Hey, I must defend this neighborhood of modest homes, which now look ever-more-modest in this super-sized era of McMansions. I live in an 1100-SF home, and think about the horror of having to clean a home twice as big! Small sizes mean you got more neighbors out walking around; too many modern neighborhoods sprawl too much for the old walk-to-the-store to be enjoyable (or even possible). And don’t get me going on the modern “snout” garage look… yuck yuck yuck.

(Also, it does give one discipline about not collecting too much “stuff”… including kids! The previous owners had one kid, and had to move when #2 approached…)

As for what these homes are worth (other than what someone will pay for them! ;-), if you assume a conservative 1% appreciation over inflation to be the “natural” rate of growth, then 4%/year of 200K since 2000 would be (7x$8K) and the “true” value around $256K. Assume 2% appreciation and you get $270K. (That’s assuming 2000 was a neutral year price-wise.) I doubt it will get that low, but heck, who knows. I certainly think it will drop below $400K; with a bit more meltdown, perhaps even to $300-350K.