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 ...
I'll remember that, and hope you take some of your own advice. ;)
Some places experience wilder swings than others, Miami was one of the wildest.
Hope you get through relatively unscathed!
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?
“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.
LOL!
Yeah, this took about half a second to find:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_market
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.
This may go down as one of the most uneducated statements of all internet debate history.
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
LMAO! I won’t bother reading any more after you bash stockholders. That’s pretty damn dumb.
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
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
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
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.
Why is your stance in this post contrary to one of your previous posts?
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 :-) ? ....
Imus selling the ranch?
Not to worry, when the word gets around, squatters will take up residence
Two homes in my neighborhood have sold this month. One was on the market one week, the other two.
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