This "great deal" has lasted

This Lake Forest house is up for sale. It looks like a pretty good bargain compared to the previous sale price and its competition:

Asking price: $450,000

Asking price/ sq ft: $340
Income requirement: $112,500
Purchase price: $658,000
Purchase date: 9/29/2005
Size: 3 beds, 2 baths, 1,322 sq ft (built in 1969)
From listing: GREAT DEAL! WON'T LAST. Nice and spacious house. Come & see this lovely home, 3BD/2BD. It features a beatiful kitchen. New paint, tile throughout.

This property has been on Redfin for 62 days and is still active. Typically, a seller is encouraged to de-personalize the inside of their property and adopt neutral colors. I don't believe that strategy was put into practice judging by the picture on the left.

There is no address on the Redfin listing, but it does come with one on ZipRealty, so look there. Also try Zillow.

It's the lowest-priced three-bedroom, two-bath house within a 1/2 mile radius, according to ZipRealty -by $100 grand. 22971 Cavanaugh is a little less than 100 square feet bigger, but that owner is asking $550,000.

If Redfin is correct about the transaction history, the Cavanaugh property is asking less than what it sold for in 2005 as well - the last sale was for $600,000.

Assuming a buyer for the first property is found at this price, the Zillow sales history shows the loss on our subject property would be $235,000, including 6% sales costs. If this is a short sale, it seems questionable that the lender would hastily agree to what is likely a very large shortfall.

Even without transaction costs, a sale at the current asking price would equal a decline of 36% from the previous sale two years ago.