losses

To say that 217 9th St. has been offered for sale for a long time might miss the point.

It came to market in February 2012, hoping to strike while last Spring's market was just starting to heat up.

But at $3M, this little 3br/3ba, 1700-odd sq. ft. modern on a half lot did not look like a deal. It began at $1,701/PSF, much higher than you'd find on The Strand.

The listing limped through Summer last year and only made a big, bold cut when a new agent took over in October.

That cut dropped the asking to $2.500M. Still steep.

Another 6 months passed, but now the little modern city house has closed for $2.250M. Officially, 309 DOM tolled for the property from Feb. 2012 through April this year.

Sure, that sale was 24% off the start price, but what does start…

…

They have finally sealed up a sale at 1801 Palm (4br/4ba, 3900 sq. ft.), a newer (2000) home that logged a fairly amazing 279 DOM last year. Amazing, that is, for a larger, nice Tree Section home on a great block and a sunny corner lot.

They wrapped it up at $2.100m, down an irrelevant $29k from the last price cut made in July 2011.

The sale price is off $199k (-9%) from the start price from last March.

Perhaps more interestingly, the chop is also 10% down from the May 2004 acquisition price of $2.325m. MB's median price for 2011 for SFRs was pretty much flat to 2004 (see "2011 Wrap: More Sales, 2004 Median"), so we notice when someone comes in notably off that line. 

Curiously, that prior listing began in March 2004 at $2.050m, perhaps begging for the…

Having just reported on the spectacular, and surprising, fall of a west-of-Highland, ocean-view home, we have a similar story to return to in the Tree Section.

2610 Pacific (5br/5ba, 3225 sq. ft.) has not lacked for mentions here at MBC, given that it has logged hundreds of DOM over the past couple of years with multiple agents. It has almost always been considerably overpriced.

You may remember the backstory here, but it's worth a recap. In 2005, one particular investor bought up 3 properties in the Tree Section within a few months – each $2m or more – to serve as rental properties while banking on the appreciation to enhance the investment. This was one.

Instead, something like "reverse appreciation" happened. In 2009, both 2610 Pacific and 3313 Pine,…

It was once a $2.5m offering, then a $2.0m sale, and now...

1901 Poinsettia (5br/5ba, 3200 sq. ft.) has closed for $1.810m.

Call that a 10% drop from acquisition, back in March 2008.

All in all, that's an impressive job of holding value here for a property that had lost the caché of "new" when coming up for resale this year. And we certainly know of other peak-year purchases that have lost more like 15-20% on resale.

The buyers back in 2008 had shaved a cool half mil off the overly ambitious start price. Perhaps they felt that, even with the nasty winds blowing at the time, the housing market starting to shake and rattle even here in MB, they had "baked in" the potential for future market declines. Nabbing a new home for an even $2.0m gave them one of the…