Three or four stories about real estate and inflation:

In 1967 Jim Hunt bought a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house in Boise for $16,500.  He was unmarried.  He used one bedroom, and leased out the other two to fellow pilots which helped him make the difficult house payments.

He has kept the house all these years, and currently (2018) leases it to the Church for missionaries to live in.  He’s tired of caring for the lawn, and told his accountant that he has decided to sell it.

“You can’t,” the accountant said.

“Well, I can, too,” Jim replied.  “I’m the owner.”

“You can’t sell it,” the accountant repeated.  “You purchased it for $16,500.  It’s now worth between $160,000-$200,000.  If you subtract $16,500 from that, and then multiply by 35%, that’s how much you’ll pay the federal government in taxes.  If you hang onto it until you die, your kids will get it, and neither of you will have to pay a cent.”

Lawny Hunt moved to Spring City, Utah 19 years ago and became a real estate agent.  She sold a fixer-upper to a couple for $63,000.  Recently the couple returned to her and told her that it was time for them to upgrade into a better home, and that they’d like to resell the house.  They had fixed the foundation and made a few minor improvements, but it was still much the same house.

It sold for $285,000.

In about 1934 Dave and Zelma Hunt purchased their home at 801 2nd St., or 2220 Ohio, in Baker.  It was a run-down place.  Dave went to his father to ask for a loan for the purchase price of $900.  His father just looked at him and didn’t reply.  He obviously didn’t approve.

So Dave went to Bishop Eardley.  Bishop Eardley didn’t hesitate.  “Why, sure, Dave,” he said, and gave him the money.  Dave’s father was mad when he found that someone other than he had lent Dave the money.

Dave went to work on the neglected house and lot.  Each year he sheetrocked and renovated another room.  He leveled the large lot behind the house, and made a nice lawn.  He lowered the 10-foot ceiling in the kitchen.  He made it into a very nice, comfortable 2-story, 4-bedroom home.

Dave and Zelma got married during the Depression.  Everyone gave them salt and pepper shakers as wedding gifts.  They put them in the very top cupboards in that 10-foot-tall kitchen.  When Dave lowered the ceiling, he left the salt and pepper shakers in the cupboards.  They’re still there above the lowered ceiling.  Don Hunt thinks there are some dishes there, too.

Many years later Zelma wanted a new couch.  Dave wouldn’t buy it.—His reasoning?

“I’ll be darned if I’ll pay more for a couch than I did for this house,” he declared.

(Zelma got her couch, though.  Granddaughter, Marianne, gifted her a new one).

After Dave and Zelma both died, as executor of their estate, I sold the home to their granddaughter, Sandy.  That was nearly 20 years ago.  Sandy was single and needed help.  I made her a great deal, and sold the home for less than it was worth.  She paid $30,000.  It has since sold again at least two times, and I’m sure for much, much more.

In 1973 I graduated from BYU, and came home to become part of the ranch corporation with my father and brother, and to take my mother up on her offer to sell us the North 40, across the road from our house.  We paid her $16,000 for the 40 acres.  Several years ago we sold that 40 acres to Adam for $100,000, and he built his house there.

In 1948 Dad purchased the 60 acres below our house from the Richmond estate for $12,000.  He paid $200 per acre.  His neighbors said he was crazy for paying that much because there was no way that he’d ever be able to make the place pay for itself.

Mom’s bachelor brother, Andy McCornack, decided that he’d like to become a farmer.  He bought the 120 acres that my house sits on.  He decided after a couple of years that farming was not what he wanted to do, and sold the 120 acres with an old house on it to Dad for $13,500.  That was in 1951.

In 1949 Dad bought the Mountain Place for $5,000, and the 80 acres of timber above it for $1,600.

The total of those four purchases was $32,100.

At the time that the purchases were made, I was a boy living with my family in the house down the hill that we now call “the Semingson Place.”  In 1959 Mom and Dad sold the 80 acres that is the  Semingson Place, and moved into Andy’s old house that used to sit in the field above our present house.  What our kids remember as “the yellow shed” was the woodhouse and cellar for that house.

We lived in the old yellow house for three years.  In the summer of 1962, when I was 15 years old, Dad, Tim, and I built the house that we currently live in.  Dad was the general contractor.  Tim was the one who layed the blocks.  I followed behind him and struck down (made the grooves) in the mortar between the blocks.  In the fall of the year I moved my bed, desk, and chest of drawers into the unfinished house, and began sleeping there.  The inside walls were just studs when I moved in.

In 1973, when we returned from BYU, we became part of the ranch corporation.  It was not a good arrangement.  The corporation was dissolved in 1976, and the property, cattle, and equipment were divided between us.  Marjorie and I purchased this house for $18,000, and the rest of the place for $100,000.

When we moved in, the floors were bare concrete, and the blocks showed in every room.  It was a cold, uninviting house.  Like Dave Hunt, I renovated one room per year.  I put furring strips on the walls and sheetrocked them.  We put carpet down, insulated, changed the roof from asphalt shingles to metal, and built on an addition in 1984.  We changed all the windows to thermalpane, and added propane heat.  This $18,000 house and its 2-plus acres is now probably worth $250,000 on today’s market.

On 1 March 2008 we signed a contract with Brent Kerns to sell the farm for $876,000.  The place was debt-free, so we carried the contract, with Brent making annual payments.  Before signing, I warned Brent that I fully expected that we’d be getting the place back again.  For the past 2-3 years we’ve been in the process of taking the place back, and of renegotiating an agreement wherein Adam will buy the Richmond 60 acres, and Andy’s 120.  Brent will buy the Mountain Place and the 80 acres of timber above it.