Patrick's 'empty nest' up for sale
5 bedrooms, cook's kitchen, $1.9m
It has five bedrooms, nine fireplaces, and an expansive cook's kitchen for an owner who takes uncommon pride in his culinary skills. For Governor Deval Patrick, the stately Colonial on Hinckley Road in Milton also holds 20 years of family memories.
That aside, Patrick and his wife, Diane, are putting their house on the market for $1.925 million. They have declared themselves empty nesters, have decided to leave their beloved Milton, and are looking to buy a condominium in the city.
"The kids are gone, and I think Diane and I realized it had been months since the last time we were in the dining room," Patrick said in an interview yesterday, after a tour by three dozen realtors set off a buzz in his neighborhood. "It's just weird to have all that space and just the two of us and the dog rattling around in there. It's really time."
One daughter, Sarah, 23, graduated from New York University and is working in New York. Katherine, 19, will be a sophomore at Smith College next fall and is not living at home this summer.
Of course, for a governor, a straightforward matter like selling a home is rarely perceived as straightforward. In this case, it raises questions about the state of the governor's personal and political finances, questions that he addressed yesterday.
Patrick said he is under no financial pressure to sell the property, even though he and his wife are carrying three mortgages on two expansive properties. They have a $1.28 million adjustable rate mortgage and a $299,000 line of credit on the Milton house. On a sprawling estate the couple built in Richmond, a rural town in the Berkshires, they have a $4 million mortgage with an adjustable rate.
Aides would not say how much the couple's monthly mortgage payments are.
But generic calculations show the Patrick's could be making more than $30,000 a month in mortgage payments on their two properties. A $4 million mortgage, calculated at the 5.75 percent rate that Patrick is currently paying on his adjustable loan in the Berkshires, would require monthly payments of $23,343, according to an interest rate calculation. A $1.28 million mortgage, calculated at the current 5 percent rate on his adjustable loan in Milton, would require $6,871 in monthly payments, according to the rate calculation.
"I am very blessed, and I don't take that lightly," he said. "We have a little money in the bank. My wife is well compensated, and we've been blessed through life. It doesn't mean I don't feel the stresses other people are feeling. I've been touched in my own way, but that's not a factor."
Built in 1900, Patrick's house is a 6,880-square-foot, 3 1/2-bathroom, clapboard Colonial on three-quarters of an acre, according to Milton records. In addition to a circular driveway, it features an expansive kitchen, music room, and study. The town assessed its current value at $1.8 million, with property taxes of $21,000 a year.
The house, purchased in 1989 for $560,000, is a powerful symbol of Patrick's rise from a boy who grew up poor on the south side of Chicago, won a scholarship to Milton Academy, attended Harvard, and became a successful lawyer and politician. Patrick said he grew to love the neighborhood on a paper route while he was a student at Milton.
About three dozen Milton realtors yesterday showed up for a tour of the house, setting off confusion and questioning among neighbors, who appeared outside to find out what was happening at the governor's house.
"It's absolutely magnificent," said one realtor on the tour, who talked on the condition she not be named. "The living room is fabulous. I said to myself, 'This is a true political living room,' with two huge sofas and lots of seats facing each other and the fireplace," she said. She described a huge mahogany dining table, a music room with a grand piano, an office decorated with honorary degrees given to Patrick, and a red telephone on a nightstand in what appeared to be the master bedroom.
"It reminded me of the president," she said.
Patrick said he and his wife, Diane, are hoping to buy an apartment somewhere near downtown Boston, a single-level unit preferably within walking distance of the State House and the Financial District, where Diane works as a lawyer.
"It would be great to be someplace where we could close the door and go off to the Berkshires and not worry about the roof and the lawn being cut and that type of thing," he said.
Patrick said he recognized it may not be the best time to sell a multimillion dollar property. In fact, only one house has sold in Milton for more than a $1 million since January, according to the realtor on the tour.
"We had that conversation with Joey," he said, referring to Josephine McCloskey, the realtor who originally sold him the house. "It's the right time in our lives. That's the point. If it sells, it sells. If it doesn't, we'll wait. We don't have to sell it."
Patrick is putting his house up for sale as he heads into what promises to be an expensive 2010 reelection campaign. He has less money in his political account, about $500,000, than nearly every statewide officeholder. By contrast, state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who is pondering a challenge to Patrick next year, is sitting on nearly $3 million.
The governor insisted that next year's campaign has "no bearing on a lifestyle decision that we're making."
"I'm going to use a two-syllable word: puh-lease," he said. "I did this once before, and everybody had more money than I did."
He continued: "My campaign isn't going to be just about money. It isn't going to be even mostly about money. It's going to be about engaging people. That's a different kind of politics."
Patrick said he would tap his personal funds for his reelection campaign if he needs to, as he did in the 2006 race.
"But I don't think I'll need to," he said. 