Sunday, August 7, 2011

Brett Favre’s House


Former Packers quarterback Brett Favre's home at 2085 Shady Lane in Ashwaubenon on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008. The home is for sale. Corey Wilson/Press-Gazette

Former Packers quarterback Brett Favre's home. Corey Wilson/Press-Gazette

A story in the print edition ofSports Illustrated on the sale of Brett Favre’s house in Green Bay captured my attention. I can’t find it online but it appears to have taken its cue from an October 2piece in the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

There’s no “for sale” sign in front of the ranch-style home at 2085 Shady Lane, at the corner of Shady Lane and Morris Avenue, but it’s listed by local real estate agency Micoley and Company for $475,000. The nearly 3,000-square-foot home includes four bedrooms and three baths, according to Micoley’s Web site.

Brown County land records indicate the home’s value at $424,900.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/brett_favres_house/

Presumably, there’s a Brett Favre markup. The SI writer makes light of it, noting that it would be great for tailgate parties, shooting Wrangler jeans ads, and so forth.

What caught my attention, though, was the price. Not so long ago, living in small town Alabama, I would have thought, “Wow! Nearly half a mil! Must be sweet to be an NFL quarterback.” Now, living in the D.C. metro area, my reaction was “Geez, you can’t even get a condo for that!”

Inside Brett Favre's Green Bay home

Inside Brett Favre's Green Bay home

Judging by the photos and description, this is a nice house but one befitting a middle class family, not a multimillionaire. Let’s just say it’s not going to be on MTV Cribs.

Still, a house like that in D.C.’s Cleveland Park neighborhood would easily go for $2.5 million even in today’s depressed housing market. It’d go for over $2 mil in Alexandria, Falls Church, Bethesda, McClain, or any of the other desirable near-in suburbs, too. You’d have to go well past the exurbs, maybe into West Virginia, to buy a single family home even remotely comparable for $495,000.

This, by the way, is one of the key reasons why setting some arbitrary figure, say $250,000, and saying that a family that makes that much a year is “rich” doesn’t make sense. That’s a great living in Green Bay or Birmingham or even Dallas. In Washington or Boston or L.A., though, it’s just middle class money. If you live in Manhattan, it’ll get you a nice apartment.

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