Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

Looks like this one sold for a little over $1 million in 2006, and is now on the market for 2.2. Can a restoration in a house this size really cost that much? Is this normal, what am I missing?

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/print ... id=1674385

Thanks,

John

Your looking at a house that will be foreclosed by this time next year. Delusions of grandeur ran rampant in Florida, California, Nevada, Virginia, Michigan, DC, Colorado, etc, etc, etc, as well.

Sigh...

These kinds of "restorations" really tick me off.

Check out the mangled fireplace, the WHITE "mdfwork", the master bathroom that probably used to be a bedroom until someone decided to buy a pallet load of glass block at Lowe's.

The inlaid and herringbone strip floors are cool, but not exactly hard to get in a home this old.

The kitchen's one saving grace is that at least they kept the laundry chute access.

Cabinets look like Kraftmaid specials to me...

I won't even comment on the carpeting on the stairs and landing (and elsewhere), the skylights and the apartments across the street.

And people cannot give away better homes than this in Middle America, even in places that get less snow than Seattle and have the same humidity.

This is NOT a restoration, at least not one of any skill or craftsmanship.

If you want to see greed.....

2000 - 355K
2008 - 2M

I really appreciate the experience and analysis to be gleaned from this board, thanks kindly. My fiancee and I will be looking for a new (to us) home over the next 18 months, and it is hard for the inexperienced homebuyer to know all the tricks that go into a "fauxstoration," as this appears to be.

It also seems that a lot of the properties coming on the market just north of $1 million are listing for much more than they sold for a couple of years ago. Is there something about that price range that makes it more insulated from the housing price decline, or is it more evidence of people flipping/over their head in debt?

Thanks,

John