Reduced by two million in April, the asking price for the “Eight Palms” wine country estate at 347 South Crane Avenue in St. Helena has just been reduced another $800k (9.4 percent) to $7.7 million.
Purchased by the CEO of Restoration Hardware, Gary Friedman, for $5.9 million in 2013, the property was subsequently remodeled over the course of two years by the company’s design team and returned to the market last year, positioned as the first fully furnished “RH Residence” and priced at $10.5 million.
And once again, according to Friedman, the offering, which includes a 5,140-square-foot main home and a 630-square-foot guest house, was driven by a feeling that there was “a void in the market for fully designed and integrated homes that deliver the one thing that none of us can currently buy, time.”
These top notch properties trade more like art work than real estate. You have a very small number of ultra affluent buyers that can afford to be guided more by fashions than fundamentals. It is not surprising that price volatility is very high in this segment. Therefore, it would be silly to infer from this any broader meaning for the real estate market.
The palm trees practically scream “St. Helena!”
The house screams, “What a waste of RH shareholder money!”
I’m impressed with the fact that this house can accelerate to relativistic speeds, thereby delivering more time (relative to your unaccelerated neighbors, of course). Must be some freaky foundation work.
I just wrote a list price offer.
Well, list price including the 30% off discount off any-one-item that I got in my e-mail over the weekend. It’ll probably work.
I’m with Tahoe Kid. When this house ultimately does sell, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the capital loss manages to get buried somewhere on the RH balance sheet.
No one will buy this property because it’s filled with RH stuff. Whoever buys the property will toss out all the RH and redo the whole place. As much as RH wants to think it’s high end, it really isn’t considered high end by people buying these kinds of properties.
[Editor’s Note: That being said, it’s currently in contract.]
UPDATE: Restoration Hardware Residence Finally Fetches $7.55 Million