Economic Update (Monday, December 27, 2021)

Written by Lloyd Segal Posted On Monday, 27 December 2021 00:00

State: Alabama
SOLD: 2
Old Article Id: 1043952

Economic Update

(Monday, December 27, 2021)

I've always thought the week between Christmas and New Years was awkward. Not quite work. Not quite vacation. Some strange hybrid. In fact, many moons ago I decided not to work this week (unless I absolutely had too), take my foot off the pedal, have some fun and travel. But alas, with the pandemic raging for a second year, traveling is probably not a good idea. But we can still have fun. Right? And since this is my last Economic Update for 2021, I thought I'd drop the hard economic news this week and have fun with real estate stories that will make you smile. So this Update is dedicated to the wackiest stories of 2021, including some really crazy properties you just won't believe. I certainly had fun writing this. I sure hope you'll enjoy reading it. Let me know your thoughts...

The House That’s Falling Off a Cliff. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. And so it is for this “cliffhanger” of a property on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, that found a buyer who clearly likes to live life “on the edge.” The real estate listing described the house as having “sweeping Lake Michigan frontage” and, to be fair, it wasn’t wrong (although the property wasn’t quite up to code). Set on 1.7 acres of land with — no arguments here — beautiful views, the ranch-style house made headlines for its precarious position on the verge of falling off a crumbling cliff. Aerial photos show the front of the house, which looks to be a very ordinary, if not quaint-looking, low-set house. The photos move progressively over the top of the house to the other side, where they shockingly show how the house is precariously hanging over the edge of the cliff. The wonders of engineering? Nope! This is clearly no amazing engineering feat, just your regular old “not quite up to code” property. Perhaps not surprisingly, the property took months to sell. Whoever bought this place – and it did sell, for the not-so-cheap price of $250,000, must be into rock climbing. Nonetheless, the new owners are expected to demolish the house and build something new…hopefully a little further back from the cliff.

The Creepiest Dollhouse. This New Orleans Louisiana listing ($149,000) could have just been your run-of-the-mill dilapidated hovel. But instead, the owner (a real estate agent, no less), decided to take the horror up a notch and include creepy old dolls in all the photos. The effect was slightly terrifying but, in what can only be described as strong 2021 real estate energy, it worked. The property became the top listing on Realtor.com and with more MLS clicks than all other New Orleans listings. A Baton Rouge investor actually bought this place. NOLA Living Realty agent Tony Bertucci told The Real Deal he had originally bought the decaying home to flip but changed his mind after Hurricane Ida. When it came to selling it, he decided to lean into its run-down state by posing scary Victorian dolls (left by the previous owner) in the listing photos. “I did it just to get the house some attention because the house was so hideous and horrifying,” he said. It says everything about 2021 real estate that this place went under contract within days.

The House That Got Built by Mistake. An Apple Valley house described as being “built by accident” in 2007 in the middle of a desert was listed this year with a sale price of $309,000. Nobody seems to know how it had happened – how does a house get built by mistake? – but the property, located in Apple Valley, California, was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. It has never been occupied and was abandoned by its owner at completion 14 years ago. How did someone mistakenly build in the middle of the Mojave Desert? Some contractor obviously made a terrible mistake. Since then, the house has been destroyed by vandals and has a garage full of graffiti. Inside the house, the walls are ruined and fixtures and fittings ripped out. But this is the 2021 real estate market, where no listing is too weird, and every house has a buyer. Sure enough, the house that got built by mistake is now under contract, according to the listing. Hopefully it will get a new life it deserves, albeit 14 years later.

The Skinniest House in the World? Do you know the skinniest house in the United States? The infamous “Skinny House” at 44 Hull Street in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, is an extremely narrow four-story house reported as having the "uncontested distinction of being the narrowest house in Boston” and probably in America. The house spans only 10.4 feet at Hull Street, its widest point. Yes, only ten feet! The house tapers to 9.25 feet at the back. Inside the house, the outer walls are as little as 8.4 feet apart and none are more than 9.2 feet apart. The home's narrowest interior point is 6.2 feet across, close enough to allow an adult to touch opposing walls.There are only five doors in the house, despite it having four levels. The second floor holds the living room and the bathroom (thankfully one of the few rooms with a door). In 2005, former owners Jennifer Simonic and Spencer Welton were described in the Boston Globe as living "a vertical life” in every way imaginable. Instead of doors, the house has floors between each space. “When guests stay over, we put a mattress down on the closet floor. Except for sleeping in the closet, they seem to like it." According to an archivist at the Boston City Archives, the land was split into lots back in 1884. According to local legend, the structure was built as a “spite house” shortly after the American Civil War. Two brothers inherited the land from their deceased father. While the first brother was away serving in the military, the second brother built a large home, leaving the first brother only a shred of property that neighbors felt certain was too tiny to build on. But when the first soldier returned and found his inheritance depleted, he built the narrow house to “spite” his brother (by blocking the sunlight and ruining his view). The house was in the news last week because it just sold for $1.2 million! Yes, $1.2 million for 1,166 square feet!

Sydney House with No Kitchen or Toilets Sells for Millions. Even Australia is experiencing an over-heated real estate market. For example, in the Kensington section of Sydney, a house sold for $4.705 million. That in and of itself is not surprising. But what is surprising is that the house does not have a kitchen or any bathrooms. Oops! Whose mistake is that. The house at 25 Duke Street was uninhabitable but that didn’t put buyers off. Not in this market. Sydney’s market has been a force unto itself in 2021. This listing was not weird, strictly speaking, but it was more the price it fetched at auction in June that was absolutely wild. No kitchen, no toilets, and crumbling ceilings. Clearly no problem for investors this year, who were shelling out millions like there was no tomorrow. The fact it had been left empty for two years and occupied by squatters was no matter for desperate Sydney investors. In fact, it sold for a massive $1.1 million over its original listing price.

Titanic Museum Iceberg Collapses Injuring Three. Sometimes a story is just too irresistible to pass up, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with real estate. For example, believe it or not, there is a Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (nowhere near water). And yes, that is the real name of the city. As you would expect, if you went to the museum, you would walk onto a half-scale replica of the Titanic smashing into an iceberg. But last week, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel, the iceberg inside the Museum actually collapsed and seriously injured three guests standing on the Titanic replica (just like the real Titanic). Although the guests did not drown, those injured were taken to the hospital with unspecified injuries, Mary Kellogg Joslyn and John Joslyn wrote on the Museum’s Facebook page. “Needless to say, we never would have expected an incident like this to occur as the safety of our guests and crew members are always top of mind,” which is ironically what the owners of the real Titanic said after the 1912 catastrophe. The ship-shaped museum closed after the iceberg collapsed, but reopened for those with tickets the very next day. The owners said the affected area has been blocked off, and they estimate it will take at least four weeks for the iceberg to be rebuilt. No word on rebuilding the Titanic. The Pigeon Forge Police Department said in a statement that the collapse appears to be accidental. The Joslyns opened the attraction in 2010. Guests receive boarding passes containing the names of actual passengers or crew members who were aboard the British passenger liner that sank on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg. Visitors can see more than 400 Titanic artifacts, shovel “coal” in the boiler room, and feel 28-degree water through self-guided tours, according to the attraction’s website. And now they can add, “just like passengers on the real Titanic, experience an iceberg collapsing on you as the ship slowly sinks.”

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Columbus Grandma Creates the World’s Largest Oreo. Right about now you’re probably asking yourself who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest Oreo cookie ever made. The reason I’m bringing this up is because the world record was just broken in 2021 and I thought you’d probably want to know. A 95-year old Columbus grand-mother and grandson have taken their baking skills to a whole new level. As a result, Columbus is now home to the largest Oreo cookie in the world. Social media influencer Ross Smith’s grandma spent more than a day making the 4-foot, 180-pound cookie from scratch at Uptown Kitchen + Bar. The two are known for playing pranks, and their TikTok account has more than 18 million followers. The previous Guinness World Record was just over 161 pounds. A report by WSYX ABC-TV says a 90-year-old grandmother created a 175-pound Oreo! So the Ohio pair’s Oreo eclipsed the record holder by 15 pounds! “We looked online what the world’s biggest Oreo was, and we decided we were going to go bigger and better,” Granny Smith told WSYX [sounds like an apple to me]. The Ohio duo’s Oreo measures 4-feet wide, which is more than 7,024 times larger than a normal-sized Oreo! "Hopefully we will be able to finish this thing off in a few months ... before it goes stale," Granny Smith said laughing. The dynamic duo has been creating social media content for over nine years. This creation was part of Granny's birthday celebration. She turned 95 last August 1.

Town Built on Million-Year-Old Meteor. Believe it or not, there is a Bavarian town named Nordlingen that was actually built over a 15-million-year-old meteor. Apparently an asteroid hit this German area over a thousand years ago. Of course, I’m not sure because I wasn’t there. But far from staying away, the locals slow but surely build a town on the remaining crater. You can still see the circular layout of the town to this day.

Vintage Mail-Order Houses Go Way Back. You might think that “Do-It-Yourself” (“DIY”) tiny homes that you order online, or the recent “Tiny House” investing gold rush are the latest real estate trends, but that’s actually far from the case. In the 1900s, Sears started featuring a $650 kit for making a house in their catalogs. The mail-order kit featured the blueprint and all the pieces you’d need to build a simple house. Many settlers who came to America and bought a plot of land would build this type of simple house on it as they settled into life in the new country. According to NPR, between 70,000 and 75,000 people ordered houses from Sears this way by 1940. Some experts estimate that about 70 percent of Sears houses are still standing today! That means that somewhere out there in Americana, there are approximately 50,000 of these tiny homes still in existence. Of course, the real question is what they're worth now?

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Farmer Boys Restaurant Celebrating 40 Years with Free Burgers and Tattoos. Farmer Boys, the Southern California-based quick-service restaurant, is celebrating its 40th anniversary by offering fans free burgers for a year if they get a permanent Farmer Boys tattoo. The company has partnered with West Hollywood's The Honorable Society tattoo shop, to give the restaurant's more dedicated fans tattoos to memorialize the 40-year milestone. Farmer Boys fans, 18 years and older, can choose from three permanent color designs measuring 2-inches by 2-inches. Those who get permanently tattooed will be rewarded with free Farmer Boys burgers for an entire year. Larry Rusinko, vice president and chief marketing officer for Farmer Boys says “We are celebrating this milestone by offering our superfans the opportunity to pay homage to Farmer Boys and get free burgers for a year!” NEWS FLASH! Our LAREIC Board of Advisors thought this was a brilliant marketing idea. They have decided to extend the offer to our members. In other words, if you tattoo the LAREIC logo on your body, we’ll also buy you hamburgers for one year. In fact, we’ll go one step better. If you tattoo the LAREIC logo on your body, we’ll buy you not just hamburgers, we’ll buy you cheeseburgers and French fries for an entire year! (drinks? - you’re on your own.) Just think of it. Besides Farmer Boys cheeseburgers and fries for an entire year, you’ll get to show off your LAREIC tattoo to your friends and family, and become an instant Instagram celebrity.

Cursing Parrots. And finally, my favorite story of 2021. A British wildlife park has removed five African Grey parrots from public view because of the fowls’ foul language. Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, in Friskney, England, adopted the parrots this summer and put them in quarantine together. Terrible idea! During their time together, the birds apparently shared the ability to curse up a storm, something they now engage in quite often, according to Steve Nichols, the park’s CEO. “I get called a ‘fat f_ _k’ every time I walk past,” Nichols told CNN. Nichols proclaims that potty-mouthed parrots are popular in his profession. “For the last 25 years, we have always taken in parrots that have sometimes had a bit of ‘blue language’ and we have gotten used to that,” he told Lincolnshire Live. “Every now and then you’ll get one that swears and it’s always funny. ‘Go to Hell’ and things like that. We find it very comical when they swear at you. But, just by coincidence, we took in five in the same week and because they were all quarantined together it meant there was this room full of swearing birds out control. The more they swear the more you usually laugh, which then triggers them to swear even more!” Nichols said the cursing birds sound “like an old frat house where they are all just swearing up a storm.” Although he and fellow park employees found the whole thing funny, Nichols said he finally decided it would be best to quarantine the cursing birds out of view before visiting kids heard them say “Get outta here you sh_theads.”