In a November 21st post, I highlighted a property under the heading Deutsche Bank Throws in the Towel.
The final $115K asking price was theorized in the comments here to be an auction price designed to generate bids -- I contacted the real estate agent later and she confirmed this. At the time I made a mental note to follow up when the property was sold.
This property sold for $150,000 on 12/17/2007, according Prince William County's assessment website. The final sales price represents a 52% discount from the property's prior sale in 2005, and was much lower than the prices Deutsche Bank had been asking for seven months.
Dean Foust picked this up at the time in the HotProperty blog at BusinessWeek. The reader comments there were somewhat deprecating:
"Let's get serious. This is such an unrealistic example of what is typically happening in the market today in the metro DC area."A big thanks to Dean for his mention of this blog on this and other occasions at the excellent HotProperty blog.
"Bottom line, don't think this will be the price it eventually sells for."
"Think the writer needs to get a serious beating on his performance review for this one!"
"The problem with this example is the final price drop. A cape like this would probably have sold for $200K."
Deutsche Bank Throws in the Towel
 | 1926 WILLOW LN WOODBRIDGE, VA 22191 List Price: $115,000 Prior Sale: $315,000 4/25/2005 Listing Date: 04/21/07 -63.5% |
From ZipRealty:
Price Reduced: 05/23/07 -- $339,900 to $319,900
Price Reduced: 06/20/07 -- $319,900 to $289,900
Price Reduced: 07/19/07 -- $289,900 to $278,900
Price Reduced: 09/13/07 -- $278,900 to $249,900
Price Reduced: 10/19/07 -- $249,900 to $239,900
Price Reduced: 11/19/07 -- $239,900 to $115,000
On Market: 213 days
8 comments:
Finally, someone was able to buy a house at an affordable price. Let's hope it becomes more common and all areas in and around D.C.
I heard Hillary Clinton talk last night. She wanted a 3 month hold on foreclosures to help people sort out thier problems. I think in 3 months they would still be F@#$ked because they still were stupid and you can never erase stupid. Maybe next week they will return all the money lost in Vegas, NO LOSERS. Typical cart and horse senerio.
The real problem is... NO ONE IS BUYING. If they had an incentive to stimulate buying they could target people who would make thier payments instead of helping people who gamble.
john,
Human nature can't be put on hold. If I were paying on a $400K house that was worth $150K, I probably wouldn't be begging the government to step in and stop a foreclosure. I'd probably shrug my shoulders and live free for a few months. I wouldn't feel altogether happy, but the pain of paying on the $400K mortgage would be gone.
You just can't get blood from turnips.
I lived in the 'bridge from 1988 thru 2001, my inlaws still live close to there. I would say in my opinion that house IS only worth $115k. NOT 150k. I owned homes in dale city and woodbridge and there was a time just a few years ago when most of those houses in that part of town were 5 figures! That house in particular is parallel to I-95 (road noise) and is one of the OLDEST homes in the woodbridge area. it's a fixer to boot.
Yeah I agree, 150k is too much for that little run down shack in a bad location.
Wayne/Doug,
I agree that that home isn't worth $150K either, but I think that most people haven't seen that figure in so long that it actually seems like a good deal. Hopefully, people start to realize that $500K for a starter home is ridiculous.
That house is about a half mile away from where I am. It may have been 'affordable', but after the posting, I went to have a look. It was correctly priced at around $115,000. We are talking an -old- build in an older neighborhood that has not been upgraded, and has had all the bad things that happen due to extended vacancy happen. It was amazing all the windows were intact.
The asking price was shocking. I HAD to check it out. It was better than listed with a new Trane heat pump in place. The house needed a lot of work from paint in the purple LR, major cleanup, and studding out/finishing in the basement. The kitchen was rehabbed but badly, and basically needed to be done over.
My realtor told me that missing out on this house would not be a loss, and that there would be plenty more of these.
She said she would offer 135K but not 140K.
I decided to stay out of it. I'm glad I did. It was a big project, and at anything over 120k, the deal was not stellar. I could do the work. I had renters lined up. This house would rent for 1300-1400 month, easy, when done.
The street was nice, the neighborhood is convenient, and the 95 noise was low.
Those of you who put this house down, are not too savvy investors. Especially regarding location and neighborhood comments. Those of you who thought 150 was too high are right.
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