WEALTHY US TOWN SUFFERING RECESSION

       Cheryl MacCluskey broke ground on a five-bedroom luxury home in Greenwich, Connecticut, last year, hoping it would sell by that June. Then reality set in.
       She cut the price 13 per cent to US$4.4 million (Bt150 million), but this till failed to lure buyers. So she rented it last week for $13,000 a month.
       "I'd never have out it up for rent before," MacCluskey, president of M&M Development, said of the 725-square-metre house.
       "In this down market you don't really have a choice."
       Greenwich home-owners, saddled with the worst sales climate in 30 years, are turning to the rental market.
       The number of single-family properties for rent in this suburb an hour outside of Manhattan climbed more than sixfold this year as sales fell by almost half.
       More than 525 house were rented or listed for lease through last month, said Eric Bjokr, vice president and sales director for Prudential Connecticut Realty in Greenwich, home to more than 100 hedge funds.
       "Never in the market's history have I ever seen anything like this, where you have a whole group of normal buyers in Greenwich renting luxury homes instead of buying them," said Greenwich Fine Properties' broker Jeanne Howell.
       That's a departure for a town synonymous with high finance. Last year, hedge funds occupied about 80 per cent of the commercial property in town, data from Los Angeles, California-based broker CB Richard Ellis Group showed. Billionaire Edward Lampert's ESL Investments is based there.
       Home values and income in Greemwich leaped in the earlier part of this decade.
       Median home prices climbed 32 per cent from 200
through 2004, then another 13 percent in 2005, said Shore & Country Properties broker and owner Russell Pruner.
       The town's median household income was about $118,000 in 2007, more than twice the national average, according to the US Census Bureau.
       Annual taxes on a home with a $4-million market value could be as high as $24,500, said Roland Gieger, Greenwich's budget director. Single-family sales in Greenwich declined 48 per cent to 167 this year through July, Shore & Country said.
       That puts the town on course for its worst sales decline since records began in 1977.
       The number of homes for sale climbed 24 per cent from a year ago to 692 as of August 31, and the median price dropped 21 per cent in the 12 months through July to $1.55 million, said John Cooke, a broker who compiles data for Prudential.
       The house that MacCluskey built on 0.4 hectare near the town's central business district costs more than $15,000 each month to carry, including taxes and mortgage repayments.
       It has four fireplaces, a library and six bathrooms. She plans to put it back on the market next March for $4.9 million.
       About 50 single-family Greenwich homes were listed for rent of $15,000 or more last month. More than half were also available for sale.
       Speculative homes, those built without a buyer lined up, accounted for 20 of the 50 high-end rentals, Howell said.