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High End Homes Not Selling in Metro Indy

Posted By Paula Henry on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 8:21:00 PM | 4 Comments

Today, the Hilbert Mansion on 116th Street in Carmel was reduced by another $5,000,000. Originally listed at $25,000,000, the current asking price is less than 40% of the original listed price. You can read the story here.

The volatility of the real estate market has taken it’s toll on higher end homes in Metropolitan Indianapolis. McMansions are being passed on for more economical living choices.

Home sales in Indianapolis over the past few months may not reveal the true picture of sales per price point. Since many first time home buyers are taking advantage of the $8000.00 rebate, the price point of sales will be lower than average in many areas across the nation.

It doesn't affect high priced properties, though. There have only been 4 home sales this year over $1,500,000 recorded in the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR) database. Surprisingly, all four were in the city of Indianapolis. Two in the Meridian Kessler area, one in Lawrence on Geist and one downtown condo.

There were 19 home sales this year priced between $1,000,000 - $1,500,000 in various areas; most in Zionsville, Carmel and Fishers. Currently, there are 284 homes available over $1,000,000 and a total of 23 sales this year for homes in this price range.

When we break it all down, the numbers tell us we have an eight year supply of homes in the million plus price range. Over the next week, we’ll look at the numbers for home sales, days on market and absorption rate for areas in Metropolitan Indianapolis real estate. If you have 9.9 million laying around, the Hilbert Mansion is beautiful, a great location and priced right.

Discussion

#1 Posted by Greg Dallaire at 9/25/2009 8:34 PM

In Green Bay we don't have many homes in the million plus mark but the homes in our upper tiered price points are struggling big time!

Hopefully we see an influx of higher priced buyers from the sales from the first time home buyer credit.

Can't do anything when the inventories are not clearing out.

Great blog by the way I really enjoy your straight talk approach!

#2 Posted by Paula at 10/23/2009 8:24 PM

Hi Greg -

Thanks! I had hoped to see more move-up buyers as a result of the first time home buyer credit. There was some trickle up affect, but not enough to reach the higher end homes here in Indy. I think if the media would leave real estate alone and the government would quit trying to fix it, we may just find recovery.

#3 Posted by Omar Fidel Espinosa at 11/5/2009 11:47 PM

The former Hilbert mansion won't sell anytime soon.
The main house is over 24,000 sq ft. and over 30,000 sq ft in additional space in a collection of buildings of the estates compound. The upkeep of the house and grounds, the taxes, the utilities that�s going to be in the range of over 200k a year. Mel Simon died and his wife feels no one is going to buy Indiana�s biggest home, and it will be donated to IU. 10110 ditch road is a million dollars a year in upkeep, plus taxes! I think the Hilbert mansion should be donated as well. Any person who buys this home for themselves or their family will have to do extensive updates to the dated late 80's decor. It will require hundreds of thousands of dollars in draperies since the Hilbert�s stole them all, after all with a house like this you wouldn�t find what you need at sears or jcpenny. Reggie miller had his house listed at 7.5 million and he took it off the market because no one was that naive. I think the boom time of the 90's gave way to the construction of a mini-gilded age in real estate.
If you havnt noticed many of the gilded aged mansions are in ruins, Oheka castle, WhiteMarsh Hall, Lynnwood hall, and many many others lost to the boom and bust cycle that is the american economy. The vanderbuilts lost all ten of their 5th ave mansions and all most all of their money, Carnegie gave all his away, the Rockefellers have been decimated too. If you think back to 1990, Dr Perez built a 20,000 sq foot home here in carmel, it wasn�t even 20 years old and it was demolished to make way for a subdivision. His home sat on the market a very long time as well. In the end, you are just paying too much money for a big brick and wood box that requires loads of maintenance with a farms worth of land. I think more and more people even wealthy people are coming to the conclusion that less is more.
If a rich person falls on hard times during hard times such as a recession, selling a 10 million dollar property built on former farm land is a hard sell indeed. Indiana has 4 billionaires all of whom have their own houses already. Tell me what kind of multimillionaire from out of state is going to come to indiana to buy up cheap farmland and build a mansion on it in the middle of nowhere, because culturally the indy area is just that. Indiana has an unlimited supply of land, so since we have an unlimited supply of land we have low prices, following the laws of supply and demand things have to be priced accordingly. Hilbert was trying to show off, a big fish in a little pond i guess he had Napoleon syndrome, if i were rich i wouldnt try to one up a bunch of nobody carmelites, because lets be honest most carmelites are gauche, affected, petit bourgeoisie, aspirational name droppers (watch your toes) who like to pretend and try to convince others they are wealthy, sigh, such is the nouveau riche, how d�class�.

#4 Posted by Oakland Real Estate Guy at 7/22/2011 9:45 AM

What an amazing property! We don't have mansions on that scale in my market, but we have also seen a downturn in the over 1 Mil sales.