July 10, 2008

A Tough Sell for This Seller

At the height of the market, buying this home at 901 N. Orange Grove Ave. might have looked like a safe bet.  After all, it was a single-family home (albeit a one-bedroom, one-bathroom single-family home) that didn’t cost much more than condos were going for at the time.  That must be why, in January 2005, someone agreed to pay $579,000 for this 806-square-foot house.

In December, the home was put back on the market with a $699,000 asking price.  Four price reductions later, the asking now stands at $609,000 — dangerously close to that 2005 purchase price.

What are its chances of selling?  Well, if nearby comps are any indication, the answer would have to be “slim.”

One comp is half a mile away, at 7463 Waring Ave.  This two-bedroom, one-bath, 804-square-foot house was also purchased in the first half of 2005, for $695,000. This owner quickly ran into trouble, and in June, the lender bought back the property for the startlingly low sum of $249,545. It hasn’t been put back on the MLS yet.

Then there’s 7531 Fountain Ave., a home I wrote about back in April. This 877-square-foot 2+1’s sordid past includes a March 2006 sale for $620,000 and a May 2006 sale for $810,000 (yes, same year), followed a little more than a year later by a sale to the lender for $694,542. (An odd sequence of events, to be sure, that federal regulators might want to examine more closely, but that’s not salient to our discussion.)  The lender couldn’t wait to unload this property.  After first coming on the market last November at $619,000, it was reduced four times, to $499,000, until it finally found a taker.  It closed on June 6 for $452,500 — considerably less than the $595,000 it fetched in 1999.

There don’t appear to be any 1+1s that have sold in the last six months.  There is, however, a 1+1 for sale at 1261 N. Curson Ave. for $499,000. This home was also purchased in that magical year of 2005 for $437,000.  It’s been on the market since February and has been reduced in price twice.