my 1994 house just resold

[Tom King]

I built one new spec house a year, for 33 years.  1994 was the year that Virginia Beach was going to start pulling a million gallons of water a day out of the lake, for their drinking water supply.  It was the only year, recession, or booming economy, that the local economy wasn't running WFO, and came to a standstill.  After it became apparent that the water withdrawal didn't amount to anything, it's been WFO ever since.

By then, I had been building 3,000 square foot homes, with basements.  I decided that year to not buy one of the best lots, and build a small house, just in case I had to sit on it for a while.  I built a 1400 sq. ft. house on a mid range lot on a cove.  That lot has no view of anything but that cove, but has a decent low slope to it.  I paid 35k for the lot.

Last Summer, one of the steep lots, that we thought no one would ever buy, sold for $265,000, that had sold for 10k back in the '70's, and they built a giant house on it-just for relative changing values to the times comparison.

I built that house, and added a large addition onto our barn that year for 130k.  I decided to put a price of 265 on it, and put my For Sale sign at the road.  It sold that weekend after I put the sign on it.  It's a well built little house, with custom everything, and a large, 30x32 two car garage.  I always built the garage first, to use as a shop.  The guy that bought it was another builder.  He bought it to live in himself.  He said he'd never seen a house that well built.  He ended up dying after falling off a ladder building a shop for himself, and his Wife sold it 20 years ago.  I don't know what it sold for that time.

Anyway, fast forward to a few weeks ago.  A Realtor advertised it for sale, with viewing on Saturday.  Cars lined up in the street near it, and offers started coming in.  They had listed it for 825.  They had offers of 850, and 885.  It sold that afternoon for $890,000.  I'd like to say that it was because it was built by me, but I think it's just a crazy market, in general.

[curlyoak]

The house you sold 28 years ago for $265000 that just sold for $890000 is around 4.4% annual compound. If you invested the $265 for 28 years and it compounded at 9% it would be 2.9 million, less taxes which would vary. It is the magic elixir of bigger numbers on the time.

What is WFO?

[Tom King]

Yeah, I know.  The 27 years just doesn't seem like that long ago now, and it seems crazy to me that little house would be worth that much.

A racing term.  Wide F___ing Open.

[Chestnut]

My house was built in 1991 originally sold for $105k and is 2300 finished square feet. A house down the street similar to ours with a 0.3 acre corner lot sold for $486k.

So while i think that house sold for a lot given the market around here they got a good deal.