We're in the process of buying some lots in Oak Hill with a few other buyers but they don't like the name of the street and want the developer to have it changed. The street has a really great name--Sisquoc. The Chumash Indians from California say that Sisquoc means stopping place. There is a Sisquoc River in California. The other buyers are having a hard time saying and spelling it. Jeez, give me a break! The city is changing the name of the street to "San Lucas."

So this has gotten me into thinking of the different names of Austin's streets like those that have more adverse names than Sisquoc. Some streets in Shady Hollow which is a subdivision in South Austin have names such as "Gun Fight," "Ammunition," "Six Gun," "Shotgun," and "Shoot Out."

I asked Sylvia whether she'd get a house on a street that has a name like "Gun Fight" or "Shoot Out" and she answered "No way!" I wonder whether a left wing liberal would pass up his dream home if it was situated on "George W. Bush Blvd"? Will a vegan pass up a home on Brisket Lane? Will a staunch Christian Conservative not purchase a home on Devil's Cove? So can street names play a major role when planning on buying or selling a home? I made a decision to look further.

I performed an MLS search for homes in Shady Hollow that were sold since 2000 that are found on the aforementioned streets with gun-related names. As much as 71 homes were sold on those streets. In dollars, 179,677 is the average sales price at $98 per square foot. The next search was done without the homes built after 1993 because they were expensive to build. Six hundred six homes located on streets with less obvious western names were sold. In dollars, 225,713 is the average sales price at $103 per square foot. It appears that the homes with names that are politically incorrect don't sell for as much compared to other homes in the same area.

The interesting fact, however,is that the politically incorrect homes sold at an average of 37 days while the others took 50 days on the average to sell. This seems counterintuitive based on the price gap. One thousand eight hundred eleven square feet is the average size of the politically incorrect homes while 2144 square feet is the average for the other homes which clarifies for us the gap in prices. But homes with smaller lot size, more or less, sell for a higher per-square-foot price, and in this case they do not, which means something is out of balance.

This may not appear to be an exact science. Nevertheless, the buyer has to put into consideration the street name which may or may not have an effect on the home's marketability in the future.