Word on the street — Lloyd Road in Montclair anyway — is that the Michael and Jean Strahan mansion is under contract in a private sale. When it was first listed in 2008, the Strahans were asking $7.75 million. The price was cut to $5.8 million last year. Rumor is the final price is under $4 million. Zillow values it at $3.099 million.
The Strahan estate at 99 Lloyd Rd. sits on 2.3 acres, has 30 rooms (10 bedrooms) and 5 fireplaces. At the time it went on the market, its property taxes were $82,418.
It also comes with heavy earth-moving equipment and a multi-year zoning battle with neighbors over the still-unfinished 20-car garage on the property.
The Strahans went through a contentious divorce in 2006 and 2007.
Realtor Roberta Baldwin, of Keller Williams Town Square Realty, said rumors of the private sale are widespread in Montclair real estate circles. A price of under $4 million, if true, “would be a credible number for that house,” she said.
“The original price was an enormous reach,” she said. “The market is essentially moribund at that level.”
Baldwin says that since the housing and stock markets sank in 2008, people have been much less eager to plunge into buying mansions. Instead, they tend to be wary of taxes, heating and landscaping costs.
“You’re not going to be replacing the furnace for $3,900,” she pointed out.
Hundreds of people toured the house in 2003, when the Strahans opened it up as a designer showhouse for the Junior League of Montclair and Newark.
The math works out. If you have 10 bedrooms, you need a 20 car garage. No question. Can’t they just patch things up? You know, it’s always the cars that get hurt the worst in these kinds of divorces. It’s important to think of the cars.
I could use a few of his garages. Perhaps 4.