A 12,386-square-foot mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, has finally found a buyer after numerous price cuts from its original ask of $25 million four years ago.
The sale closed last Friday for $9.65 million, according to David Ogilvy, president and founder of David Ogilvy & Associates, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, which represented both sides in the transaction.
The sales pricereflecteda 61.4% discount from the original price tag of $25 million in September 2013, and an 11.5% discount from the last listing price of $10.9 million in May 2017. Over the last four years, the mansion had been shopped for five different price points ranging from $12.5 million to $20 million, listing records show.
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Mr. Ogilvy declined to disclose the identity of the buyer, only pointing out he or she is from another state. "They truly appreciate the house and love the garden," he said.
The manicured gardens are one of the highlighting features of the 5.11-acre estate in the Khakum Wood Association, a neighborhood masterminded by famed architect Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes and Central Park landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted.
Known as Linden Court, the mansion has a European feel to it, with level ground and strong rooflines. Although the house was built in 1929, its courtyard is paved with cobblestones dating back even earlier, Mr. Ogilvy said.
The 12,386-square-foot house has eight bedrooms, eight full bathroom and three half-bathrooms.
Thetransaction has yet to register with the town’s clerk office.
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Greenwich’s luxury sellers are more in tune with market condition
The sale of Linden Court serves as a case study of the overall luxury market in Greenwich, an affluent town that’s a 45-minute train ride from Manhattan and home to many Wall Street bankers and financiers.
From 2013 to 2014, Manhattan witnessed a luxury boom, with many new condo developments, pedigreed co-ops and historic townhouses hitting sky-high prices, or what Jonathan Miller, chief executive of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, called "aspirational prices."
Similarly, Mr. Miller said, high-end homes mushroomed in the Greenwich market with "aspirational prices."
However, buyers didn’t budge. Greenwich's luxury market slipped into stagnancy until midyear 2016 and then slowly began picking up steam, according to Mr. Miller, who authors quarterly market reports on the area for Douglas Elliman.
"Sellers who were disconnected with actual market conditions are now willing to come down to what it is," he said, "Those sellers who price their homes more realistically and are more willing to make concessions tend to find buyers much faster."
More:At $12 Million, Connecticut Mansion Gets a Price Bump But Remains a Steal
Luxury sales soared in the latter half of 2017
During the third quarter of 2017, there were 21 homes sold for at least $4.48 million, the threshold for the top 10% of sales in Greenwich’s luxury market according to Douglas Elliman’s market report.
These 21 sales had an average 6.7% listing discount, which represents the differences between last listing price and final sales price. They took an average 189 days to sell, down from 222 days recorded in the same period last year, according to Mr. Miller.
The median sales price of those 21 homes reached $6.5 million, increasing 34.4% over the same period of last year. The average sales price also rose 29.1% to $7.3 million by the end of September, the report said.
"Transactions are the defining metrics of the health of the market," Mr. Miller said.
Unless there is a surprise end-of-year sale, this year’s most expensive sale in Greenwich is the $25-million sale of Sabine Farm in November. The sprawling estate was owned by billionaire trader Stanley Druckenmiller, who listed it in March for $31.5 million.
And bucking the trend of "luxury discounting," a Tudor home known as North Court was sold for $2 million above its asking price of $20 million in September.
The luxury uptick in Greenwich is further evidenced in data compiled by Mr. Ogilvy for Mansion Global. In the year leading up to Dec. 20, 61 Greenwich homes sold for over $5 million, up from last year’s 35. The total sales volume for all $5-million-plus homes was $488 million, almost double last year’s $259 million.
There are eight sales above $10 million, compared to five sales in the same period last year, according to Mr. Ogilvy.
His sale of Linden Court will be reflected in the fourth quarter market report.