Check out Katherine Harris's house on Zillow!

[mountebank]

Josh Marshall has been putting together the links tying Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) to disgraced former Rep. Duke Cunningham on Talking Points Memo. Today on their Muckracker site they reprinted an article from the Tallahassee Democrat on Harris's fishy home sale.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000078.php

According to the article, Harris bought the house in 1999 for $269K and then sold it for a cool half million profit this year. Well, ok, house prices have gone through the roof since 1999, but I decided to Zillow her house anyway (anyone who doesn't know www.zillow.com should stay ignorant - it's an easy way to waste a lot of time).

Here is the graph of her house's estimated value over the last 5 years with the sell dates and prices indicated:

(you will need to enter a security number on the screen to view the page):

http://www.zillow.com/Charts.z?chartDuration=5years&zpi...

Curious. Not only are the dates of purchase and sale different from the article (according to Zillow, the house was bought in 2004 and sold in 2005), but check the difference between the prices and the estimated value (blue line)!

Well, maybe Zillow has their information wrong. Maybe. But here is Duke Cunningham's house. They got the date, the price, and the fact that it was sold suspiciously above market value right on.

http://www.zillow.com/Charts.z?chartDuration=5years&zpi...

Somebody needs to verify those dates on Zillow. If they're right, then Harris has problems. Sorry, more problems.

[KyuzoGator]

1. Zillow is very inaccurate.

Sorry to poop the party, but my house is severely undervalued on Zillow, as are the houses of my neighbors.

[mountebank]

2. Point taken, but it's the size of the difference that important. On par

with the Dukester's tricky deal and that was an accurate "sweetheart deal" that Zillow nailed dead to rights.

[crispini]

4. It got mine exactly right.

Of course, our county posts all of their appraisal data online, anyway. For example, here is Harriet Miers' house:

http://www.dallascad.org/AcctDetailRes.aspx?ID=00000413...

[Botany]

7. Did I ever tell you that you are my Fav?

Would we be talking about the "Love Shack?"

Things are not going Harris's way of late .... little bribery and now this?

I feel so bad for her ......

I wonder how much she got for her "work" in 2000 ..... and is it in the Caymen's
or a Swiss bank?

[crispini]

9. Bwahahahaha!

Howdy sweet thang!

[Botany]

12. I love it when you talk Texas to me.

I feel sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad for K. Harris

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. this isn't an estimate though... it's the actual sale prices nt

[madfloridian]

3. Housing prices were through the roof here and selling fast.

Houses that were 80,000 about 3 years ago are selling in some cases for 250,000 to 300,000. Just everyday homes in everyday neighborhoods. Central Florida inland has been especially unreal.

I have noticed that a few houses now are not selling as quickly. Don't know if a bust is coming. Maybe not in Florida because of the weather. I think our state is selling off to foreigners, but that's just my humble opinion. I know many places near Disney are being gobbled up by people in other countries.

[mountebank]

6. I know housing prices are through the roof, but look at the graph

It's the difference between estimated and sold price that is important here. And then look at Duke's house sale in the other graph that was what got the ball rolling on investigating him. Zillow could be wrong sure, but it's quite suspicious.

[Warpy]

8. The bust is coming.

My dad's house was valued at $240,000. However, there were six unsold houses within a block, so I listed at $220,000 and sold in a week.

I've looked recently, and the same six houses have been joined by two more since I left the area.

The bust has happened. Some sellers just don't know it yet.

[GrumpyGreg]

10. I haven't seen a house for $80,000 since the seventies.

[Botany]

5. does it come with the horses?

[Blaze Diem]

13. So---Who's the chic riding Katherine???

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

14. Damn... horsy girls.... I wanna convert her

bad!

[FlaGranny]

19. Hope that horse didn't move

she would have fallen right off, stirrups are so long she's standing tippy toes on them. Someone just plopped her up there for a photo.

[Bushy Being Born]

22. Yeah, that doesn't look quite right

But looking at these pics, although the stirrups seem a little long there too, at least it looks like she knows how to stay on a horse.

[FlaGranny]

23. It looks like they've been adjusted,

but, hey, she can't keep her heels down when she rides and that's no way to hold the reins. I guess she can hold her own, but she's no pro.

[rucky]

15. Great Catch! This is so obvious.

Past: This home 32301 Tallahassee Leon FL US
30 days 21% 1.3% 1.5% 1.5% 1.4% -1.6%
1 year 76% 15% 16% 16% 31% 16%
5 years 307% 90% 80% 80% 145% 86%

[mountebank]

16. I wonder if she fudged the sell dates to make the prices seem

more reasonable.... This is essentially what Duke Cunningham did. But Zillow seems to have the correct sell date for Duke's house.

[rucky]

17. 300% above market value is not "reasonable"

any way you slice it.

She could've been happy with the 90% increase like everybody else.

[mountebank]

18. Right - but the original article in the Tallahassee Democrat puts

the buy and sell dates at 1999 and 2006. That would put the prices much more in line with the estimated values for those dates.

[mountebank]

20. Update: Just realized that the article in the Tallahassee Democrat is

from 2005, so the sell date on Zillow is accurate (the house was still sold far above market value). What is really curious is the discrepancy in the buy date and price. According to the article, it was bought in 1999 for $269K. Zillow has a buy date of 2004 for $235K, far below market value.

[slaveplanet]

21. interesting figures

1 week change: $157,197 , 99% of homes in the 32301 ZIP code have a value lower than this home.

Sale History 04/18/2005: $768,000
06/25/2004: $235,000


2004 Property Tax $6,296
Total assessed value: = $285,062
Assessed value bldgs: $189,062
Assessed value land: + $96,000

Residence: Single family
Bedrooms: --
Baths: --
Total rooms: --
# Stories: --
Sq ft: 4,792
Lot size: sq ft / acres
Year built: 1936
Heating: --
Cooling: --
Construction quality: 0
Parcel #: 3106300030010
County: Leon
Zillow Home ID: 45619293
Legal description: COUNTRY CLUB ESTATES LOTS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 & 8 BLOCK 3 OR 332/193 596/15 2220/1199