Appraising a ‘Monet’

Phoenix Valuations Appraises the David and Gladys Wright House in Phoenix, Arizona

We had the opportunity to appraise the David and Gladys Wright House located in the Arcadia neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona a few years back. The home was built by the iconic American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and it was the last home he built for his son David and daughter-in-law Gladys. The home is regarded as “one of Wright’s most innovative and unusual works of architecture.”

According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Wright himself titled this home plan as “How to Live in the Southwest.” The house sits at the base of Camelback Mountain with its spiral designs, raised on columns that provide a gorgeous view of the property. The home is custom-designed with unique concrete-block details on the exterior and interior space and has a central courtyard with a plunge pool and shaded garden. 

Frank Lloyd Wright is most famously known for the famous Fallingwater residence located in the mountains of Southwestern Pennsylvania that perfectly blends together nature and art. Wright took architecture to a whole new level by incorporating open floor plans and nature into homes, designing 1,114 architectural works of all types throughout the mid-1900s.

Photo of Frank Lloyd Wright. Source: Getty Images

We were honored to work on this project and help determine the estate value with the goal of finalizing the designation for the national registry as a historic landmark. But how do you establish the value of an iconic architectural home? It’s like appraising a Monet. The easy part was understanding the land value, and the real challenge was understanding what the house was itself was worth. We had to establish the property value by identifying the other architecturally renowned properties with similar designs and cache. The information on luxury and unique real estate properties is not often publicly available because many of these transactions remain private. So, we turned to our strong network of luxury and unique real estate agents to compare the nuances of unique, renown estates.

In 2022, the home became a part of the National Registry and we’re proud to have been a part of that process. For our team, the appraisal process highlighted the importance of knowing the dynamics of the luxury real estate market - because it is its own market- and having the right networks with real estate agents in the industry.