I agree. I don't know about the $400k+ houses, but it's getting downright nasty with the 3-4br houses under $300k. These houses in our area are selling for higher than advertised with all out bidding wars. Our friends tried getting one and they never got an opportunity to counterbid. Wouldn't you know it? The eventual buyers were represented by the same agent as the sellers, Antonia Assacan, so the agent got both commissions. Typical borderline illegal crap that I'm sure happens in real estate more often than we would like to think.

I guess I misspoke -- when I said "fair value" I really meant something more like "sensible value". Sure, a fmv in strict terms on a house is whatever you can get for it. On the other hand, this sort of speculative price-inflation does nobody any favors, especially the buyers themselves. Hey, maybe I'm wrong and they'll turn over the million dollar house in seven years for a mil four or six. It's possible. But I don't think it's very likely, especially with a price seemingly so far in variance with other houses in the area. A more likely scenario is the bubble will pop, prices will settle down, and they'll lose equity.

I got lazy in this heat and didn't go out to see it yet -- but I will.

One block that I think is probably undervalued is the very interesting 46th and Hazel, row houses in a very distinctive style. (Anybody familiar with architecture that can describe them?)

tmcgee

They might have "overpaid" but if it's your dreamhouse that you've wanted since you were a kid, it's "worth" every penny. It's pretty much a mansion house with all original details inside. He might have overpaid, but it wasn't like he paid double what it's worth.

Are you talking about the twins that are often painted yellow with big porches? If so, those are Edwardian.

Not that it's moved into anywhere near affordable but in the short time this has been up (less than 6 months, I think I lot less...), it's already had it's price reduced by $54K. Just thought that was an interesting thing to see...

notice it says:

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Well, the craziness continues. A week back I ran into the seller of this one: http://www.prufoxroach.com/search/se...&propNo=12
She said that she ended up selling it, although she didn't specify how much. Either way, I am sure she made a hefty profit off of it.

Now there is a house about a block away going for $685,000. How is this possible? I have no doubt that its a nice house, but this IS West Philadelphia afterall, only 1 block from Drexel, and 3 blocks away from Mantua. I doubt if the owner could have gotten $350,000 three years ago. Is the area gentrifying that much? http://www.prufoxroach.com/search/se...2&propNo=3


Again, I wish the seller all my luck.

I'd like to meet the moron that bought it. Unless he/she is turning it into a multi family property that seems like a real hefty price to pay. It just goes to show...there are a lot of folks in philly with money to burn...we're just not one of them.

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Hard for me to see that there was $180K in taxes... The BRT says they only paid $720k for it, not $900. Relatively speaking, that's a big difference.

-Ben

Reminds me of the home I saw listed at 6&Federal for $280k. What a joke.

Prices are now breaking $600K indeed. There's one in the 2300 block of Perot in Fairmount for that much - new construction.

The one gap27 mentions, in all fairness, sounds like one of those huge, beautiful houses in Powelton, and they are pretty spectacular, at least from what can be seen on the outside. Still, it is awfully close to Mantua.