Greenwich ghost town (moribund Connecticut hedgers mansions)

nypost. ^ | February 15, 2009 | MELISSA KLEIN

[dennisw]

Almost 50 mansions built on spec for the hedge-fund set - and priced from $5 million to upwards of $25 million - sit empty in Greenwich, Conn., where the real-estate market has tanked.

"They're going nowhere. Nothing's selling," said Christopher Fountain, who writes a blog called "For What It's Worth" about the Greenwich real-estate scene.

Those who still have cash can find spectacular, never-occupied estates in move-in condition, complete with wine cellars for their Bordeaux and Sub-Zero refrigerators for their caviar, including:

* A 22,185-square-foot Georgian mansion on 4.8 acres off prestigious Round Hill Road with eight bedrooms, elevator, butler's pantry, home theater and fancy flourishes such as crown moldings in the closets. The sale price is $25 million, and it has been on the market since May.

* A seven-bedroom Georgian mansion with 13,000 square feet that includes a solarium, wine cellar and elevator. It is still under construction, giving buyers time to add custom details. It just went on the market for $12.7 million.

* A stone-and-shingle mansion that replaced the one where real-estate developer Andrew Kissel was found murdered in 2006. It has been on the market since September 2007, despite a price cut from $10.7 million to $8.4 million.

The spec homes are scattered throughout town from the woodsy "back country" in the north to the Long Island Sound waterfront.

Julianne Ward, a broker with Prudential Connecticut Realty who sells spec homes, said CEOs, CFOs and other moneyed buyers used to snatch up these manses in just months. "Most houses used to sell before they finished building them," she said.

Now they may linger for a year or longer, Ward said.

There were 161 houses from $5 million to $95 million for sale in Greenwich as of Friday, according to Realtor.com.

[raybbr]

So a small businessman contractor builds a spec home based upon past sales. He makes the decision 18 months ago to build that home because he is reacting to market conditions. 18 months later the bottom falls out and you gloat because he speculated?

Oh, please. I said I have no sympathy and you translate that into gloating. How? Stop playing games - it's not the same thing.

[mick]

Travis.....It might further the discussion and serve as an educational tool for those of us not up to your intellectual and philosophical levels if you would answer marshmallow's questions rather than set up straw men to demolish and throw out juvenile insults.

You obviously believe in economic freedom....which is a good thing..... but carry along with that belief a naive understanding of human nature and the capacity for people engaged in business and the market to be just as venal as anybody else in the real world.

That's really all anybody has been trying to tell you. Power corrupts.....even economic power gained in the free market. It is the lesson of history and why our Founders feared concentration of any kind of power...military, political and even economic.

And today much of that abuse is centered on Wall Street and the banks in addition to Wash.

[dennisw]

Business is not the enemy of America.

Wall St/bankers are and we are paying for these crooks bailouts

[McGavin999]

What is hypocritical about it. Only an idiot would endanger something like American democracy in order to take care of their pocketbook. Do they think they can just get it back later?

I'm not worried about the people who have earned it themselves, they are not the ones trying to rob the average wage earner, it' the trust fund babies who have no idea what an honest days work is. They got where they are because Daddy or Mommie risked everything to get something. All they did is inherit it.

So tell me, where is the hypocracy?

[whattajoke]

Just so you all understand, Greenwich is pretty much the only town in Connecticut with a Republican majority. Obama pipped McCain in November, which marked the first time a Rat won in Greenwich in forever.

Driving around town in October, it is clearly a Republican stronghold judging by lawn signs and bumper stickers.

Please don’t let this stop anyone from bashing my liberal state as a whole though!

[SunkenCiv]

Better raise property taxes and income taxes. ;’) From mid-February.

[dervish]

what’s a “moneychanger?”

[dervish]

“Would you be happy if the NY Times went under? “

I’d have a party. Bad analogy.

I know what the NYT lies, and hates and hurts this country.

I don’t know who these Greenwich people are and have no reason to assume they are all wrongdoers. I do not agree that every hedge fund is a criminal enterprise. Nor do I know that all these houses were going to hedge funds. Plenty of good people have been badly hurt by this financial crisis.