The house next door has been for sale for a month. It's a twin layout of our house, by the same builder in 1928 but with an 80's kitchen rather than 70's, plus a little laundry room and some of our swamp. However, I question its listing price for $60,000 more than our purchase price for Ralph's House, 5 months ago. The listing is $15,000 above Zillow's highest estimate for that house, which is probably $30,000 more than I would pay. At our other fence, that couple tried last year to sell their 1950s house for $224,000, left it on the market for 2/3 of a year, reduced the price twice, then turned it into a rental instead. In the past three months, five houses on our little block have been put up for sale. Four of the five don't even have logical prices; they're mind-bogglingly astronomical. This seems to be a current trend here in Jax. Do realtors bother to research the recent sales history of the neighborhood first? Anyone with a computer can do it on GIS mapping here in Jacksonville. It's fun to look up city-owned property. The land under Alltel stadium is worth $15 mil, apparently.
We received a form letter today from our recent realtor, and the first line read "it can take up to two years to sell a house now." Hm. Could there be a reason? Overvaluation? But like anything being sold, houses are only worth what someone will pay. Back in January every house we were interested in was under contract within a week of its listing on MLS, maybe because the prices still made sense. How does 8 months passing add tens of thousands of dollars? I thought the "bubble" was fizzling out.
These houses are just sitting... it's annoying how they're becoming rentals in a re-gentrification neighborhood as their owners become disappointed in the Florida boom. According to the city tax records, many of our neighbors purchased only in the last 2-3 years. This old, quiet residential neighborhood with broad streets and massive oaks was rumored to be the next big market in Jacksonville a few years ago, after urban neighborhood Springfield saw home prices spring 400% in the last five years. However, crack-hood Springfield's price spike coincided with the national rise, and also because of scads of free urban renewal money from city and state facade grants to people who bought those houses.
Aside from shaking my head at the crazy stupid prices, which were probably not set by the homeowners anyway, I'm sorry to lose our good neighbors. Maybe these otherwise sane, intelligent people who care about their property and have made the neighborhood a safe place, were just here to make money off a long flip, and fixed up their houses to that effect. Our great neighbors across the street told us as much about themselves. Which is sad - and they keep buying new furniture so I know their house is becoming smaller. I was hoping I'd moved into a community where people mowed their grass because that's what you should do, not because of future resale value. People are leaving in a herd, and renters with 4 cars and kids who hair-gel and flush our cats in their toilet are moving in instead.
Maybe I'm just bitter that my foray into buying my first house at an age when I planned on doing so happened to coincide with the real estate price boom. If I'd purchased this house last year when it was for originally for sale, I would have paid $44,000 less. It just seems so random to me. Zillow says our value is dropping $100 a month, but I don't care, I live here, it's not a piggy bank.
Please excuse my muddle and whining, and thanks for listening. If you made it this far you get a prize! kinda.
See the house next door.
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