Well, “clash” is a harsh word, but still, when master brokers David Ogilvy and Jean Ruggiero come together as listing broker and selling broker, it just has to make for some interesting phone calls, don’t you think? Wish I coulda heard ’em!
Anyway, get together they did, and they’ve sold 37 Meadow Wood Drive for $4,800,000, which is $800,000 more than it sold for in 2004.
List: David Ogilvy
Sell: Jean Ruggiero
37 Meadow Wood Drive, deep in the Belle Haven section of town, sells for $4.8M.
I wrote recently about a group of waterfront sales in Old Greenwich/Riverside that were all in the $5,000,000+ range and how useful it was to us brokers who, if we’re doing our jobs honestly, are always in need of fresh comparables, in order to convince buyers of market value.
Now I have a new group of useful comparables for a completely different category: “$3-4M, central Greenwich”.
6 recent sales, mostly new construction, these will help all of us experts figure out what the next ones should actually sell for.
Moral of the story? Comparables, it’s all about comparables, because…. You can’t sell if nothing’s selling!
450 North Street, bound on either side, by Copper Beech and Joshua Lane, started out at $6.899M back in Feb. ’09, has finally sold at $3.675M.
St. Barth’s beautiful “Saline Beach”, not a nudist in sight!
CORRECTION (see below): Not 84 recent deals so far this year, it’s 87.
Yep, the vacation has ended so it’s back to work, earning money to keep Governor Malloy and Prez Obama in fresh cash! The highlight of the trip? Once again, my villa was right next-door to ditzy zillionaire “Beyonce” and yes, she seemed hard at work rehearsing her next lip-synching job, this time for the half-time show at SuperBowl XLVII on February 3rd, can’t wait!
How’s the market? Based on conversations with fellow brokers, things continue to hum along nicely, and it even appears that prices are rising in all categories, the first time I’ve been able to say something like that in about 6 years.
Here’s what’s happened since January 1st:
And…are you sitting down?
EIGHTY-SEVEN accepted offers & executed contracts, zounds, that’s a heck of a lot of activity in 28 days, amazing.
Well dammit, I didn’t keep track of this last year, so it’s impossible to prove* that 78 deals is a big number, but my instincts tell me it is.
78 deals (and it’s only just January 22!)
Among the 78,: 7 Larkspur Lane, off Round Hill Rd, $7.695M, comes with 2.26 acres PLUS, a 2-acre extra lot.
* The MLS system is great for tracking sales, but once a property closes, its “contract status” disappears, so you can’t search for, say, “accepted offers between Jan. 1, 2012 – Jan. 22, 2012″…..understand? No? Too bad.
Oh come on, I said Norwalk, not Westport, fer cryin’ out loud! Susie and I got to the front door of this place, from central Greenwich, in about 17 minutes, no biggie. Exit 14, head straight, go down the hill, bang a right, and you’re there, park right in front…easy-peasy.
What You Get
There’s a really cool bar, glass-walled kitchen, beautifully “eccentric” furnishings, but most important, amazing food, prepared by the former chef at Napa, in Stamford, all for about 1/3 less than the typical Greenwich joint. So go, what’s stopping you?
Note: As always, this is a free plug (but one of these days, I’ll wise-up)
The Spread, 70 North Main Street, South Norwalk (just before the movie theatre).
Yep, this chap’s a big lib, no question about it. Unfortunately, he happens to write great books like the one I just finished called
(He’s also written No Time For Goodbye, Fear The Worst..stuff like that)
As if that wasn’t enough, he writes really funny columns like
It’s Time to Protect Toronto’s Cars From Reckless Pedestrians (making fun of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who all liberals hate because why? He’s conservative, duh.
Ok, so big deal, he’s a liberal who writes great thrillers and funny columns, what’s the problem? Only that, for some of his fictional characters, he uses details from well-known situations but then changes one critical detail, their political affiliation.
For instance, in Trust Your Eyes, “Morris Sawchuck”, the crusading New York Attorney General who hopes to run for governor, happens to be a philandering serial skirt-chaser, whose last wife killed herself in the barn on their estate. Sounds like a delightful combination of Democrats Elliot Spitzer and Robert Kennedy, Jr., right? But no, liberal Linwood simply can’t resist making him a Republican!
Think of it this way; if one of the characters in a book you’re reading is described as a conservative politician who gets caught trying to bump feet with a guy in the next stall at a public restroom (Idaho Senator Larry Craig), but the author makes him a Democrat, wouldn’t you find that annoying? And the book contains numerous other examples of needlessly inserted political opinion, all of it anti-Republican, anti-conservative.
I guess what I hate is this left-of-center “template” that seems almost inescapable, whether it’s a murder mystery, a magazine, a web-site, a textbook, a newspaper; you name it, it’s all infused with liberal dogma. Doesn’t anyone question authority anymore?
Linwood Barclay, damn good writer. Too bad he can’t keep his politics out of his mysteries!
Yep, this chap’s a big lib, no question about it. Unfortunately, he happens to write great books like the one I just finished called
(He’s also written No Time For Goodbye, Fear The Worst..stuff like that)
As if that wasn’t enough, he writes really funny columns like
It’s Time to Protect Toronto’s Cars From Reckless Pedestrians (making fun of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who all liberals hate because why? He’s conservative, duh.
Ok, so big deal, he’s a liberal who writes great thrillers and funny columns, what’s the problem? Only that, for some of his fictional characters, he uses details from well-known situations but then changes one critical detail, their political affiliation.
For instance, in Trust Your Eyes, “Morris Sawchuck”, the crusading New York Attorney General who hopes to run for governor, happens to be a philandering serial skirt-chaser, whose last wife killed herself in the barn on their estate. Sounds like a delightful combination of Democrats Elliot Spitzer and Robert Kennedy, Jr., right? But no, liberal Linwood simply can’t resist making him a Republican!
Think of it this way; if one of the characters in a book you’re reading is described as a conservative politician who gets caught trying to bump feet with a guy in the next stall at a public restroom (Idaho Senator Larry Craig), but the author makes him a Democrat, wouldn’t you find that annoying? And the book contains numerous other examples of needlessly inserted political opinion, all of it anti-Republican, anti-conservative.
I guess what I hate is this left-of-center “template” that seems almost inescapable, whether it’s a murder mystery, a magazine, a web-site, a textbook, a newspaper; you name it, it’s all infused with liberal dogma. Doesn’t anyone question authority anymore?
Linwood Barclay, damn good writer. Too bad he can’t keep his politics out of his mysteries!
Some of these were very much in the “It’s about &%#@ing time!” category, and one of them I’m particularly pleased about:
I declared this place officially a “bargain” back on December 11th, and I was beginning to doubt myself, so I’m glad someone has stepped up to spare me a crisis of confidence.
Here’s the whole list of 15 accepted offers. These range from a $7,995,000 Belle Haven mansion, down to $215,000, for a cute little Stamford condo.
111 Patterson Avenue, started at $2.195M back in July,’10, gradually reduced to $1.895M, now has deal.
Every year I swear I’ll skip this dopey show, and somehow every year I end up watching at least part of it. Jodie Foster’s long, rambling nonsensical “speech” perfectly symbolizes the problem with The Golden Globe Awards; they allow the participants to drink throughout the show!
No kidding, everyone’s sitting around large, white linen tablecloth covered tables being served limitless quantities of adult beverages. After a few hours of that, America’s favorite performers begin to become odd and silly. All well and good for a private party, but gosh, this is national TV!
Jodie Foster at the Golden Globes…looked absolutely fabulous, but surely drunk by the time she got up to speak.
25 Lindsay Drive started out at $9,500,000 back in October, 2011, eventually lowered to $8,900,000, now has signed contracts. I have heard, furthermore, that there were at least two bidders in the final weeks, so that’s good market news. We need activity in this elevated price range.
“Where the [darned heck] is this Lindsay Drive?”, I hear you asking. Well, it’s one of those perfectly nice streets off of North Street (west side of North Street, between Clapboard Ridge and the Merritt Parkway) that you’ve driven by numerous times but never quite noticed.
List: Julie Church
Sell: Ellen Mosher
25 Lindsay Drive: Check out the photos, damn nice job.
Greenwich Bored And Razed 