After two years on the market amid interest rate hikes, city officials remain hopeful Kelley house will sell

MITCHELL — It’s been a little over two years since the city of Mitchell listed the former Kelley house on the market, and the multimillion-dollar home has yet to attract a buyer.

The home remains on the market at a price tag of $2.4 million. Mitchell Mayor Bob Everson said there has been “quite a bit of strong interest” in the property over the past few months, but another price drop could be on the horizon, he added.

“We’ve had quite a few people tour it in the last several months,” Everson said.

When the city listed the 10,095-square-foot house for sale in 2020, the price tag was $3.5 million. Since then, the city has reduced the price of the home twice, with the latest price drop bringing the cost down to $2.4 million.

In the first month, the first offer came in for the home. Everson said the offer was a little over $1 million , which was under half of the price tag at the time the offer came in. Ultimately, the city declined the offer in 2020.

The listing of the house includes about 8 acres of land surrounding the property and a large multipurpose shed that sits to the east of the home. There is also a retractable roof and a large fish pond near the gated entrance.

As interest rates continue to rise, selling the home could become more challenging. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.4% in early May, marking the largest rate hike since 2000.

The rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was sitting at 5.2%, as of June 2. Despite the rising interest rates, Everson said city officials are hopeful the house will still sell.

The property and home came with the city’s $4.1 million purchase of 371 acres of land that sits along Firesteel Creek, which will soon be the area where the city constructs a 30-acre wetland with the goal of improving the water quality of Lake Mitchell. The city was not seeking to buy the home in 2019, but the previous owner stipulated that the 371 acres of land for the city’s wetland could only be purchased with the home included.

“We bought it for the purpose of building the wetland to help filter out the phosphorus and sediment coming into the lake from Firesteel Creek, so all the profit from the sale will be used to keep advancing progress on improving the lake,” Everson said in a January interview with the Mitchell Republic.

The three-bedroom home is listed with Stratton Havlik, a local realtor with Exit Realty.