From left: actors Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Blake Lively, also known as Serena in the WB’s “Gossip Girl,” is hunting for a home in Connecticut that she wants to share with “Safe House” actor boyfriend Ryan Reynolds, US Weekly reported. The two were co-stars in the “Green Lantern” movie. Sources told the publication they’re looking around the state because “they love getting out of the city and appreciate a slower pace.”

The two went to New Canaan, Conn. to browse home décor stores April 12, according to US Weekly. [more]

The Stamford, Conn. town hall

The town hall in Stamford, Conn. is leaping into the 21st century, the New York Times reported.

The landmarked Beaux-Arts building — at the junction of Atlantic, Bank and Main streets — has been repurposed as a technology hub where companies can rent affordable commercial space and interact with investors. The building, which had sat empty for 25 years, will be called the Stamford Innovation Center and will open by the summer, the Times said. [more]

A mansion in Greenwich, Conn.Despite the wildly different housing stock, the residential market in Greenwich, Conn. appears to be following the lead set by New York City. The New York Post reported that the stumbling economy has pushed rental demand way up and stagnated sales in the haven for financial services executives.

According to a report from Project Real Estate, sales of homes worth more than $2.5 million have fallen 37 percent since 2005, while rentals worth at least $10,000 per month have skyrocketed 292 percent in that time frame. [more]

When Swiss lender UBS AG called off negotiations to lease space at the World Trade Center as a result of disappointing second-quarter income earlier this month, it was reported the company was looking in other areas of the city. Now, the Wall Street Journal has reported that UBS is instead maintaining its flagship trading floor and other operations across Connecticut after the state agreed to provide the Swiss bank with a $20 million loan over a five-year period.
Gov. Dannel Malloy said that the bank must maintain 2,000 jobs in Connecticut and spend the so-called forgivable loan over that period for infrastructure expenses to be eligible for the incentive. UBS’ prospective move to New York would have cost the state $70 million in annual income, he said. [more]

Oak Lane Country Club (courtesy of: Tranzon)

Tiger Woods’ struggles aren’t the only thing putting a damper on golf’s success. According to the Wall Street Journal, players continue to abandon the sport and that has reverberated to the real estate auction market, as a 180-acre golf club, with an 18-hole course, eight tennis courts and three swimming pools in Woodbridge, Conn. is set to be auctioned May 10. The Oak Lane Country Club is down to about 200 members and with nearby clubs competing on price there wasn’t enough revenue to support the club, according to the Tranzon Integrated Property Group auction house, and it was about to default on its mortgage. [more]

Connecticut single-family home sales fell for the sixth straight year in 2010, reaching their lowest annual level in nearly two decades, according to a new report by the Warren Group, released today. A mostly-mediocre sales year in the state was dragged down by a dismal fourth quarter — the slowest fourth quarter for single-family home sales there since the 1990s — and the sluggish sales numbers came even as median home prices ticked up to $250,000, an increase of 4 percent over the median home price in 2009. It was a similar story for condominium sales. TRD [more]

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Connecticut saw its lowest level of monthly single-family home sales in two decades in August, according to a report released today by real estate tracking firm the Warren Group. Just 2,218 single-family homes sold that month, down 14.9 percent from the same month a year earlier. Paradoxically, 2010 on the whole is showing more activity than 2009 — 17,133 single-family homes have sold in Connecticut so far this year, compared to 15,078 during the same time period in 2009. Timothy Warren, CEO of the Warren Group, said that this drop-off is due to the expiration of the first-time homebuyer tax credit. “Home sales have dropped all over the country in the aftermath of the homebuye [more]

Where they can, professionals with strong ties to the real estate industry are readjusting their businesses so as not to be taken down by a dearth of home sales. In Connecticut, home inspector Kenny Rhodes started a side business that offers home evaluations for child safety risks, which he said helped make up for the drastic slide in home inspections. Rhodes said he did only a quarter the number of home inspections this year as he is accustomed to doing, and his Peek-A-Boo Babyproofing now makes up 75 percent of his work. Meanwhile, Dina Spaidal, who owns an interior design and staging firm, said the staging portion of her business has dropped off. That might be, in part, because brokers like Phyllis Rose of the Maury Rose Group are rearranging their clients’ existing furniture so that they don’t have to spend the money to rent it. “People still want home staging and people feel that it’s too expensive,” Rose said. “You have to accommodate people because of the economy.” [Greenwich Time]

New York City-based construction company owner Michael Lynch pleaded guilty today to tax evasion, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York’s office. Meanwhile, a report released this week from the Warren Group showed that September single-family homes and condo sales figures in Connecticut were similar to numbers from the same time period a year ago and construction began on Columbia’s newly-leased second floor space at 880 Third Avenue on the corner of 53rd Street. Also, Clipper Equity, the developer of BellTel Lofts in Downtown Brooklyn, announced today that it will cover closing costs for purchases who sign contracts in the building between Nov. 1 and Nov. 25. TRD Click here for more. [more]

Some buyers have found large homes in their price range because of the properties’ undesirable locations. Kathleen Hulser, a curator for the New
York Historical Society, bought a four-bedroom summer house in Cornwall
Bridge, Conn., for $255,000. However, about 20 feet away from her house
are train tracks, where a freight train passes every morning, and next
door to the home used to be a Superfund site. Hulser said the train is
no worse than the air and noise pollution in Harlem, where she lives
during the week. And Eridania Diaz bought a crumbling 10-room home with
a wrap-around porch, fireplaces and spiral staircase for $350,000 in
2004. The catch is that Diaz had to spend almost as much as the sale
price to renovate the home, and it sits in Highbridge, one of the
city’s most unsafe areas, according to the police department. Diaz, a
landlord, recently put the home on the market since the downturn has
left many of her tenants unable to pay their rent, and she plans to
move into a smaller home in the neighborhood when she sells. [more]