Greenwich Roundup: 07/14/08 Greenwich Blog Spotlight

Monday, July 14, 2008

07/14/08 Greenwich Blog Spotlight - For What It's Worth

Mega Mansions begin their decline?

The New York Times reports (and a large ad in yesterday's Greenwich Time announced) that a huge (the Times claims 26,000 sq. ft but that may not include the basement or, as such things are called at this price range, the "lower level) mansion on Taconic Road is on the auction block for $19,000,000, a sharp reduction from its original asking price of $31,000,000. I believe I wrote about this place when it came on a year ago. If memory serves, I thought it was too big for practical living and certainly that's what its owners think now. I once wondered in print what would become of these monstrosities when tastes changed and an older reader from the Back Country relied, "the joke in my peer group is that there will be no shortage of nursing homes when we need them".

There are still buyers for these things, of course, but fewer of them and I would think that even a multi-millionaire might question the wisdom of heating 20,000 sq.ft. with $5.00 per gallon fuel oil. Judge Judy is completing an enormous house for herself on lower Round Hill Road but aside from that (and it's rumored that she's paid $1,000,000 per episode, 50 weeks a year) I'm not seeing a lot of activity. Another article in the Times today focuses on the trouble investment bankers are having getting past co-op boards in Manhattan. It seems that the boards, like the bankers themselves, are just discovering that humongous annual bonuses don't necessarily appear every year. Plus, lenders no longer will count the bonuses as income and are demanding much larger down payments, so buying power is down. Jesus weeps, but if the bonus babies disappear, our Greenwich market will suffer alongside NYC. I think we're in for an interesting year.
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