New Blog 2: Compare House Prices

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Compare House Prices

Latest postcard from the disaster: A Los Angeles home was recently marked down $4.5 million. It's the Ennis House, a famous Frank Lloyd Wright creation completed in 1924. You may have seen it in Blade Runner or, um, a Ricky Martin video. Listed last year for $15 million, it didn't sell, and it's now been discounted to $10.5 million. Even that price may not qualify as a bargain. It's one of Wright's "textile block" houses, notorious money pits. Severely damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake and some monsoon-like rainy seasons, the home was red-tagged by city inspectors in 2005. The foundation that owns it spent $6.5 million on repairs, and it's estimated that the new owner will need to lay out a comparable sum. For what it's worth, Zillow's "Zestimate" for the place is only $2,090,500. That presumably reflects what it would be worth without a starchitect name attached.