Sneak Peak at Lolita Restaurant, Byram

Here are some pictures of the soon to be opened Lolita, Cocina & Tequila Bar in Byram. This is one of the CB5 restaurant group's ventures; they run Baang Cafe locally. Jody Pennette, the group's chief executive, says it will be a trendy Mexican restaurant. I hope they manage to provide good food and value as well. We'll see.

The restaurant is in the space formerly occupied by That Little Italian Restaurant; its a good space with an offstreet brick patio. The painter I bumped into while taking these pictures said Lolita may open within a week.

Entry and dining area

Tequila Bar

Facade & Street View

It looks like the corridor from the corner of North Main and Mill Street in Port Chester along Delavan Avenue, Byram is becoming food alley: The Kneaded Bread, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich's trattoria down the street at the Tarry Lodge and now Lolita.

I think the improvement of services along this corridor will help real estate values in Byram as the gentrification process continues.

15 North Crossway: Valuation Watch

I'll watch this property to determine what has happened with property values in prime Old Greenwich waterfront locations.

The property was bought new in May 2004 for $3,925,000 and listed for sale today at $7,195,000 or 83% above last sale. At 5,334 sqft, according to the list sheet, the property sold at $736/sqft while the current ask is $1,349/sqft.

ht: forwhatitsworth for 2004 photo.

Foreclosure Watch: 46 Bowman Drive

This property was forclosed upon in January 2009. The outstanding mortgage then was $688,000. The purchasor and current owner paid Washington Mutual Bank $860,000 for the property in February.

This history is indicative of what is happening throughout town though not captured in the GMLS database, by many agents or the local newspaper. As a sidebar kudos to Zillow and other sites that manage to capture this data and make it publicly available (I, on the other hand, rummaged through Town Hall records to find it). For a property buyer or seller this type of data is relevant for determing market value and useful for establishing list or offer pricing. I expect that a property appraiser would look at these distressed sales comps in determing an appraisal value to support Bank financing, so I figure a real estate agent should also.

This 4bedroom, 3 bath, 3,266sqft modified Cape was listed for $1.295mln in April '04 and went to contract less than a month later. The sale closed in July 2004 for $1.280 (see house as it was in 2004 to the left).

After upgrades which included a new septic, driveway, hardwood floors, Kitchen countertop and appliances, and new baths, according to the list sheet, the property was relisted in July 2007 for $2.475mln. The listing expired in October 2008 asking $1.495mln.

The party that purchased the property in 2004 secured a Pay-Option-ARM to finance the purchase. The loan principal was $1.15mln or 90% of purchase price. In this type of mortgage the borrow could roll the interest payment into the loan principal up to a cap, which in this case was 115% of the original principal or $1,322,500 before they had to start paying. The same party secured a Personal Line of Credit for $150,000. So no wonder the borrower didn't want to sell for less than $1,472,500 (the total of the Maximum principal plus the line of credit).

Salute to Veterans: June 27th, 11am

Real Estate Agents Own 6% of SF Homes For Sale

I have been wondering what amount of the real estate inventory for sale is owned by real estate agents. It turns out to be around 6% in Greenwich.

June 18th total single family inventory = 765;
Units owned by Agents = 44
Percent total owned by Agents = 5.75%

I wonder what would happen if 6% of the market adjusted its price to clear? How would that impact the rest of the market? But then there is no one motivating factor for the parts of that group.

In a future post, I'll check to see if RE Agent pricing on their own respective places differs in any substantial way from pricing in the rest of the market.

Picture of the Day: 4 Sherwood Farm Ln

We have some very creative agents in town. Or what is fauvism when applied to residential real estate?

Welcome Back 2001: 126 Cat Rock

This property sold new in June 2001 for $3.595mln. It closed today for $3.20mln after almost one year on the market. It was listed in July 2008 for $4.15mln.

I expect one of the reason this house did not sell for more is the proximity of the house on the back lot. In my experience any hair on a project will be discounted heavily in a declining market, in the same way issues were disregarded on the way up. So the market is functioning just fine.