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Greenwich ghost town (moribund Connecticut hedgers mansions)
nypost. ^ | February 15, 2009 | MELISSA KLEIN

Posted on 02/16/2009 5:09:42 AM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: Connecticut
KEYWORDS: connecticut; everheardoftopics; usethekeywords
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To: Condor51
[Newbie, no offense but you're gonna have to learn when FReepers are being sarcastic, facetious, or mocking something.]

I'll remember that, and hope you take some of your own advice. ;)

61 posted on 02/16/2009 8:59:29 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: Boiling Pots

Some places experience wilder swings than others, Miami was one of the wildest.

Hope you get through relatively unscathed!


62 posted on 02/16/2009 9:00:38 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: Travis T. OJustice
Even if they are local builders, why would yuo be happy about a businessman failing? So what if they are speculating? Don’t all businesses do that, to a certain degree?

I still don't see where I said I was happy about it.

What about a newspaper? Would you be happy if the NY Times went under?

63 posted on 02/16/2009 9:05:28 AM PST by raybbr (It's going to get a lot worse now that the anchor babies are voting!)
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To: Travis T. OJustice; All

“Good try, but you aren’t using any factsin your discussion”

Please name mee all of the hedge funds from the 1940’s, along with all of the people who made their livlihoods from futures/options trading.

If you claim they existed, please show me where? I argue they never did then.

I will wait.


64 posted on 02/16/2009 9:27:28 AM PST by Red in Blue PA (If guns cause crime, then all of mine are defective.)
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To: taildragger

LOL!


65 posted on 02/16/2009 9:28:29 AM PST by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: dennisw
Insufficient snob appeal. An “estate” is a few hundred acres of rolling wooded country side where people who drive their own cars never are allowed to go, according the
McSniff Book of Condescension and Perpetual Elitism. (pg.9)
66 posted on 02/16/2009 9:32:59 AM PST by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: Red in Blue PA

Yeah, this took about half a second to find:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_market


67 posted on 02/16/2009 10:08:42 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: raybbr
What about a newspaper? Would you be happy if the NY Times went under?

While i don't like their slant, i wouldn't want to see the business fail. It's quite a bit different than a homebuilder though. Newspapers are the buggy whip of today. People still need homes, people are increasingly less needing newspapers to get their information, etc. Not a great expample.

68 posted on 02/16/2009 10:11:34 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: Red in Blue PA
There were no speculators in the 1940’s, ...!

This may go down as one of the most uneducated statements of all internet debate history.

69 posted on 02/16/2009 10:17:07 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: Travis T. OJustice
All stockholders are speculators. You want to write off all of us stockholders? 

Also, you want tow rite off everyone not in manufacturing?

For the most part yes. You are phonies and buzzards feeding off of carrion

They (speculators and other wall st types) provide a service, just as your dentist does.

We are providing them trillions in services called bailouts. The taxpayers are bailing them out to the tune of trillions

This country is top heavy with speculators and the futures markets have too many. They drove up the price of oil

Of course some speculators are needed in the markets. They grease the wheels.
But the speculative elements are wild and out of control with their credit default swaps, CMOs, CDOs and other derivatives
Our futures markets used to have rules that limited how many contracts a speculative entity can buy
While genuine producers and consumers of crude oil (for example) used to be the only parties allowed unlimited contracts

GM speculates on LOTS! They speculate people will buy their product, for starters. Their financial wing, GMAC, the only real profitable part of GM, MUST speculate to survive.

LOL  That kind of speculation ain't exactly buying futures contracts nor is it writing derivatives nor is it betting on derivatives

70 posted on 02/16/2009 10:18:23 AM PST by dennisw (Archimedes--- Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth)
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To: dennisw

LMAO! I won’t bother reading any more after you bash stockholders. That’s pretty damn dumb.


71 posted on 02/16/2009 10:23:10 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: Red in Blue PA
There were no speculators in the 1940’s, and yet we managed to get along without them!

We had futures markets back then but they had much less volume plus we had ways to speculate on stocks. Though more people can do it today due to real time quotes on the internet and real time quotes delivered to trading platforms (software) in peoples homes and speculative businesses such as hedge funds. Ridgefield Connecticut is a hedger epicenter. These wise guys no longer have to commute to Manhattan for their financial industry jobs
We have always had speculators but we have too much speculative activity now
And you and I are being forced to bail out the biggest ones

72 posted on 02/16/2009 10:28:06 AM PST by dennisw (Archimedes--- Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth)
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To: Travis T. OJustice
LMAO! I won’t bother reading any more after you bash stockholders. That’s pretty damn dumb.

Investors are OK but all you do is invest. A slug can invest. A caterpillar can invest. My dog can invest
My admiration is for the captains of industry. Also our robber barons who got our steel, railroads and oil businesses going 100+ years ago. 

I respect and admire Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie 1000x than Warren Buffet who is a mere investor. With a darn good track record

73 posted on 02/16/2009 10:33:17 AM PST by dennisw (Archimedes--- Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth)
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To: Travis T. OJustice
LMAO! I won’t bother reading any more after you bash stockholders. That’s pretty damn dumb.

Yeah I hit home.....So what kind of speculation are engaged in?
I'll bet you wish you hit the big time and lived with those parasites in Connecticut with their foreclosed mansions and mansions they can't sell

74 posted on 02/16/2009 10:35:30 AM PST by dennisw (Archimedes--- Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth)
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To: dennisw

I’m a stockholder. i am not in the financial industry. I have no stake there, i just hate seeing the idiocy and class warfare bullcrap i see FReepers engaging in here. It makes all of FR look stupid they way some are carrying on with their ignrant and anti-capitalist rants.

I do live in CT, btw. Bigtime? Nope, not my goal, but I am prettty comfortable.


75 posted on 02/16/2009 10:44:36 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: dennisw

Why is your stance in this post contrary to one of your previous posts?


76 posted on 02/16/2009 10:46:22 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: <1/1,000,000th%
Dude or Dudet.... :-)...

Are you the only steeped in history to get the "Hooverville" reference, or has everyone lost their sense or humor or is mine just that twisted :-) ? ....

77 posted on 02/16/2009 10:47:06 AM PST by taildragger (Palin / Mulally 2012)
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To: dennisw

Imus selling the ranch?


78 posted on 02/16/2009 10:47:51 AM PST by McGruff (Oh no, there goes Tokyo! Go go PORKZILLA!)
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To: dennisw

Not to worry, when the word gets around, squatters will take up residence


79 posted on 02/16/2009 10:48:19 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . The original point of America was not to be Europe)
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To: native texan

Two homes in my neighborhood have sold this month. One was on the market one week, the other two.


80 posted on 02/16/2009 10:49:31 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . The original point of America was not to be Europe)
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