COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE MARKET HAS SPOKEN “TO ANYONE WHO CARES – THE HOUSE HAS SOLD FOR $415K. NOT quite what we were hoping, but clearly the original poster, who claimed this should be priced in the mid 300Ks, is rather mistaken.” [Justin, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: Your Cherryhurst Neighbors]
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P.T. Barnum is proven correct once again.
P.T. Barnum is proven correct once again.
What don’t people get about this?
Great location.
Tree lined streets in one of the most happening areas of Houston.
Walking distance to great restaurants and clubs.
Beautiful craftsman style home with great backyard and huge windows.
I live no where near here so I have no axe to grind but here’s the bottom line…
Prices are high in this area because it’s worth it.
“Prices are high in this area because it’s worth it.”
To someone, sure.
Just how smart/prudent/prescient/stupid/short-sighted/profligate that “someone” is, well, that’s another issue.
The surfers have a bumper sticker “If you don’t surf, don’t start”.
For you guys who don’t “get” the inner loop, why that’s why God made the suburbs. Yeah, we pay more per square foot, and squeeze ourselves into smaller housing stock to boot. But it’s not because we are not AWARE of your Olive Garden suburbs. For the people who are into it, Cherryhurst iself is an amenity that comes with the property.
But if it is not what you value, well congratulations. You have just saved yourself some housing expense.
Me, I’d wilt out there.
I love this blog.
Dozens of posters are proven wrong when stating the property should sell for the mid-300’s and the general response:
“Well that buyer must have been a sucker.”
Sales prices determine value people!
yes, and Sales determine Trends.
…that create Style.
and so it goes
This was one of my favorite homes to have appeared on Swamplot. I think 415k is right on the mark.
I agree with Brian. This is a 2K sq ft home that has been updated, including electrical and plumbing located in a desirable inner loop neighborhood. It is unfortunate that the neighborhood is filling up with townhomes but that would not bring the value down to the 300’s.
when stating the property should sell for the mid-300’s and the general response:
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You must be a realtor. It was “mid to upper 300s” not “mid 300s” and since the list price was $475,000 is $415,000 closer to say $390,000 or $475,000? The realtors of course will say it’s closer to $475,000. The rest of us know better.
You must be a realtor. It was “mid to upper 300s†not “mid 300sâ€
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You can’t be this dense Matt. The OP said it should LIST for the “mid to upper 300’s”. Do you think he was assuming it for sell for list price?
I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed he thought it would sell for the mid 300’s. You could just as easily take the low end of his range and assume he thought it would sell for the low to mid 300’s.
Under no scenario was he correct, but keep spinning.
Harold & others…. I must say that I am tired of the assumption that because someone lives in the suburbs they have no appreciation of living inside the loop. I would LOVE to! I hate suburbia! The trouble is that people with too much money are driving up the cost of lovely homes in neighborhoods that SHOULD be affordable in the city – only to plow them down and toss up ugly McMansions and stockade fences that destroy the pleasant neighborly feel of the whole area. Regular people who want to live in the city CAN’T AFFORD IT. I’m in academics, there is no way that I could afford the lovely craftsman and bungalow homes that are sold within the loop. :-(
The trouble is that people with too much money are driving up the cost of lovely homes in neighborhoods that SHOULD be affordable in the city.
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What determines someone having “too much money” and who decides what neighborhoods “SHOULD” be affordable?
No offense, but it sounds like you just hate capitalism.
Well Buffy, you are certainly right about the stockade fences and the McMansions.
The quality of the “teardowns” kept rising, heartbreakingly so, to feed the jaws of new construction. “Squeezing ourselves into smaller homes” was a reference to those of us quite happy to be in original housing stock.
The bright side of the credit crunch has been that many bungalows have been purchsed as fixer uppers this year that would have gotten torn down 18 months ago– because (homestead) buyers can get financing right now, but many builders can’t. I have seen some houses sell out of builder’s inventory to homeowners– meaning the builders bought the lots as inventory to build on, but now have put them back on the market.
Hey Buffy, I want you as a neighbor. I just had an idea.
Matt Mystery believes that the real estate market is in the tank.
Me, I am not seeing it, but let’s get him to show us some of the crashing prices that make this one in Cherryhurst seem so ridiculously high.
Oh, Matt, can you lend a hand here?
Just how smart/prudent/prescient/stupid/short-sighted/profligate that “someone†is, well, that’s another issue.
Random Poster: What is stupid and short sighted about $415k for this house? Give us some specifics.
This having been the second house I’ve sold, I’ve come to the conclusion that real estate brings out the very worst in people!
This having been the second house I’ve sold, I’ve come to the conclusion that real estate brings out the very worst in people!
It’s not just real estate. It seems there are always people who want to take joy in other’s failures, or as in this case hope for someone elses failure. Especially if you have some financial success.
I couldn’t afford to buy this house but I have no ill will towards you because you owned it. I also don’t think that people who build McMansions or pay $415k for a house are keeping me from living in Montrose. My own lack of cash is the only thing keeping me from living in a million dollar home.
Houston is a town full of rich people. Hoping for their misfortune, blaming them for your problems or being jealous of them will do nothing but make you miserable.
Do you think he was assuming it for sell for list price?
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Absolutely it should or near it. But everyone uses HAR to determine value. So some things end up overpriced. Always.
More to a house than the price per square foot. Sorry I didn’t catch the “should sell for” versus “should be listed at.”
I would have listed it at $450,000. What I would have paid for it. Do your own comps.
Paging Mr Mystery:
Matt, you’ve got a call on Reply #14
Absolutely it should or near it. But everyone uses HAR to determine value. So some things end up overpriced. Always.
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This doesn’t even make sense.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out another one of your inconsistent arguments.
Carry on.
“Regular people who want to live in the city CAN’T AFFORD IT.”
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Buffy, regular people who profess to love the city and think that they can’t afford to live in the city don’t really know the city that well.
I think living in the city, but not being able to afford it, included these thoughts:
-Inner loop
-Expect quality public school education *through* HS
-Not worry about crime
-Maybe throw in 3 bedrooms and central air just for giggles.
Where are those neighborhoods?
The inner loop is a big place (and most people who make comments like this aren’t familiar with anything except for what they see from a freeway and the neighborhoods immediately around their favorite clubs, which they use for parking). I’d argue that some neighborhoods on the fringe of the Inner Loop should also qualify as “inner city”. For instance, Garden Forest, Richmond Plaza, Garden Villas, Westbury, Willowbend, and Park Place come to mind.
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HISD tries not to advertise the fact, but it is pretty easy to enroll your kids in a school they aren’t zoned to. That shouldn’t be a significant barrier to urban living. Besides which…having myself attended all levels of school as a white minority in a town so poor that HISD looks like a cakewalk in comparison, I’m of the opinion that most parents confuse school performance with an exogenous variable. It is endogenous, the sum of its parts. Garbage in, garbage out, but if the garbage has a diamond in it, the diamond will emerge on the other side, untarnished.
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I can’t help whether someone worries about crime. They might want to turn off the ‘sexy action local news’ and see a psychiatrist. For the sane among us, the key is to not make yourself an easy target. Use the locks on your doors, talk to your neighbors, and keep your garage door closed when you aren’t using it for ingress/egress.
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Square footage and creature comforts are the tricky part in all this. Part of urban living, even for youngsters in small households, is that space gets sacrificed. A 1,000-square-foot one-bedroom in the suburbs becomes a 700-square-foot one-bedroom in the Inner Loop. It’s part of the lifestyle, and the conception that siblings should have their own rooms and that there has to be a spare bedroom for guests and that there has to be a home office…these are all very new concepts, introduced to society by way of inexpensive suburban development. But they’re not necessary. Our grandparents grew up with comparably large families in two- and three-bedroom cottages, often without air conditioning. And I’d say that they did just fine for themselves. Even still, there exist reasonable options for reasonable people. I’m a case-in-point.
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I live in a three-bedroom split-level duplex one mile from downtown with two roommates. It has central air and heat, covered parking in back, and a front yard with a couple trees. It’s no architectural gem, by any means (those are next door and across the street), but it is a safe, solid, and secure structure. We pay $975 per month split three ways. The deed-restricted neighborhood is served by an ‘Exemplary’ elementary school and an ‘Exemplary’ charter middle school is at the end of the street. The only traffic snarls I ever encounter are caused by crossing guards. Several families with small children live along my blockface, all of them Hispanic. It’s actually kind of refreshing to see the kids and their parents playing around outside instead of tethered to video games without parental supervision like their wealthier suburban counterparts. White folks are mostly the old farts that grew up there, university students, gays, or artists. You hear about a property crime every now and then, but violent crime is very uncommon aside from the expected convenience store robberies that happen every now and then. There are plenty of restaurants nearby, but the density of schools right near me and the neigborhood deed restrictions effectively prevent bars from opening up near residential blocks.
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I won’t say where my neighborhood is (because I want you to do your own research and learn about other promising neighborhoods from the process), except that it is close enough to downtown that it is unwise to use freeways to get there.
thanks for no (0) recommendations in the loop with your overly long justification as to why you couldn’t provide a location
…blah blah, almost have a “charter” middle school…blah blah, I pay $3000 a month, and have ROOMATES!…blah blah, crime at nearby business, but not my house, blah blah…
it is pretty easy to enroll your kids in a school they aren’t zoned to (obviously an ignorant statement from someone with 2 roomates and no children?)
I don’t mean to be harsh, but really, if you are going to make assumptions about folks who live in the “burbs,” you need to up your lame game — or admit you know *nothing* about what’s imporant to the middle class Texan resident.
You need to read more carefully. The total rent for a three-bedroom flat is $975/mo.; split three ways, my rent is $325/mo. There are other details that you’ve obfuscated, but that’s the most glaring error.
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Bear in mind the the person who I was originally responding to complained that “regular people can’t afford to live in the city.” I’ve demonstrated that they can. I’d even wager that she could find a cozy little craftsman bungalow if she knew where to look–for instance along my street. But your complaint seems to stem from that urban living simply isn’t as kid-friendly a lifestyle as is suburban living…and I don’t disagree at all. You definitely make sacrifices to bring up a family inside the loop; my point, however was that it can be reasonably accomplished by the “regular people” that Buffy referenced.
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For the record, I understand completely the ‘cult of the child’ in American culture and how it tends to drive lifestyle choices given a finite budget. It is a very predictable market segment. I do not begrudge you that lifestyle in the least, but it is one you are capable of choosing to embrace or reject depending on which is more comfortable for you.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out another one of your inconsistent arguments.
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Not inconsistent at all. Most if not all realtors use CMAs to determine value. This house listed for $475,000. Sold for $415,000. What was the CMA when it was listed? Probably around $475,000. Maybe if they’d sat on it longer they might have gotten $450,000. Maybe not.
One thing CMAs do not figure in is market conditions. Which can change overnight. They are just computer-based comps that take nothing into consideration but a per square footage value based on similar homes. Nothing more.
Lots of things go into “market value” including homes you don’t know about. About five years ago a friend’s sister died and her home in River Oaks went on the market. Listed at $2.9 million. I said $2 million. Everyone said I’d lost my mind. Two attorneys in the area had sold their homes “off the market” which were quite similar. For $2 million. Two listing brokers later, the home sold for $2 million. Been doing this for awhile. Takes awhile to learn the ropes. And recognize the tricks of the used car salesmen. Now if they’d kept the home on the market for a couple of years, they would have gotten the $2.9 million when the market went beserk. Most people want to sell their homes. Not have open houses every weekend for 2-3 years because the listing broker says it’s worth a certain amount of money.
I don’t mean to be harsh, but really, if you are going to make assumptions about folks who live in the “burbs,†you need to up your lame game — or admit you know *nothing* about what’s imporant to the middle class Texan resident.
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People rent and buy in certain areas for certain reasons. They “trade off” one thing for another in most cases. Mainly “comfort level” at night and on weekends. But not always. Some will trade off the huge closets and 500 square foot master baths in the suburbs for little closets and old baths to be close to downtown because they like the convenience of being close to the arts events.
Actual market value is in the eye of the buyer. Or the renter. Nothing more.
Years ago a friend listed a home in Meyerland that other brokers felt was too “dated” to bring the price the seller wanted. Mainly all the turquoise blue in the house. Tile, appliances, bathtubs. The woman was a turquoise freak. My friend told her it might not sell for awhile. The woman was fine with that. She was not, as she put it, going to spend a fortune redoing the house just to sell it, and she of course avoided the reality of the turquoise blue and thought the problem was everything just looked too “60s” which it did. A month later, another agent got a call from someone relocating from New York. One of their “things” was they really liked the “mid-century” style and mentioned they had completely redone their home in that style and even had all the appliances painted in, you guessed it, turquoise blue. The house that everyone said would never sell sold a week later when these people saw it. Full price.
In the old days, realtors didn’t run to the computer to pull a CMA. They knew every house in the areas they worked. Including the ones they thought would never sell.
Now that it’s sold, may I suggest to all who care to listen that you AVOID dealing with MEL REYNA at THE REYNA GROUP like the plague?
They are a bunch of liars and crooks, as far as I am concerned, and made the sales process far, FAR more difficult and stressful than it had to be. I am in the process of composing a letter of complaint to Mr Reyna and to Swamplot in the hope it might be published online.