I was recently asked by a client to research all available homes in Brentwood priced above $500,000 that were built after 1997 and have at least 4,000 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a 3 car garage. This particular executive client is in search of a primary residence in Brentwood, but would like to ensure that he is buying the best mixture of value, location and quality. Prior to speaking with me, this particular client was very focused on the distressed short sale and foreclosure markets and was led to believe that market would provide the biggest bang for the buck.
As a broker who has a wealth of experience in the short sale and foreclosure markets, I agree that this market segment can provide great value, but not to the exclusion of the traditional for sale marketplace. It would be a rather egregious mistake to ignore either market when seeking the highest and best values.
In order to investigate and ultimately prove the above assertion I gathered the current market data below which ranks the 209 homes that match my client’s specifications by price per foot. I do realize that price per square foot is only one facet of measuring value, but it does provide a quick insight into the point that the traditional marketplace does offer comparable value to the distressed market in Brentwood. Obviously, I dug further into the data creating a metric that ranked other factors that determine value like location, lot size, age of construction, school zone and current condition (I am not going to share that spreadsheet in order to protect my client’s privacy).
According to the price per foot analysis below, indeed 3 of the top 6 deals are distressed homes. However, the two best deals are homes listed on the traditional market. Looking further down the chart, you’ll notice that the distressed sales are not priced any better than the traditional sales and in some cases, the distressed Brentwood homes continue to be listed at premium prices.
While this article was not meant to discuss the Brentwood housing market as a whole, I do find it interesting that more than 200 homes are listed in this rather exclusive price range. Additionally, only 9 of the homes currently for sale (4.3%) are listed on the distressed real estate market. However, 209 homes does represent a 13.2 month supply of homes in this price and size range based upon a current running 6 month average of 15.83 homes closed a month.
Highlighted in yellow denotes distressed sale.
