Brady Bunch Bargain: Groovy House Sells For Below Asking Price — Why Is It Bucking Market Trends?

Here's a story about a lovely house that no one will live in.

The mid-century, ranch-style home featured on the 1970s sitcom "The Brady Bunch" was listed for $5.5 million and sold on Sept. 11 for $3.2 million to a fan who doesn't plan to live there.

Tina Trahan, whose husband is former television executive Chris Albrecht, told The Wall Street Journal that she plans to use the home for charity and fundraising events.

"Nobody is going to live in it," Trahan told the WSJ. "No one is going in there to make pork chops and applesauce in that kitchen. Anything you might do to make the house livable would take away from what I consider artwork."

While Trahan may believe the house is not suitable for living, HGTV paid $3.5 million for it in 2018 and spent $1.9 million renovating it during "A Very Brady Renovation." Designers added a second story and more than doubled the size of the house from 2,500 square feet to 5,500 square feet. It has five bedrooms and five bathrooms.

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Only shots of the home's exterior aired on TV. The show was filmed on a soundstage. HGTV  rebuilt the house's interior to look like the house where the lovely lady and the man named Brady brought up their blended family.

While Trahan seemingly got a deal for the property, buying homes below their listing price is contrary to scenes playing out in real estate markets across the country where high home prices and mortgage rates and limited inventory are cited as barriers to purchasing a home.

In August, there were 1.5 million homes for sale in the U.S., down 18.6% year over year, according to Redfin. The number of newly listed homes was 536,703, down 13.3% year over year.

The median existing-home sales price rose 1.9% from a year ago to $406,700 — the fourth time the monthly median sales price surpassed $400,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.

"Homebuyers face the most difficult affordability conditions in nearly 40 years due to limited inventory and rising mortgage interest rates," said Jessica Lautz, NAR's deputy chief economist and vice president of research. "The impact is exacerbated among first-time buyers who are more likely to be from underrepresented segments of the population."

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