A $600k Reality Check

Hold a house for a year, and you're not very likely to make money if you try to sell it.

Even in MB.

This is a lesson hard-learned, but gradually dawning on the owner/seller of 317 17th, a walkstreet home near downtown.

17th was purchased in Nov. 2006 for $2.050m. As MBC recently noted, that was "about 30 minutes ago in local real estate time."

Just over a year later, the owner offered 317 17th for $2.799m. And that struck MBC as, well, ambitious. (See "Stuff Our Stockings (Please).")

We described $2.799m as a "highway-robbery price" and noted that the seller sought a profit of $749k (+36%) after a short hold. We speculated, in a perhaps non-PC way, that the reason for sale might be that the owner "face[s] imminent court-ordered institutionalization."

Quite suddenly, those delusions have (almost) ended. Last week, the price was reduced to $2.499m, but this week, a bigger chunk came off, and the list price now stands at $2.199m.

That's a drop of $600k and 21% from that silly start price.

It's now just +$149k/+7% over the Nov. 2006 purchase price, barely enough to cover the costs of sale.

It's all downhill from there.