My guess is that it was a spec house that he built with the intent to sell it before the payments jumped, but he wasn't able to do it for whatever reason. Redf

My guess is that it was a spec house that he built with the intent to sell it before the payments jumped, but he wasn't able to do it for whatever reason. Redfin says property values in Longmeadow, MA are down 8.6% this year. You can certainly make money in real estate, but you need to plan for what happens if the music stops and you're the one without a chair. A 9,000 ft^2 house with an indoor basketball court makes it pretty clear he's not the average 79-year-old retiree.