JUST LISTED IN NEW CANAAN. ADORABLE COLONIAL UNDER $600,000 WOW!

Fresh on the market and fresh as a picture, this charming Colonial is young, bright and move in. From the remodeled kitchen and bathroom to the beautiful wood floors, this home shines. 2/3 bedrooms on second floor, separate dining room, cozy den, full basement plus extras like central air, new windows etc. The location is prime; close to town and convenient and also a beautifully landscaped corner property.  Priced to sell at $599,000. Tell you friends and call me.

Great Article about Real Estate in the Region Finally Showing Strength

The Ct Post published this article yesterday quoting Bill Raveis but the news is encouraging. Click on the title and read the good news.

Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows give a great talk about Modern Houses

The New Canaan Preservation Alliance sponsored a presentation by Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows at the New Canaan Library on Sunday May 2. Bassam Fellows is an architect design firm which also designs a line of modern furniture. They have lived in and "repurposed" several modern homes from New Canaan to California. They currently live in a Phillip Johnson home and presented a slide show regarding the preservation of some remarkable modern homes.  For more information about their work visit their website at http://www.bassamfellows.com/

First Quarter Real Estate Outlook from William Raveis

Click on the title to see the data for Fairfield County and Connecticut in the first quarter.

Just Listed in New Canaan. This Gorgeous Colonial is Better than New and Now For Sale

21 Shady Knoll Lane, New Canaan, Ct

Fresh on the market and just listed for $1,999,000, this home represents a tremendous value for nearly new construction under 2 million dollars. With over 6,000 sq ft and three finished floors, it has an open floor plan that works for either large or smaller families. Amenities include whole house sound system and generator, all window treatments, top of the line GE Washer/Dryer, upscale lighting fixtures and much more. 5 bedrooms plus an office are nicely designed for the second floor and the lower level has a spacious walk out rec room with fireplace, gym with full mirrored wall and bath with two stalled shower accessible to the exterior and perfect for a future pool.  Visit website at http://www.21shadyknoll.com/

Senior Living in New Canaan. What are the options and what is available?

Click on the title to see the many options that are available for seniors in New Canaan as provided by The New Canaan Answer Book.

Economic Scene - As Markets Fizzle, Buying May Cost Less Than Renting - NYTimes.com

Economic Scene - As Markets Fizzle, Buying May Cost Less Than Renting - NYTimes.com

Buying vs Renting. Compare using the ratio chart.

2009 William Raveis Awards

As surprised as I was to hear this news, I recently received some pretty nice awards for my work in 2009. At a luncheon held a Bill Raveis's home and hosted by Bill and his lovely wife Candy, Bill presented the top 10 agents in the company with some honors and some nice jewelry.  Even though 2009 was a dismal year all around for real estate, I was the #2 Top Producing Agent in the State of Connecticut and the #3 Top Producing Agent in the Company spanning New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. What a nice surprise. I also received some other awards such as Top Producer in our New Canaan office, Top Listing Agent New Canaan office, Top Closed Units New Canaan office, Top Producing Associate Exceptional Properties Division New Canaan and Chairman's Elite Club.  By clicking on the title above, it will bring you to my William Raveis webpage featuring the awards.  However, the highlight of the day was the beautiful gardens at Bill and Candy Raveis's in Southport featuring spectacular gardens, an apple orchard and a putting green. I have attached a few of the photos I took.

New Canaan Real Estate in April. Moving Forward One Step at a Time

Cherry Trees in bloom at Mead Park in New Canaan

As April has come to a close, it is a good time to compare this year's activity against last year.  The good news is that there are 35 properties that are pending in New Canaan right now including 3 of my listings (12 Ludlowe Rd, 109 Sagamore Trial and 599 North Wilton Rd, which means 35 soon to be closings. The homes that are pending range from a low of $749,000 to a high of $8,195,000 with a median price of $1,465,000.  Interesting to note that the $8,195,000 listing was only on the market for a little over one month before it went pending. It is a fabulous property listed by Brotherhood and Higley with over 10,000 square feet of living space and over 6 acres of waterviews looking over the reservior. The home was custom built in 1995 by Hobbs and it is really spectacular. But even more interesting is that it bindered so quickly, which means that there are still some very high end buyers out there.

There were 12 sales in April ranging from $500,000 to $2,550,000 with an average sales price of $1,491,633. These homes were on the market for an average of 221 days and sold for 94.3% of asking price. If these statistics don't seem too impressive, they look a lot better that April 2009 where there were only 6 sales with an average price of $1,309,000 which took an average of 271 days to sell.

Currently there are 262 homes on the market ranging from $550,000 to $24,000,000. We will see what activity May will bring.

Indian Cooking Class with Suman Govindan

I had the pleasure of participating in an Indian Cooking class taught by one of my clients Suman Govindan. Suman is an accomplished cook and instructor who prepared a complete meal from appetizers to dessert.

She uses a terrific stainless steel container for her spices such as coriander, cumin etc with a cover which lets you easily access your most used spices. I am going to try to find a container like it.  Suman purchases her spices and fresh vegetables at Spices of Asia in Norwalk and the final result of the meal was absolutely terrific. On the menu was Pekoras, which is similar to Tempora with vegetables dipped in spiced batter and fried.

The main course was Butter Chicken served with stir fried yard long green beans and cumin rice. Dessert was a ricotta based dish with confectioners sugar, vanilla and pistachios.  Delicious and many thanks to Suman for a wonderful lesson.

GRAND OPENING THIS SUNDAY IN NEW CANAAN. DON'T MISS THIS OPEN HOUSE

Never Before On Market

Built by Dinyar Wadia with recent additions by Frank Palmer, this extraordinary Contemporary is in a class by itself. Stop by on Sunday and take a look.

34 Wardwell Drive

1-3PM

$2,395,000

Maria Bartiromo comes to New Canaan

Maria Bartiromo came to the New Canaan Library yesterday to promote the new book she has just written called The 10 Laws of Enduring Sucess.  Maria is a veteran business journalist and is well known as the anchor of CNBC's "Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo" (M-F, 3-5pm) and host of the nationally syndicated show "Wall St Journal with Maria Bartiromo".  She spoke before a crowded Lamb Room audience and while she takes a middle of the road position, she is a very competent and intelligent speaker.  Growing up in Brooklyn and attending Catholic Schools like myself, she has interviewed  many noted celebrities, powerful business figures etc, and  regards the #1 rule of enduring success is having a passion for what you do. Those who love their work and can't wait to jump into it every day, reach not only success but a high level of satisfaction which is measured on many levels not only financial. I can truly relate to this concept as my degree of satisfaction with my choice of work is really high.

Her thoughts about her industry are not as strong as she avoids the extremes of opinion. "At the heart of everything on Wall St. has to be Integrity. I am outraged to see some of these executives walk away with giant pay packages. I am a firm believer in pay for performance, but some of them are just ridiculous. However, I also believe that an across-the-board, blanket statement that all business is "bad" is just not true."

As a result of what we've just been through, Bartiromo believes this is a great time for women to advance...and to garner equal pay. "Women are soaring. Sixty percent of higher degrees are going to women. Women are the CEO's of their households. The elephant in the room is that they are still making 20% less than men. Women are in a great position to take leadership positions."