Thursday, October 16, 2008

Ojai Dreamin'


"W" [hat tip] points us to the local fishwrap which is just a smorgasbord of epicaricacy. Read it and giggle. Be sure to also read the comments full of derision. One tidbit from the article:
That's not comforting to Susannah Abel-Crombie. She put her five-bedroom, three-bath, 2,600-square-foot home in Ojai on the market two years ago for about $839,000. She since has lowered the price to $719,000.

"I could drop it to $600,000," she said. "I don't think that will make much difference. People aren't buying. I think everyone's holding their breath and waiting. It's frustrating."

Abel-Crombie takes solace in knowing that home values are also declining in North Carolina, where she plans to move with her family. She hopes to pay cash for a house there.

Lucky for us there's enough information to track down her listing and get a bigger laugh.
Redfin
Zillow
Realtor dot com

The truth is in the sales history/tax rolls as well as the neighborhood. This is a "bump up" house in an otherwise single story neighborhood. She bought for $170k in 1988 and looks to have upgraded in 2004-5. IOW way over improved for the area. The tax man values it at $500k and she's wishing for $720k and even understands on some level that $600k is too much. Without the $720k she can't get a free house in South Carolina. There's a clever marketing strategy. Not.

People like this are starting to piss me off. Two effin' years on the market? Lady there aren't any fish in that barrel. My favorite comment is from a smart guy named Smashy_Crashy:
Just to put things in perspective the CAR thought the median price in 2008 would be $553,000 at their forecast in October of 2007. It will end 2008 below $400,000.

Testify brother.

8 comments:

wagga said...

If at first you can't sell it, cry, cry again.

Sweet Cashback said...

fishwrap link doesn't work :-(

Oh and MURST!

Rob Dawg said...

Fixed the stupid linky bit.
I've also commented on the website.

Unknown said...

I'm too lazy to do this, but what I would love to see is a graph of projected prices vs. actual prices. For example, I'm not sure how often CAR makes forecasts, but it would be interesting to compare, say, their 6-month projections with actual prices. Is that data available? If I had the data, I'd volunteer to make the plot but I wouldn't know where to start looking.

Peripheral Visionary said...

$600,000 wouldn't be bad, depending on how good of a view of the ocean the house has.

So, where is this Ojai located again?

Rob Dawg said...

So, where is this Ojai located again?

ROTFLMAO.

While Ojai is physically 6-8 miles from the coast, geography makes the climate more like Bakersfield with less wind.

Bill in NC said...

Unless the stimulus magically adds another zero to everyone's bank balance, almost no one can buy at these " jus' dreamin' " list prices.

w said...

I am not sure but I am led to believe that Ojai High School has it's own marijuana dispensary.

Oh, and watch out for the gangs with shaved heads hanging out in the park downtown yelling "Hari Krishna".