Pricing Poll: 2401 John

No one has sold a new home in the Tree Section for a price with a 2 in front in the past 6 months.

Not that no one is trying.

The subject of our newest pricing poll, 2401 John, is fresh on the market and starts well above the $2m threshold at $2.499m. (Click address for more pics & details via Redfin.)

It's a bit bigger than your standard-issue Tree Section newbies at 5br/5ba, 3500 sq. ft., boasting a lot sized at nearly 5100 sq. ft.

The Cape Cod currently offers no interior pics, but we're hopeful that some will surface soon.

2401 John is open Sunday from 1-4pm, and we'll encourage readers to see it and share reactions in our "Weekend Opens" feature.

Before most anyone has seen it, this listing poses the question: What's the most that good new homes in the Trees can get these days?

The listing calls 2401 John "a 'ten' Tree Section location," but we'll openly disagree.

Sure, it's not a 3 or a 5. Being just a few doors down from Marine, though, there's a demerit. It's a fairly sleepy block, but clearly there are better locations, whether you want isolation or kid-friendly blocks or proximity to schools, or downtown. Maybe it's a 7 or 8.

Pricewise, by way of comparison, let's look at the recent sales of comparable new construction in the Trees first (past 6 months):

• 3413 Pacific (5br/6ba, 3400 sq. ft., $1.687m on May 14)

• 3404 Pine (5br/5ba, 3250 sq. ft., $1.895m on May 21)

• 560 36th (4br/4ba, 3800 sq. ft., $1.555m on June 2)

• 2103 Elm (5br/4ba, 3100 sq. ft., $1.880m on June 2)

• 3109 Oak (4br/4ba, 3200 sq. ft., $1.660m on June 5)

• 2509 Palm (5br/5ba, 3200 sq. ft., $1.675m* on June 30)

• 2504 Poinsettia (4br/4ba, 3200 sq. ft., $1.615m** on July 17)

• 3309 Poinsettia (5br/5ba, 3250 sq. ft., $1.900m on July 20)

(Notes from * and **: 2509 Palm's sale price is based in part on a property exchange; that property was previously an REO; also, 2504 Poinsettia was an REO.)

We have to dial back just a bit further than 6 months to find standard-size new construction that sold for more than $2m – 1901 Walnut (5br/6ba, 3150 sq. ft. on a corner lot at $2.150m on Feb. 10).

Current on the market and comparably sized new construction:

• 2100 Pine (5br/5ba, 3100 sq. ft.) (pictured) – began at $2.425m in mid-June, now at $2.295m; and

• 848 14th (5br/5ba, 3500 sq. ft.) – began at $2.899m in Sept. 2008, now at $2.299m.

There are also some interesting options in the $2m+ price range that aren't new.

The lot for 2401 John was purchased rather late in the local scraper-acquisition game, in Oct. 2008, for $1.189m.

The question now is how much more the builders can get after going to all that effort.

Please vote in the poll, visit the home Friday or Sunday if you can, and offer your reactions and explain your thinking in the comments on this story. Poll closes Tuesday at 8pm.