What Could I Buy With Barry Bond’s Record Breaking Home Run Ball?
San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds is only two home runs away from tying Hank Aaron’s career home run title. As fans file into a sold out AT&T Park tonight in hopes of witnessing the blast, I thought it would be interesting to see what I could buy if I caught the record breaking ball and sold it.
It is has been estimated that the record breaking ball could fetch as much as one million dollars at auction if Barry wasn’t linked to a steriod scandal. Currently, most memorabilia experts expect the ball to sell for closer to $500,000. Still a huge amount for a baseball, but far less than it could have if not for the scandal. So I have a cool 500k burning in my pocket. What can I buy?
Since I love real estate and I love where I live, I want to invest in another piece of real estate. Given that the average sales price for a single family home (in June) in Los Altos was $1,851,840., I could use the 500K as my down payment. The only problem is I would need to come up with an additional $11,000 per month (for 30 years) to cover the mortgage, taxes and insurance. Since there are only 44 homes available (in June) and the average time a home is on the market in Los Altos is 33 days, I may need to act quickly. Maybe I shouldn’t be quite as aggressive and buy a condo or townhome in Los Altos?
Given that the average sales price for a condo/townhome (in June) in Los Altos was $1,155,000., I could use the 500k as the down payment and have a reasonable monthly payment covering my mortgage, taxes and insurance of $5,500 (for 30 years). Since there were only 17 available and they sell on average within 16 days (in June), I will have to act quickly. Unfortunately, neither option has me really fired up. I guess I’ll have to turn the game on and continue to dream about what could have been. And for the fan who eventually gets the ball, I only hope that Barry’s record breaking home run ball appreciates as well as our local real estate has.
Its hit high, its hit deep, its in McCovey Cove, another splash hit……
