Blog: Oldest Home in Pasadena For Sale

Over the years, clients and fellow Realtors have asked what premium does a historic or architecturally significant home bring in the Pasadena real estate open market place? The answer: it varies. There is no specific formula for quantifying in dollars the “intrinsic” value that can be attributed to a historic and/or architecturally significant property.

Market value in real estate is simply the price a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to accept for real property. Market value for single-family residential property is not a function of the income it generates (income capitalization approach) or the cost to re-built the structure (replacement cost approach). For a historic property it is often more difficult to determine the actual replacement cost due to quality of materials used and the craftsmanship, which is not available today.

The best method to value such properties is the sales comparison approach to value. The difficultly with this method of value is locating current market data for other historical or architectural significant homes – this information is more scarce. Often a wider geographic area must be searched to find comparable properties.

A common call from a client relates to a recent appraisal on their property typically for refinance or Estate purposes. More often than not the value is substantially less than the client had thought. Occasionally they are elated, as the value has come in substantially higher than anticipated.

What the client does not realize is that such appraisals do not represent the willing buyer/willing seller concept. Furthermore, the same property given to three different appraisers will most likely come back at three different values. The result of this conversation is educating the client on what market value truly means.

I often tell clients if they re-financing their home to call me for comparable sales data. This information will provide them with a clearer, more precise understanding of the true market value for their property and what they should anticipate as it relates to their re-fi appraisal.

Oldest Structure in Pasadena on the Market

New on the Pasadena real estate market this week is the historic Craig Adobe, circa 1869, also known as The Hermitage, the oldest standing structure in Pasadena. (Full disclosure: I represent the seller for this property.) This property was originally part of the Rancho San Pasqual, a 5000+ acre Mexican Land Grant before the birth of Pasadena. Evidence reveals that the Adobe may date back to the 1840s, before California was admitted as the 31st state.

In 1869, James Craig, a civil engineer from Ireland, developer, and citrus grower, purchased the house and adjoining 5000 acres of land. By 1880, Craig had modified the house and named his ranch “The Hermitage.” An east wing was added to the adobe as well living space above the original structure in a Victorian style. Over the next decade Craig developed and sold most of the land reserving for himself 150 acres of the eastern section of the land where he planted orange groves.

In the 1920s, the property was further subdivided and sold leaving The Hermitage on three 50-foot wide lots totaling just under a half acre in the residential NE area of Pasadena.

The Craig Adobe is being offered for sale at $1,450,000. An interesting fact is that, last year, a fee appraiser whose specialty is historic properties appraised the Craig Adobe at $2 million dollars. Although the current owners were elated with this value, it was an eye-opening conversation that this appraised value does not represent the value they would receive if the property were listed on the Pasadena real estate market for sale today.