real estate investment: market trend-"Should a Politically Incorrect Street Name Change Land Price?"

We're in the process of buying some lots in Oak Hill with some other buyers but they do not like the name of the street and want the developer to have it changed. The street name is "Sisquoc," which I think is a good name. Sisquoc is Chumash Indian for "stopping place." There is a California river that they call Sisquoc River. The other buyers are having a hard time saying and spelling it. Jeez, give me a break! The city is changing the name of the street to "San Lucas."

At any rate, this made me think about Austin's street names, and the fact that many streets have names far more disagreeable than Sisquoc. For example, the Shady Hollow subdivision in South Austin has street names like "Shoot Out," "Six Gun," "Shotgun," "Ammunition," and "Gun Fight."

I asked Sylvia whether she would get a house on a street that has a name like "Gun Fight" or "Shoot Out" and she said "No way!" I wonder whether a bleeding left wing liberal would give up the home of his dreams if it just happened to be situated on "George W. Bush Boulevard"? Brisket Ln. might not be a good place for a vegetarian. Would a loyal Christian Conservative not purchase a house on Devil's Cove? So can street names play a big role when deciding on buying or selling a house? I decided to look deeper.

I performed a multiple listing search for houses in Shady Hollow that were bought since 2000 that are situated on the aforementioned streets with gun-related names. As much as 71 houses were bought on those streets. In dollars, 179,677 is the sales price on the average with $98 per square foot. The next search was done with houses that were not built after 1993 since they were costly to build. Six hundred six houses situated on streets with less explicit western names were bought. In dollars, 225,713 is the sales price on the average with $103 per square foot. Based on this research, houses on streets with names that are politically incorrect are not a hit as compared to other houses on other streets.

What is interesting is that homes on politically incorrect street names are sold just within 37 days and the other homes at only 50 days. This seems contrary to what one would most likely expect if we base it on the price gap. One thousand eight hundred eleven square feet is the average lot size of the homes with politically incorrect street names while 2144 square feet is the average for the other homes which explains the price gap. But there is something not right since the smaller homes are sold at a higher per-square-foot price but they do not in this particular case.

This isn't an exact scientific test. Nevertheless, a buyer should put into consideration whether or not the street name might have an effect on the future marketability of the house.

Article Source: http://www.realestateinvestmentarticles.net

This article was created by Austin, Texas Real Estate Appraiser, a savvy real estate authority in the Austin, TX area. He manages Austin Texas Home Appraisals

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