Ned's house

The house was not owned by Neddie. It was owned by his "Vasser girl" wife, Or more probably her family owned the house. When Ned was caught cheating, his wife locked up the house and fled with the girls to another of her wealthy parents homes. Ned had no place to stay and then lost his job. He had no net worth of his own, just a flash in the pan advertising job in Manhattan, when he lost that job he was left with nothing. The house had no pool because it was an "old money" home, which were built before the pool craze of the 60's and typically closer to the town centers. His newly rich friends lived out in the country because that's where the new mini-estates were being built in the post WW2 era of the car vs pre war-close to town train culture.