House down the street from my parents - an Eichler with a second story grafted on, on a 7200-square-foot lot, rather less than the canonical quarter-acre, but marginally bigger than most of the actual lots in the neighborhood* - was offered for $1.75 million.
It was promptly snapped up. Apparently for $2.25 million.
Property taxes for 2012 came to $1,723 on a tax assessment of $98,366 (the original owners were there for a long time, and were protected by Prop. 13). Extrapolating... the new owners would be paying... about $39,000 a year?
But there's something wonky here. Zillow estimates new-owner property taxes at $13,524/year. Which is preposterous, given that I'm paying $2800/year for 1/10 the assessed value. Even taking non-scaling parcel taxes into account, somebody's arithmetic has got to be off.
Anyway, presumably the buyer isn't plunking down cash (beyond a freaking $450K down payment), and will have an insane mortgage payment. Which implies an insane salary. Seriously, where are all the buyers for these properties coming from?
I'm assuming the buyer is pulling down a huge salary, and doesn't really have that kind of cash in the bank. 'Cause if he did, why settle there? If I were spending a couple million of my own money on a house, and didn't need to live near a job that would pay for a huge mortgage... I'd want a for-reals mansion. On a couple hundred acres. With a private lake. And maybe a private airfield.
And not a 1950s-vintage working-class house on 1/6 of an acre with a couple tame redwoods in the back yard.
Update: Toward the top of my actual price range, out in West Tennessee (where they have the... interesting... weather**), is a log cabin. Built within the last decade. Over 5000 square feet***, many bedrooms and bathrooms****. On many acres of good farmland, backed by many acres of forest, for a total of almost-as-big-as-the-subdivision-I-live-in-now. Hmmmmm.
* I guess the lots are a nominal quarter-acres if you count the sidewalk and half the street.
** "Air tractor!" - Pinky
*** Which is to say, the living space is bigger than the lot my current house is on.
**** Log cabin, yeah. "His tricycle, specially adapted for the crossing, was ninety feet long, with a protective steel hull, three funnels, seventeen first-class cabins, and a radar scanner." - Monty Python
Comments