removed to receive a screening to determine whether they have a legitimate reason to fear returning to their home country.

Even if their claims are denied, they still have the opportunity to have their claim of fear heard by an immigration judge.

ICE Non-Detained Docket Is Now Over 7 Million

The "non-detained docket" is part of the Biden administration's "alternatives to detention" program that is supposed to track migrants caught at the border and released. The illegal aliens in ICE's non-detained docket are supposedly supplied with case management support to keep track of them. But the docket has swelled to 7.4 million under Biden and with only 6,000 deportation officers now responsible for 7,000 illegal aliens each, making sure the illegals make their court dates or stay out of trouble is impossible.

In addition to the 7.4 million illegals in the alternatives to detention program, there are 1.9 million gotaways that these deportation officers are also responsible for.

Oh, well gee, her position must have “evolved” since then; just as she says that she now supports fracking

The former California senator was among the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who raised their hands when asked if they supported the decriminalization of illegal border crossings. Also as a senator, she once compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to Ku Klux Klan members during a confirmation hearing and formally opposed then-President Trump’s efforts to secure funding for more Border Patrol agents.

All is going according to plan. Here’s Joe, nine years ago: