Archive for March, 2008
March 31, 2008
A little after a month on the market, the sellers of 1806 Coro, a mid-century upper Rossmoyne ranch, have made a rather necessary adjustment in price, shedding 16% off asking. It may need work yet, as there are no shortage of competing mid-$400/sq.ft neighborhood offerings stacked against its $555/sq.ft.
A short flight east to Arcadia, where 1147 Volante has recently taken a $274,000 price-cut– a sum just shy of what was last paid for the property in 1988. The listing describes what seems to be a bit of a fixer, with words like “blank canvas” and “options” tipping about sans interior photos. On the western edge of “Peacock Village” (a nice community profile here), the seller has just gotten a whole lot more motivated.
GLENDALE
1806 Coro TER
Old price: $1,195,000
Reduced to: $999,000 (16.4% reduction)
Beds: 3 / Baths: 4
SQ.FT.: 1,800
1833 Kirkby RD
Old price: $349,000
Reduced to: $299,000 (14.3% reduction)
Beds: 1 / Baths: 1
SQ.FT.: -
PASADENA
1700 Whitefield RD
Old price: $1,039,000
Reduced to: $895,000 (13.9% reduction)
Beds: 6 / Baths: 2
SQ.FT.: 3,004
70 N Craig AVE
Old price: $898,000
Reduced to: $788,000 (12.2% reduction)
Beds: 3 / Baths: 2
SQ.FT.: 2,204
ARCADIA
1147 Volante DR
Old price: $1,249,000
Reduced to: $975,000 (21.9% reduction)
Beds: 3 / Baths: 1.75
SQ.FT.: 2,436
March 31, 2008
While our government is figuring out how to save the American financial system from complete collapse, the two top executives at Countrywide Financial — you know, the company that bankrupted itself on subprime mortgages and is being bought by Bank of America — are getting $19 million in stock next week. And that’s not the end of it: The Los Angeles Times reports that these payments are among a series of windfalls that Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and President David Sanbol are scheduled to get because of the B of A takeover.
How is it possible that these overpaid executives will be allowed to get even MORE money, even as the government is swooping in with billions in loan guarantees to save reckless financial institutions such as Bear Stearns? All this while the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Mozilo for dumping $140 million in Countrywide stock while the company was tanking?
I think my taxpayer dollars would be better spent going after people like Mozilo who profited from irresponsible lending. Who’s with me?
If you believe our government should not bail out the folks who rolled the dice on the housing market and lost, you’re not alone. A new Web site, Stopthemortgagebailout.com, shows you what you can do to let members of Congress know how you feel, including writing to your congressperson and signing a petition.
Here’s the site’s list of reasons a bailout is fiscally irresponsible:
A bailout props up over-inflated housing prices, thereby putting homeownership out of reach for young families and responsible Americans who realized that housing prices were out of control. The housing market needs the correction that the bailout seeks to prevent because houses are not affordable for the average American. “You cannot be both in favor of affordable housing and in favor of propping up home prices!”
A bailout creates perverse incentives. Rather than punishing their behavior, it encourages fiscal irresponsibility among bankers, brokers, speculators, and refinancers. Why change your behavior when you benefit from it?
A bailout shifts the risks of falling market prices from financially secure banks to the American taxpayer. As a result, either taxes or the federal deficit will skyrocket! This is a government handout to the super-wealthy, and it is wrong!
A bailout is contrary to the free market principles upon which our economy is based. It jams a huge wrench into the works, with negative effects that will be both severe and long-term.
Amen!
Recent Redfin posts:
Next Stop, Crown City
Angelino Heights: History with a Price
March 31, 2008
This new listing at 501 N. Curson Ave., Los Angeles, is a big, beautiful, remodeled home. It has five bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, a cook’s kitchen, and more. But, with an asking price of $1,495,000, will it sell?
Similarly, up the street at 546 N. Curson is a huge, brand-new five-bedroom, 5.5-bath home that’s still under construction — has been for more than a year.
Single-family home sales in this neighborhood — bounded by Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax , Melrose and La Brea avenues — have been soft for several months. Condos and multifamily units are selling, but single-family home sales have been virtually nonexistent.
Other than multifamily units, sales in the area have been almost exclusively under a million dollars. One lucky buyer snapped up a bank-owned duplex, with two 1,100-foot 2+1 units, at 622 N. Vista Street for $873,325. The property had sold for $1,010,000 in October 2006. By comparison, a 2+1 house at 507 N. Martel sold in January for $899,500.
Maybe the buying public is trying to send this neighborhood a message that prices need to come down. After all, this is the same neighborhood that brought you the two-bedroom, one-bath home for $1.2 million.
March 31, 2008
Penthouse living was the topic of the lead article in Sunday’s L.A. Times in case you missed it. It seems the international jetset (the type that shop for homes in “Paris, Rome and L.A.,” according to the piece) have discovered urban loft living. The piece highlighted a few for-sale spots, including the $4.9 million dollar Water Tower at the Biscuit Company Lofts, The Cornell at Santee Village (turn down your volume before you head to this site, unless you’re in the mood for some clubbing action at your desk) for $1.317 million, a $3.9 million dollar abode at Evo on Grand Avenue that boasts a wraparound balcony, and penthouses on the 22nd floor of the Solair building on Wilshire that go for $2-2.5 million. Some of these aren’t in the MLS listings, so the best you can do is the main website.
The penthouses at the Eastern Columbia (where Johnny Depp bought for $2.1 million) got left out of the article, but if you’re going to spend that kind of money, I’d at least check out this $1.550 million dollar spot that seems like a bargain after these other listings! And then there is this 3-level loft in the Roosevelt that has direct pool access—listed for 100 days for the very exacting price of $2,056,701. Apparently, ever dollar matters to this developer.
But for something really different downtown, check out this amazing single family residence for $2.3 million—the indoor parking arrangement is especially unusual.
March 31, 2008
Apparently, that’s what the Southern California Multiple Listing Service (SoCalMLS) thinks when it comes to publishing the DOM or “Days on the Market”. Of course, if you’re an agent, you have access to this information. However, if you’re a buyer, you won’t be seeing them in your client reports.
Here’s how the DOM works. A seller may contract with an agent to list the property for a specified length of time - say 90 days. When those 90 days are up, the DOM will reset to zero once the seller renews the contract. So they have something called CDOM or “Cumulative Days on the Market” to give an accurate picture of exactly how long a home has been sitting on the market. Incidentally, the SoCalMLS decided to remove its CDOM figures as well. A Daily Breeze article that came out last week reports more details.
The “Days on Market” category is no longer included in reports that real estate agents share with clients, who can use the information as a negotiating tool. Directors of SoCalMLS - which is the Southern California Multiple Listing Service - made the decision last summer to exclude that data.
“With the changing market, there has been much discussion, contention and even litigation over Days on Market and Cumulative Days on Market figures,” a statement on the group’s Web site says. “One view is that it hurts sellers; another is that it helps buyers.
“To that end, the SoCalMLS (directors), after getting input from MLS committees and other practitioners, have decided to remove the DOM and CDOM fields from all client reports.”
The reasoning cites that agents are better equipped to explain what the true DOM means to the client. That’s kind of interesting. I don’t know about you all, but tell me what DOM and CDOM stand for and I can pretty much figure it out for myself what that means in terms of how long that house has been on the market and what that means in a real estate transaction. What do you all think?
If you want to read the full article, click here.
March 28, 2008
I’m a sucker for a double parlor. Give me a nice set of pocket doors into the front receiving rooms, and I’m ready to turn on my Tivo’ed version of Sense and Sensibility and make myself at home.
Which is one of the reasons I love Angelino Heights, the enclave of Victorian mansions between Echo Park and downtown. We’re talking 6 bedroom, carriage house-out-back types of places for those of you unfamiliar with the area. Of course, it comes at a price—the cash kind and the lifestyle kind. Listings here often top a million dollars, and this isn’t a 90210 kind of place. In fact, it’s probably got closer ties to Skid Row than Rodeo Drive.
Angelino Heights is really no more than a few streets surrounded by, shall we say, lesser homes. Forget about your Whole Foods. In fact, I’m not sure there’s even a Ralph’s nearby. But then again, you get to tell guests just to look for you in the “main house” when they arrive. And most homes get a huge property tax break since they are in a historic district.
Here are a couple of really beautiful places currently up for grabs:
The Beaudry House: A house with it’s own name! It’s also known as Cultural Historic Monument #174. Tell me that won’t impress the inlaws. All 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths yours for only $1.75 million.
1442 Kellam: This 4,000-square-foot spot has been on the market for 204 days, so the $1.399 million price tag may be negotiable. It started out at $1.499
1417 Kellam: AKA Historic Cultural Monument #166, this place has a pool! You know how those Victorian’s loved their pools. Call this a modern Craftsman—everything has been redone, including the guest house. $1.595 million, on the market for 141 days.
FYI: Because Angelino Heights is such a small area, comps are hard to come by—you can’t go by zip code or even surrounding streets, since it’s an apples-to-oranges problem.
March 28, 2008
It’s a sort of a tailor-made human interest story born of the housing crash: buses of of cheerful folk looking for a slice of the American Dream off the backs of those who are living the nightmare. It’s no wonder that the likes of “60 Minutes”, “Nightline” and CNN have all helped to propelled Stockton realtor Cesar Dias and his “RepoHomeTour” concept to national attention.
From the foreclosure capital to our backyard– LTV Real Estate of Pasadena has franchised Dias’ repo tour concept, becoming the first in Los Angeles county to adopt in earnest. (Dias’ goals of franchise-ation touched upon previously here on Sweet Digs in “All Aboard the Foreclosure Bus!“) A $20,000 fee buys the franchisees “a logo-wrapped used bus, training and marketing materials and a Web site“, reports Melissa Pamer in this Pasadena Star piece, a fascinating chronicle of the tours which have already begun charting caravans of deal-seekers and speculators around the San Gabriel Valley.
The bus-tour concept, Dias said, is “kind of the darling of real estate right now.”
But he also noted he’s been called an opportunistic “vulture” for taking advantage of people losing their homes.
“If we weren’t doing this, this market would still be in doom and gloom,” Dias said. “This is business. We have to survive either way.”
Back in Pasadena, LTV CEO Cesar Haro is forecasting declines in this area will mirror those which have befallen upon Stockton, and that it will be “happening in two to three months.” No one expects the wheels of the proverbial foreclosure bus to stop spinning anytime soon, but does anyone out there heartedly agree with Haro’s prognostication?
March 28, 2008
How ’bout them condominiums? Are they still selling? Yes, they are. I did an inventory count and there are five properties that sold in the last three months - everything from a one-bedroom, one-bathroom to a two-bedroom, three-bathroom property. Currently, the Playa del Rey condos are on the market for an average of 66 days. That’s not too bad, considering the current housing situation. There are currently 22 condos for sale. Three of these babies are parked right by the beach and in the million-dollar plus range.
Let’s look at an example of something more affordable. 8512 Tuscany Ave., #214 sold in mid-January of this year for $505,000. A little ways back, #212 sold in the same building for $505,000 also, in case you want something to compare to. Let’s see how the owners of #214 fared. They first listed the two-bedroom, two-bath place in mid-November for $519,000. The square footage is 1,140 for both #212 and #214, by the way. Yippee-skippee for the owners of #214. They didn’t have to drop the price at all (they priced it fairly well) because along came a buyer in early December to snatch it off the market. Yep. Pricing is key. And judging by the photo they had of the interior, the owners had taken the time to clean up the place and put it in good move-in condition.
March 28, 2008
It sounds more like our national debt, doesn’t it? In a way, it is. Americans owe a total of $1.1 trillion — with a T — on home-equity loans, home equity lines of credit and second (and third) mortgages, reports The New York Times. Scary, huh?
What’s even scarier, for lenders, anyway, is that some of that $1.1 trillion might never get paid back.
To get it, many lenders are taking the extraordinary step of preventing some people from selling their homes or refinancing their mortgages unless they pay off all or part of their home equity loans first. In the past, when home prices were not falling, lenders did not resort to these measures. Such tactics are impeding efforts by policy makers to help struggling homeowners get easier terms on their mortgages and stem the rising tide of foreclosures.
When a house is sold, the holder of the primary mortgage must be paid off first. These days, with so many folks upside-down, there’s sometimes little left over to pay the secondary loans. So the holders of the secondary loans are digging in their heels.
Lenders and investors who hold home equity loans are not giving up easily, however. Instead, they are opposing short sales. And some banks holding second liens are also opposing refinancings for first mortgages, a little-used power they have under the law, in an effort to force borrowers to pay down their loans.
Combine this with the fact that sellers don’t want to budge on price, and you can see why housing slumps tend to drag on and on. Once someone blinks and the dam breaks, and the prices of REOs become the comps in the market, we’ll start to see real recovery.
Recent Redfin posts:
Down in Reseda
A Look at Mondrian Homes in Playa Vista
A Few of Your Favorite Clicks
March 28, 2008
Almost fifteen years ago I was on the short end of a short sale on a bungalow I owned in North Hollywood following the 1994 Northridge earthquake that seemed to shake L.A.’s confidence even more than it shook the pavement. The housing cycle was entering a long, long downturn that left me, along with thousands of other local homeowners, upside-down in a drydocked version of The Poseidon Adventure.
My lender, GE Capital, eventually got the point that prices were not poised to head back up, and they agreed - after I 
strategically missed a few mortgage payments - to accept an offer lower than the amount I still owed them - considerably lower. I found a buyer, and the deal was done.
But I still needed a roof over my head, so I became an apartment dweller for a time. Then, I heard of a new business called America’s Home Tenders in Glendale that was seeking people to move into vacant properties and become, basically, housesitters. The homes were actively listed for sale, but the market was glacial, all but frozen, and inventory swollen. Many homes sat for months, even years, before finding buyers. The owners were sellers who had divorced, or taken new jobs across the country, or bought new homes, and now had the vestiges of their past lives to deal with. Home Managers, as we were called, brought our furniture with us, because homes do “show” better when furnished. We tended the gardens and lawns, kept up maintenance, made our beds daily and washed and stacked the dishes in the cupboard, not the kitchen sink - all for the sake of “presentation.” In return, we paid steeply discounted rents and the opportunity to live in a succession of spacious and attractive homes that most of us would never have had the opportunity to occupy otherwise. The downside: we had to be prepared to take phone calls and receive visits from realtors and their clients at a moment’s notice. In the event the home was sold, we were contractually obligated to move out on 45 days’ notice. It does take a certain personality; not everyone is temperamentally suited to be a “home manager.”
I enjoyed living in sprawling homes from Sierra Madre to Malibu, Marina del Rey to the Hollywood Hills, many with views, pools and other fabulous features. One post lasted nearly a year until it was sold. But with each move to a new venue, the tenancy tended to become briefer. As the housing market improved, homes took less time to sell. I learned to unpack only the essentials. I moved some eight times over the course of two-and-a-half years in the mid-nineties.
The adventure grew tiresome, and fewer properties were available. It came time to abandon the itinerant lifestyle. Eventually (in the next millenium) I became a homeowner again. With the housing cycle on the upswing again, and homes selling briskly, America’s Home Tenders exited the business of on-site home management. My days as a home tender, and the business itself, became a faded memory.
Until I came across the website of a company called Showhomes, which franchises the concept of home management and home staging services across the nation, with two locations in California. One of them, based in Orange County, also services and represents homes in L.A. and the San Fernando Valley. The owner, Beth George, shared her experiences and insights of 15 years with me in an interview for the Redfin blog. You can read about the Showhomes concept in the next post. It’s an idea whose time has come - once again.
