Upside down in Grosse Pointe  11-30-14

In real estate jargon, upside down means that the owner of a house owes more to the bank than the house is worth. But let's face it, my ol' buddy Max Lexington slash Art Van did not have a mortgage on his mansion at 950 Lake Shore Drive. When Art had it built in the late 90's, the rumored construction cost was about 11 1/2 million bucks. What did HE think it was worth after he moved out and left his wife hangin' in 2005? Hard to say, but a real estate agent told me that there were some feelers out to see if anyone would bite at 18 million or so. No one did.
But even Mr. Delusional knew the ol' castle wasn't worth that, so his former abode spent some of 2013 and most of 2014 on the market for 15.9 million. Given the exodus of Michigan millionaires in the past few years, it would have taken a miracle and lots of prayer from Art's former Cardinal friend for the joint to sell anywhere near that price and everyone in the loop knew it. So the next brilliant idea was to put the monolith up for auction. That should whip up a feeding frenzy, right? Not really. People are much smarter with their money these days. The bidding stopped...and the house sold...at 3.75 million. OUCH. Ouch, ouch ouch how embarrassing, ouch! What percentage is that of the asking price? Let's see, 3.75 divided by 15.9...move the decimal...aha. Here's the answer! It sold at auction for 23.5 percent of the asking price! Yikes! Now that's what I call upside down! After the auction fees, which I am sure weren't cheap, that percentage is even lower. I have several overnight orders for my new novel God Stole My Daughter that need to be filled right now and two for Grosse Pointe Pimp, but we will have some more fun with math in a future post. Back to home page click here.