What have I been saying about fringe areas? They’re leading the way to new lows in values.

1100 Lake Avenue

1100 Lake Avenue has sold for $1.420 million, 425 days after being listed in September, 2010 for $1.850. That’s pretty stupid, hanging onto an unrealistic price so long, but the owners paid $1.487 million for it in 1999 and probably figured that it had to be worth more now. Wrong. But really, they should have known – they bought it then after some poor yokel had had it on the market for 906 days, starting at $2.250 in September, 1996 and only getting rid of it on these guys three years later. Not much has changed, except prices, in the 13 years these sellers have owned the place so what was unpopular and a hard sell then remains, surprise! – hard to sell today.

And this is “fringe” in so many ways. Way up yonder in Indian Country, two acres in the four-acre zone, mid-1980′s architecture, it’s a triple whammy and the selling price reflects that. All that said, for the money, someone’s getting two acres, a house to live in, sort-of-decent land and a pool. See what you get in, say,  Havemeyer for $1.4 million and maybe a long commute will seem worthwhile.

1 Farwell

In other news, 1 Farwell Lane, also way up there near our northern border, is back on the market at a new, improved price of $7.5 million, significantly higher than the $5.195 million that proved fruitless in 2011, expiring just this last October, and even higher than the $6.495 million that failed to attract a buyer before the listing expired in December, 2008. This house has been offered for sale since June, 2005 (with that hiatus from ’08 til 2011), starting at $12.650 million back then and going down, now up, since. The land remains the same size, 12 acres, and the house has had nothing done to it worth noting on its listing since it was built in 1995 so the new price baffles me. Unless, of course, the owner has been listening to NAR propaganda.