Okay, you've never sold a house. Your relatively narrow view makes
more sense now.

What I want to know is why you think that someone with a purple
house five doors down is somehow lowering the property value of your
house. Hell, I can't even tell you what color the house five doors
down is off the top of my head.

What you're missing is that it's not about you. It's not about the
outlier datapoints. It's about what potential buyers as a whole will
think. And folks have a funny way of making up their own minds about
what sorts of things will turn them off of a given property, even if
they are two otherwise identical houses/neighborhoods.

And what's to prevent that purple house (with, say 2 families living
it with 5 cars, and an RV, and a boat in the driveway, from being next
door vs 5 houses away)? Absent municipal restrictions on exterior
paint (which seldom exist), and absent HOA covenants narrowing the
field to something approved by some sort of body, the answer is:
nothing.

Here are some purple houses:
http://members.aol.com/readheadedleague/new_page_1.htm
What's the big deal?

Gotta admit, it almost works for a Victorian in San Fran.

Now, try it with recent construction in the $400k range in the midwest
and see how many showings you get for the house next door, and what
the buyer feedback will be after the showing. If "I wonder if that
potential new neighbor is a wack job" isn't on their honest list of
ponderings, you'll have a lot of surprised experienced sellers here.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Yes, quite evident that he hasn't tried to sell a house in the midst of
slovenly neighbors. Your view doesn't change until you get hit in the
wallet but then again he's trying to impress us that he lives in an area
where the houses are a million plus. I assume people living in houses 'a
million plus' don't park cars on the lawn or paint their houses purple so he
can be very benevolent of his neighbors.