A $400,000 House On Sale For $1,000

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 1, 8:01AM EST

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A $400,000 House On Sale For $1,000 — © Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

There has to be something wrong with this real estate listing. The house at 4872 Hidden Hills Cir, Howell, MI will go to auction soon for $1,000. However, it has been assessed for $416,000. Corelogic has an estimate of $384,000. Under the circumstances, why have an auction at all? The listing insists this is not a foreclosure.

Realtor.com reports that “The current owner has moved to be closer to family and wants to part with this property in a hurry.” That is a thin explanation for a starting bid which is so low.

A look at the figures for the house indicates that it is worth well over $1,000. It has five bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms. Its indoor dimensions are 3,136 square feet. It sits on 1.62 acres. It was last sold in 2008 for $176,000. That was during the housing crisis of The Great Recession, so there is reason to believe it is worth much more now.

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Also, the house has had upgrades recently. Fiber optic internet has recently been installed. The heating operates on natural gas. It has a Lennox wood-burning stove as well.

Howell is northwest of Detroit, about halfway to the state capital of Lansing. It has a population of just shy of 10,000. About 94% of the population is white. Its population has grown steadily since 1920.

The median household income for Howell is $45,760, which is about $20,000 below the national average. The poverty rate is 14.1% which is above the United States figure.

One way realtors set prices is to look at “comparables” which are houses in the same area of similar size and configuration. In the areas close to 4872 Hidden Hills Cir, Howell, MI home values run between $272,000 and $337,000.

For anyone interested, this is how realtor.com lists the property:

This beautiful 5 bedroom 2.5 bath home is being offered at public online auction. This is not a foreclosure. Bidding starts at only $1, 000. Please click the link to the online auction to view the current bid price. The current assessed value of the home is $416, 600. The seller bought this home in 2008 and has moved to be closer to family and work. This home features up north log home tranquility without the 4 hour drive. Nearly 3, 200 sq-ft with a 2nd floor loft master suite with a custom master bath. Fiber optic internet has just recently been installed in this subdivision.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.