NY Times: The Bigger Houses Are, the Harder Prices Fall

[marmar]

The Bigger Houses Are, the Harder Prices Fall

By PETER APPLEBOME
Published: November 22, 2008


GREENWICH, Conn.

Like cars in Detroit or chili in Texas, homes in Greenwich play various roles. Not just a dwelling, not just a way to keep score, houses — particularly the Versailles-like backcountry mansions in either their traditional or neo-monstrosity incarnations — are like an art form: critiqued, analyzed, psychoanalyzed, the way people in Manhattan used to obsess about, say, French New Wave cinema.

So as the world sinks, and alas, even mighty Greenwich sinks with it, the talk even more than usual these days is about houses.

Sometimes, there’s a nostalgic blast from the past, like the news last week about a local hedge fund magnate’s latest proposal before the Planning and Zoning Commission. It turns out that there’s at least one titan of finance left for whom that 35,084-square-foot house with indoor swimming pool and basketball court, guesthouse, ice rink with Zamboni, guardhouse and the rest isn’t quite enough. So Steven Cohen, who runs the hedge fund firm S.A.C. Capital Advisors, has applied to enlarge his by just a smidge in the form of 1,144 square feet of additions for storage, a garden room, a breakfast room and an expansion of the “his” dressing room.

Even in Greenwich, a 35,084-square-foot house is considered pretty good-size. It’s bigger than a 27,000-square-foot house proposed by a Russian millionaire, with 26 toilets and room to park 12 cars, that was rejected this year. It’s not quite as big as a proposed 39,000-square-foot house that was rejected a few years back or the biggest one that’s been approved, a cozy 39,000-square-foot nook on Cowdray Park Drive. (There are five houses here larger than 35,000 square feet.)

That said, the addition to Chez Cohen feels about as representative of the current moment as the 14,000 Dow. “Real Estate Market Sinks in Greenwich,” read the headline in the Real Estate section of Friday’s Greenwich Time, usually a reliable source of upbeat market news.

These days, a “once-in-a-lifetime” $19 million estate merits only a quarter-page ad. Sometimes, along with the reverential tones, there is something of a jarring Crazy Eddie note. As the ad for the Tudor with five bedrooms, five fireplaces, five full baths and three half baths (plus staff quarters!) reads: “At $2,900,000 this romantic 1920s estate (flanked by two gated entrances) is being ‘given away!’ ” ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/nyregion/connecticut/23towns.html?ref=nyregion

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

1. Back in the late 70s, same thing. My brother had a friend who bought a mansion

in Connecticut, on the Long Isand Sound for $100,000.

The previous owners didn't want to pay for the oil and other things to keep the property up.

[Cassandra]

2. There are 2 signs on one block of East 64th street...

saying "Mansion for Sale". I'm not sure who they think can buy right now.