Quote from traderdragon2:
Its happened elsewhere, lets see if the same happens in san diego.
I just saw a house in del mar sell for less than its 2003 price, almost 50% below the Zillow zestimate :eek:
Pricing will often follow a fairly normal distribution with outlier prices both at the extremes of high and low. I would not get too excited by a few isolated prices since it could be all explainable by a number of things:
1) The home had some defect (cracked foundation due to earth quake etc.) or there was a "Paid outside of closing" (POC) deal or barter (e.g. partial swap, land deal, auto etc.) with cash or private notes given or taken.
2) The seller could just be plain stupid or ill advised about the value of his home. Or is under duress about the market (e.g. the irrational effects of the self fulfilling prophecies of perma-bear and Chicken Little syndrome )
3) The house was sold to a friend or family member at a severe discount (again under a POC deal) that was solely intended to reset the tax basis down to defraud the county/city tax appraiser's market worth to reduce taxes. We see this a LOT where I am with owners selling to their businesses or friends for well below fair market value and sometimes even declaring bankruptcy after the deal strips the equity in a private exchange of cash under the table.
4) The owner could have had a pressing personal emergency and sold it at his cost and left considerable equity on the table as an incentive to the buyer for a cash only rapid close. e.g. a Drug Dealer had to leave the area fast and get back to Mexico before Home Land Security moved in for an arrest
And finally, don't go on what is printed in MLS and especially public versions of MLS data since many Realtors are in fact incompetent fat-fingered half-blind buffoons who can't type in the correct closing data properly before the listing is closed. Even this tax records on a private sale can be in error. In fact the biggest error/fraud is in understating the square footage size (and therefore the $ per sq-ft calculation) for room add-ons and such to defraud the tax man.
TS