I am thrilled to announce my new listing at 42 Bote Road in Greenwich CT. I’ll be hosting a public open house this Sunday from 2pm to 4pm if you want to take a look.

$3.95m – North Street/Central Schools, 8,224 soft, 6 bed, 6 full bath, 3 half bath.

This beautiful, generously scaled new colonial, built to the highest standards in a coveted neighborhood off Stanwich Road, offer luxurious comforts and state-of-the-art amenities for 21st century living. A grand double height entry hall with striking herringbone pattern oak flooring introduces the sun filled interior.The main floor layout with a splendid flow includes a gracious living roomwithmarble fireplace and bay window, handsome corner library with tall casement windows, elegant formal dining room with built-in china cabinetry, sensational gourmet kitchen/family room area with a fireplace and formal/informal powder rooms. French doors in the dining and family rooms lead to a wonderful covered terrace for seasonal al fresco dining and entertaining, while the kitchen opens to a delightful mahogany deck. There are six bedrooms served by six baths including a stunning master suite with walk-in custom closet and his/her marble baths, and a staff suite on the expansive lower level comprising two playrooms, one with a fireplace, a home theatre, gym and a powder room. Fronted by stone walls, the lovely, nearly one-half acre setting is just minutes from schools and town. Attached two-car garage and generator. $3,950,000 Exclusive Agent: Scott Elwell

Here is a list of all of the residential real estate trades that took place in Greenwich CT in January 2012. This includes homes that sold in Cos Cob, Riverside, Old Greenwich, North Mianus, Glenville, Belle Haven and Byram.

Jan. 3:

• 39 Lancer Road : Richard L. and Lauren E. Lieberman to Ilya and Inga Skuratorsky; $840,000.

Jan. 5:

• 275 N. Maple Avenue : Celine M. Stahl to Catherine C. and Stuart B. Nutting; $1,800,000.
• 1465 E. Putnam Avenue , Unit 421: Josephine DiPalma to Robert A. Stevens; $305,000.
• 33 Harold Street: Dominick M. and Marie Chiappetta to Yongi Hin and Wenqi Mou; $515,000.

Jan. 6:

• 46 Locust Street: Greenwich Hospital to James F. Sun and Linda X. Lin; $681,5000.

Jan. 9:

• 17 LeGrande Avenue , Unit 12: Maureen Shrahley to Helen Dillon; $650,000.
• 25 W. Elm Street, Unit 43: Kathleen Conlon to Jocelyne Doll-Soulaine, trustee; $418,000.
• 134 Cat Rock Road : Robert W. and Ann T. Rosenstock, trustees to Gordon J. and Susan J. Coburn; $3,237,000.

Jan. 10:

• 57 Pemberwick Road : William Goodman IV to Pemberwick LLC; $530,000.
• 0 Dearfield Lane: Curtis C. Wood to Dearfield LLC; $566,666.
• 0 Dearfield Lane: Curtis C. Wood, trustee, to Dearfield LLC; $283,333.
• 5 Hillside Drive: James T. and Susan G. Larkin to Karen and Charles M. Shaffer III; $2,950,000.
• 201 Shore Road : Stuart B. and Catherine C. Nutting to Jeremy and Jessica Murphy; $3,800,000.

Jan. 11:

• 54 Highmeadow Road : Norman F. and Robin G. LeBlanc to James T. Larkin; $2,150,000.
• 1109 Lake Avenue : Deep Creek Lake LLC to High Lake Property LLC; $9,250,000.
• 3 Elizabeth Lane: Grayson O. Brown to Newwork Development Co. LLC; $590,000.
• 90 Maple Avenue : Lorraine Sykes to William Goodman IV; $1,130,000.

Jan.12:

• 1353 King Street: R.K.D. Venture LLC to Congregation of Jevoha’s Witnesses Inc., $1,000,00.
• 1357 King Street: R.K.D. Venture LLC to Congregation of Jevoha’s Witnesses Inc., $500,000.

Jan. 13:

• Peter J. a132 Hamilton Avenue : The Castiglione Funeral Home Realty Trust to Greenwich Funeral Home Inc. LLC; $2,095,000.
• 63 North Street: Peter T. and Andrea M. Brennan to Gloria Chambers; $2,775,000
• 86 Round Hill Road : George S. Tsandikos and Kevin M. Ryan to William H. Pool; $1,800,000.
• 8 Echo Lane: Estate of Maria A. Newton and John C. Newton, to Fredrick and Pamela Stoleru; $985,000.

Jan. 17:

• 57 Grey Rock Drive: Helen A. and Joseph Augustyn to Abha Partners, FLP; $405,000.
• 30 Riversville Road : Estate of Margaret Hoffkins to JC Merz; $345,000.

Jan. 18:

• 25 Lismore Lane: Morris A. and Elaine F. Sandler to the estate of Rita K. Hillman; $2,900,000.
• 28 Verona Drive: Londonderry Homes 28 LLC to William and Sarah Aaronson; $3,980,000.
• 243B Hamilton Avenue : Paula and Brian Tobin to Peter Vitale; $695,000

Jan. 19:

• 33 Scott Road : Sandro and Claudia Malagisi to Erjon and Mirsada Pacaj; $875,000.
• 16 Walker Ct.: Patricia Ann Kristoff, trustee, to Jennifer and Anthony Socci Jr.; $515,000.

Jan. 20:

• 2 Indian Knoll Place: Dev D. and Patricia Ann Panigrahi to Michael Bodson; $2,900,000.
• 32 Cliff Avenue , Home site # 1: RMS Greenwich LLC to Jonas D. Slavien; $613,000.
• 1031 North Street: Elia G. Gospodinoff to Sandro and Claudia Malagisi; $1,150,000.

Jan. 23:

• 32 Cliff Avenue , Home site #3: RMS Greenwich LLC to Ashish Sharma; $675,000.
• 50 Putnam Pk.: Dorothy White to Xiehnan Lu and Yuzhi Wang; $362,000.

Jan. 24:

• 14 Meadow Road : Catherine B. Lepoutre to Peter B. and Barena B. Bailey; $1,200,000.
• 59 LeGrande Avenue , Unit 14: Jean McCormick to Jeffrey D. Harris; $1,100,000.
• 15 Street Claire Avenue : Gary K. and Michele G. Clarke to MCM Properties LLC; $1,657,500.
• 460 North Street: Kenneth J. and Vanessa L. Savio to Drew Aaron and Hana Soukupova; $7,987,250.

Jan. 25:

• 156 Taconic Road : Patricia S. Allain to Kenneth J. and Vanessa Savio; $1,600,000.
• 15 So. Water Street: Western Greenwich Holdings LLC to Blue Mountain Partners LLC; $400,000.
• 63-65 Pemberwick Road : Western Greenwich Holdings LLC to Blue Mountain Partners LLC; $472,500.
• Jan. 26:
• 318 and 320 Valley Road : Greyrock of Greenwich II LLC to RMS Valley LLC; $450,000.
• 37 Ridgeview Avenue : Emily S. Lopatin to Rob and Meera Drelich; $1,087,500.
• Jan. 27:
• 213 Riverside Avenue : Kent D. and Nancy B. Holden to Matthew Emrigh and Felicia Schecter-Emrigh; $2,250,000.
• 2 River Lane: Adriana Pena to Eduardo Pena; $335,000.

Jan. 30:

• 18 Edson Lane: Damien A. and Ilona D. Kaali-Nagy to Scott F. Alderson; $5,850,000.

Jan. 31:

• 425 N. Maple Avenue : Irene Soubry Revocable Trust to Benjamin P. and Lana E. Welsh; $1,750,000.
• 11 Skyridge Road : Michael L. and Marian S. Yagemann, trustees, to Andrea M. Fraleigh, trustee; $13,000,000.
• 59 Hillside Drive: Lydia Barberini to Brookside Properties LLC; $671,300.
• 18 Rippowam Road , Unit 2B: Gina M. Pastore to Sasha Illingworth-Maloney and Ryan J. Maloney; $575,000.
• 3 and 7 Juniper Hill Road : First Horizons Home Loans to Louis Zazzarino; $6,200.
• 32 Lake Avenue : 32 Lake Avenue LLC to Jeremy E. Kaye, trustee; $860,000.

I’m thrilled to announce, that I have moved back to Greenwich Fine Properties! I started my Greenwich CT Real Estate career here and after spending some time checking out the competition have decided to come back. For what I am looking for in a broker, Greenwich Fine Properties is the best shop in town suiting my needs.

I wrote up a quick post the other day talking about the different Greenwich CT train station options and wanted to add a little color today explaining how people commute into the city from the eastern part of Greenwich CT. The obvious option for people to get into Manhattan from Old Greenwich CT is by using the Old Greenwich Train Station. This is a fantastic station that is right in the middle of town – part of the charm of Old Greenwich. Many others also drive into New York City.  This is another benefit of living on the western side of Stamford CT as the drive into New York City is fairly consistently easy. Most of the trouble arises when you have to drive through Stamford, making it much harder when you live in areas like Darien, Rowayton or Westport.

One other option for people who want to commute into Manhattan from Old Greenwich (or North Mianus and Riverside for that matter) is to use the Stamford Train Station. This station is not far from the western part of Greenwich and offers the best train schedule outside of New York.  While most town stations have regular express trains into Manhattan, the Stamford Train Station has them late into the night.

Say hello to the Greenwich Train Station. One reason that Greenwich CT Real Estate around town has increased so much in the past 15 years.  Greenwich has four train stations including the Greenwich Train Station, Cos Cob Train Station, Riverside Train Station and the Old Greenwich Train Station, so there are a lot of options for Greenwich residents to get into New York City.  In fact there are two other train stations that many Greenwich residents on the east side (Port Chester Train Station) and the west side of town (Stamford Train Station).

While the Stamford Train Station is farther away from Manhattan than all of the Greenwich Train Stations, it offers one key benefit. The Stamford Train Station has express trains running from the city well into the night. For this reason, many Old Greenwich and North Mianus residents use this station on a regular basis, especially if they find themselves in the city late in night. They will either use the Stamford Train Station as their main station or just take an express home to it and cab back to the Old Greenwich Train Station.

I put together a search for properties that mention the word “horse” or “horses” in hopes that it would return all of the Greenwich CT Real Estate that might appeal to equestrians. Generally speaking these properties are mostly located in northern Greenwich/backcountry.  The obvious properties include large plots of land and areas like Conyers Farms.

Now my searches (as well as any others found online) are only as good as the data that is inputted into them. For example, the equestrian property search I put together only pulls listings that mention the word “horse” in the description correctly as there are no variables for equestrian properties. I mention this as there are significantly more properties that might interest you than what you will see in my searches. If you are ready to take the next step please feel free to call (203.940.0444) or email me so I can pull a proper search and show you my notes on Greenwich CT Real Estate.

There are lots of great plots of land in backcountry Greenwich that would suit equestrian interests.

First and foremost, I want to thank all of my clients for helping make 2011 a great year.  I closed on 20 houses (13 sales, 7 rentals) in 2011, which was is my best year so far and owe it all to my wonderful clients.  I enjoyed working with everyone and appreciate the business. I also want to thank the many people who referred business to me.  The referral business is a huge part of my pipeline and I am grateful for every lead sent to me.

Looking back on 2011, I am pleased to say that the Greenwich Real Estate market held up well.  I am not going to sugarcoat it and tell you that it was a banner year and that I only see signs of the market improving from here on out.  When viewed from a macro-level, 2011 was still a very slow year.  We did not see the level of transactions that we had a couple years ago and we might never again.  As I mentioned in a previous blog/email, I think we might be witnessing the beginning of the new “normal” in real estate movement.

In Greenwich, CT, I feel that the baseline level of transactions should be roughly around 625 houses sold per year.  This is not the 750+ that we saw in 2007, but also higher than what we have witnessed in the past two years.  I am a strong believer that we are bouncing along the floor of our pricing, but also admit that I do not know when we will start to see price increases. I am confident in recommending a purchase (for investment purposes) with a 5+ year horizon, but have a hard time confidently supporting shorter horizons.  I see several factors that continue to affect the Greenwich (as well as national) market and keep it from a proper level of equilibrium/harmony.

Obviously the biggest factor keeping the Greenwich CT Real Estate market out of sync is the questionable economy.   As discussed in several previous blogs, residential real estate is almost entirely priced upon perception, so if anything were to affect perception and confidence the residential real estate market takes a hit.  Certain areas of residential real estate are hit harder than others.  For one, the second home market has been hit much harder than the primary home market. This is obviously because those who need money will unload their vacation homes before their primary residence’s. Another factor that we are starting to see is that second and third tier markets are taking a harder hit than first tier markets as those who have money are starting to realize they can afford to upgrade to the better location (flight to quality).  Greenwich is fortunately on the right side of the trade for both of these factors.

I have worked with a lot of clients recently who have said they want to buy in Greenwich because of the low taxes (about 1/3^rd of NY taxes), which is normal, but now I hear more and more clients say that they think they can afford to live in better neighborhoods than they used to look at because the prices have come down.  You used to need well north of $1,000,000 to buy a decent first home in Greenwich, but now you can find some great single families in the $700k range, especially in areas of Cos Cob and North Mianus, and you can find apartments in the $200-$300k range all through town.

This doesn’t mean that all levels of real estate in Greenwich are lowering dramatically in price, it just means that there are many affordable areas of town.  On the high-end we have still seen some major trades and there are some fantastic homes on the market right now in the $10 to $20m range, which once commanded prices starting with a “3” or even “4”.

I find myself fortunate to work in a town with such diversity in product.  Covering over 65 square miles and housing a population of over 60,000 people, Greenwich has a lot to offer.  I really consider it 4 neighboring towns that include Old Greenwich, Riverside, Cos Cob and downtown Greenwich, but within those towns we have several communities including Glenville, Byram, North Mianus and Pemberwick to name a few.  I’ve been able to work $1,500 rentals and $23 million estate sales, which is what I find to be so much fun about the job.

If you know of anyone who is looking at the Greenwich (or Rye, I closed on 4 houses in Rye last year!) area and are in need of some help, I’d really appreciate it if you pass on my name.

Sincerely,

Scott

Scott Elwell
Real Estate Agent – MBA- GreenwichCT.com
William Raveis Real Estate
45 Field Point Road, Greenwich, CT 06830
Mobile: 203.940.0444 : Email: scott@elwell.com

My Activity - Bio

I’m starting to get some requests on rentals and felt that this would be a good time to talk about the rental market in Greenwich (including Cos Cob, Riverside, Old Greenwich and North Mianus).  There are essentially two types of rentals in Greenwich. One type is the family rental and the other is for people that don’t have kids (clients that are either very young or empty nesters).  I’ll explain in a second why I include the younger clients in the same pool as the older empty-nesters.  The reason that I split up the groups in this manner is that one (the family clients) is very cyclical, while the other is not.

The rental clients that don’t have kids look throughout the year and don’t care which school district they are in. This is very important to pay attention to as you will see when I start talking about the family rentals. These non-children Greenwich rentals normally end up closer to town and in areas like Lyon Farm. Demand for these units is fairly consistent throughout the year. Yes it gets slow around the holidays and in the coldest of winter times, but there is not near the cyclical behavior as we see in the family rentals.

Clients that are looking for family rentals have a fairly small period of time to jump.  The sole reason for this is the school year. Not many people are looking to move their children during the school year so we see a ton of activity in Greenwich rentals in the summer months when school is out. This cyclical behavior has little to do with the economy. That being said, the negative economic market can sometimes boost the rental industry. Last August the Greenwich rental market saw this happen. The rental Market in Greenwich in August 2011 could not have been hotter. I had several clients loose out on rentals after bidding the ask price! They lost out to people that offered more than the asking price and people that offered money the day it was listed.

This burst in activity was due to all of the families that had to be in by the school year (the September Greenwich rental market slowed down considerbly). This happens every year, but I think the spike was extra strong last year because there were more families finding themselves in the market for Greenwich rentals that originally wanted to buy, but could not get the financing or find the right home at the right price.

I think we might see another spike this coming summer. It will be awhile until we know. Just realize that if you are interested in renting for the  next 2012/2013 school year you’ll want to wait until this summer to look at what comes on the market. All of those 2011 rentals won’t turn over and become available until this spring/summer.

Greenwich CT (&National) RENTALS

Please please please stop looking at the Zillow estimates, especially when researching Greenwich CT Real Estate.  Zillow is a great site if you want to find out what your neighbors house probably* traded for, what it is currently listed for or for a view of their plot, but it is a HORRIBLE site for valuations. This is a computer program based on the west coast that is pulling info from the internet to value homes.

* – Zillow pulls their info from town websites and links which are many many times incorrectly imputed.

For those of you who like data at how wrong it often is take a look at some articles:

Study on Zillow

Zillow Estimates in Greenwich

My thoughts on Zillow, Realtor and Trulia

When I pulled the Greenwich CT Real Estate listings this morning for house in the Glenville area the MLS returned 73 listings (here are all of the Glenville CT Real Estate listings) ranging in price from $350,000 at 24 Caroline Place to $14 million at 21 Midwood Drive. Now on the list of Glenville CT Real Estate you do see a huge swing in prices, but many of these houses on Vineyard, Round Hill and Midwood would really consider themselves in central Greenwich.

Typical Glenville CT Real Estate includes houses priced from the $500k range to the $3 million range. There are some fantastic communities within Glenville with very safe community-based streets perfect for trick-or-treating and pick-up ball. Many of these communities house real estate that is priced below $1 million and  perfect entry point for Greenwich, like some areas of Cos Cob CT Real Estate and North Mianus Real Estate.

In addition, the town of Glenville, while small and quiet, does have most everything one would want for general shopping including a Stop & Shop, best pizza in town (Glenville Pizza) and some fine dining (Rebecca’s).