Saturday, July 08, 2006

If You Build It...

From the NY Times:

Betting on Demand for a Castle

THERE is a castle being built on speculation here beside the Saddle River: an 18,000-square-foot manse with a turret, two libraries, four laundry rooms, a six-car garage, nine full baths and a 14-seat home theater. The price tag says $12.9 million.

If they build it, will a buyer come?

"We're pretty confident — even in this slower market," said Michael Cantor, the head of Pinnacle Homes' custom homes division, which began construction of the castle 11 months ago. "We could build more $5 million houses here, I guess. I think that's a more risky undertaking in the current environment, frankly, than building this house."

Various market reports showed a drastic slowing of the high-end market in New Jersey this spring. Even in highly affluent Bergen County, home of Saddle River, the average time it takes to sell any house priced above $1 million is now 12 months, according to the Otteau Appraisal Group's analyses, which are widely read by real estate professionals.

Mr. Cantor agreed that the high-end sector is tightening. But in his view, the "high high-end" market for a unique house that can set a multimillionaire's heart aflutter in an instant does not wane with interest rate fluctuations or the size of a year-end bonus.
...
The 26-room castle, set on an exquisite 4.2-acre property that stretches 850 feet back to the riverbank from East Saddle River Road, was designed with a particular sort of very rich person in mind, he said — most likely someone in the entertainment field with ties to both coasts.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

He's probably right. The truly wealthy don't need to worry about interest rates or the possibility of being upside down on a house. It isn't the first mega mansion in the Jersey area, one just sold for $40million and there are plenty of entertainment types living here.

7/08/2006 05:09:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like a very tacky house to me. More like an eyesore with turrets than a nicely built upper end house.

7/08/2006 10:02:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dl

Don't believe the hype.

There is a reason PE had that as a title to one of their songs.

7/09/2006 12:59:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Typically, those who can afford a house of this magnitude have a large enough ego they want a new house built of their own design, not somone else's idea.

7/09/2006 05:41:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This article was in Sun Times.

It didn't take into account the whole nyc metro area, which does influence condos in manhattan. There are condos all over DUMBO for sale, that puts pressure on manhattan market. Times failed to mention that.

Times is too much in bed with RE agents, builders, and developers to tell the truth. This trickles all over the Times. Times ain't nothing but yellow journalism.

SAS

7/09/2006 05:07:00 PM  

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