WSJ says 70% of heirs dump the family home, incurring the confiscatory transaction costs on the sale. (e.g., I can sell a $1 million block of stock for a 0% commission and perhaps a 2 cent bid/ask spread on a heavily traded stock like PFE (i.e, 25,000 shares @40/share x 2 cents/share = $500.) Where I live in WA State, it would likely cost at least 10% or $100,000 to sell a $1 million home if you’re paying a 6% commission, the 1.7% state franchise tax on real estate sales, plus the usual closing costs like title insurance, escrow fees, etc.)
My brother is a math genius. When my mother died 23 years ago he decided to continue to live in the family home despite it being in an increasingly dodgy area (he decamped to an island in Narragansett Bay about 4 years ago). I used to joke that he must be the only Fellow of the Society of Actuaries living in that zip code.
I hope you do well. I think Hartford real estate prices peaked in 1989 just ahead of the Colonial Realty bankruptcy and fraud trial. I always got a kick out of the testimony in the CFO’s trial, “He was an excellent accountant, you just couldn’t trust him to touch the money.”
I knew the lawyer that won the class action suit against Colonial. He told me all he had to say about the bankers who ended up paying out, the bankers should have not made those risky loans. They knew better. The lawyer took home $9 million as his cut. I think the settlement or judgement was $47 million.
Hartford peaked in 2006 much higher. It is soaring now again.
