Byram Shubert Library Opens

This is great news for the Western side of town as well as for all Greenwichites who take advantage of this resource. Here is the article from the local paper announcing the opening.

Greenwich has one of the best library systems in the country and my family and I are happy to have access to it.

6 Ernel Dr - Sale Under $1.0mln

This well maintained and presented property on a cul-de-sac off Sound Beach Avenue Ext in Riverside sold for $750,000 Friday. This sale is a good pointer to value below the $1.0mln mark.

The property previously sold for $792,000 in June 2005. It was relisted for sale in March '08 for $850,000. The owner lowered the list price to $770,000 in Feb '09 and it went to contract shortly after.

I like Ernel Drive. Its a cul-de-sac of 7 houses and offers a low-traffic environment for residents with young children to stroll safely. The street has not been overbuilt and maintains a scale and balance that I find attractive. The 50s-era Capes sit well on their sites and from the several houses I've been in, the houses have been upgraded over the years and well maintained. It makes a difference when all houses on a street are in the same good condition.

The house itself sits on a flat 0.14acres and has a nice backyard enclosed by a decorative fence. It is not a large house, but at nearly 1,500sqft with 3bedrooms and 2 baths, it offers more than an apartment in the City or most condos in town. Plus it gets good light, has new appliances and infrastructure. It is a skip to the Post Road, I-95 and two skips to the Old Greenwich train station. Overall the property offers much.

154 Cognewaugh Rd - One Down (almost)

Looks like Greenwich will have one less spec house on the market. This property in Cos Cob went to contract today. The last list price was $3.150mln, which is down 36% from the original asking price of $4.895mln back in July 2007.

Crunching the numbers, the developer bought the property for $1.4mln (3 years ago) and then built 5,234sqft above grade (7,743sqft including finished space below grade). If I assume $300sqft build cost on above grade area, we get $1,570,200 build cost. When we add land cost, we get $2,970,200 or pretty much breakeven at this point (considering RE commissions and fees). When we add in 3 years of financing costs, it would seem the developer walks away with a loss.

By the way, the property was developed by Santora Brothers LLC and built by Pecora Brothers. These guys have been in the business a while and do a solid job.

80 Perkins Rd and Yankee Baseball

Sounds like the recently hired NY Yankee first baseman, Mark Teixeira purchased this property.

The team website also notes that, "By committing to a eight-year, $180 million contract, Teixeira is in New York for the long haul. His wife, Leigh, is busily moving into a new home in Greenwich, Conn.,...".

Congratulations to the family and welcome to Greenwich.

17 Marshall: Hmmmm?

I'm stumped. After undergoing what sounds like a major renovation in 2007, this property came on the market in February '08 for $895,000. It didn't sell. Today, a year later, the property is back on the market and voila, the price is $995,000. As far as I can tell from the property listing, nothing has been done to upgrade the property since the last listing.

So, help me. How does one rationalize a $100,000 price increase during one of the worst years in Greenwich real estate in decades? I know, I'm getting on thin ice when I start asking about a rationale for pricing, but someone has to do it. Maybe after I see the property at the Broker open house, I can shed some light on this puzzle. Who knows, maybe the property was severely under priced last go round and the market missed this opportunity.

80 Perkins Rd

Word on the street is that this property sold to a professional baseball player fresh from signing a $180mln contract. Nice house by a good builder. Sale price was $6.70mln or +/-16% off the list of $7.95mln. The property sold yesterday, but went to contract in Jan '09 about 2 1/2 months after being listed for sale--that's darn good! For background, the developer purchased the property in Nov '07 for $2.695mln.

Continuing Tale of Woe on Greenwich Avenue

I posted on this subject on March 3, and today there is this article from Bloomberg detailing the sorry state of affairs on Greenwich Avenue.

As Queen would say, another one bites the dust, or so it looks with commercial property in town.

21 Bobolink Ln: What it takes to sell

The owner of this property figured how to deal with the market: sell at 28% off your last list price and 44% off your first list price in May 2007. The $5.0mln sale price would allow you to downsize into an attractive townhouse or condominium in the center of town, in the event those are your plans, and you would still have some change left over.

I find it noteworthy that the seller is a professional real estate owner and investor. I expect this experience helped him close at a price significantly lower than he originally anticipated.

Greenwich Single Family Sales Under $500,000

Given the nose-dive the local market is taking, I would have thought we'ld have seen some sales below $500,000. 7 Windy Knolls sold today and it turns out this 2 bed/2 bath Cape is the first. Then again there have been only 16 sales year to date.

`

If my recollection is correct, the house is a real fixer-upper or in other times a teardown. The land is flat to gently sloping to the street level, which means easy access and easy to build on.

Here is some perspective on single family sales below $500,000.

(Click on image to enlarge)

880 Jobs Lost = How Many Houses for Sale?

The local paper writes that 880 Greenwich residents lost their jobs during 2008. The prospects are that the worst is ahead and the town will see accelerating unemployment through the end of the year, according to a Yale economist and CT Dept of Labor researcher quoted in the article.

So how many properties will be put on the market to be sold as residents deal with these new financial constraints? And who will buy them? Who knows, but more inventory will certainly increase leverage for buyers and reduce it for sellers.

So far this year, 25 residential properties (single family and condominiums) sold. That leaves about 600 single family homes and the 200-odd condominium units on the market. Talk about a growing imbalance in supply and demand. I expect the rate of property price declines will pick-up dramatically over the coming months.

Approaching 1999 Prices: 7 Gisborne Place

This sale caught my attention today; it closed closer to its sale in 1999 than to anything more recent.

The history is that the property sold in April 1999 for $1.81mln. It was then significantly renovated in 2006 and sold in Jan 2007 for $2.86mln. It went to contract in the end of Feb '09 and closed yesterday at $2.2mln.

It looks like a relo company took position of the property since the 2007 sale, but sheesh and in Old Greenwich too!

Summer Rentals Going Down: 181 Clapboard Ridge

I wonder what happened to the Spring Market? Today the rent rate for this property was dropped nearly 50% from $15,000 to $8,000 p.m.. The list price was reduced 20% from $ 7,995,000 to 6,395,000, but that isn't all that startlingly now is it.

Cloudy Condos: 17 Condos Missing Basic Data

Of 186 active condo listings on the multiple listing service in town, there is no property tax or list history for 17 of these (see table below). Does this make a difference to a Buyer? I come down on the side of more rather than less transparency in real estate sales. In the current environment with all its uncertainty, why would a seller add more uncertainty to the sale/purchase process by withholding or not providing basic data that 90% of the market provides?




If I were a buyer looking at properties without tax and list history data, I would at least discuss the absence of the data with my agent. Who knows where that may lead.

Greenwich Commercial Property: Another Shoe to Drop?

Based on my trips around town, there is a rapidly growing quantity of vacant retail and office space in Greenwich. Here are pictures I took this morning. I could have taken many more. But there were too many vacant spaces and the drivers behind me did not appreciate my slow driving.

As a property owner or prospective property owner in town, I would be alert to how the deteriorating commercial market, in conjunction with plummeting residential sales, will impact the Town budget and property taxes. It would seem to me that the forward buget shortfall could easily be a multiple of the $8mln shortfall in the 2009/2010 Town budget. In hindsight the "tough choices" Town officials made to close that gap may look like childs play when the Town gets to the 2010/11 budget.

Greenwich Avenue

East Putnam Avenue (and area)

West Putnam Avenue (and area)

Railroad Avenue

Delevan Avenue

Glenville Street

On a pleasant note, there have been some new business openings (or at least name changes)

Plus women's retailer, Madewell, sister company of J. Crew, opened a store on Greenwich Avenue yesterday. I hope their business flourishes, but I'm not sure if $115 jeans and t-shirts will continue to be a wardrobe staple in the near future (but then I wear Levi 501 jeans; so take what I say on current fashion demand and style with a grain of salt).

And we have another planned opening: