Of the houses I posted this week to Hot Property, this sale by two-time Emmy-winning producer and writer Gary David Goldberg for $15.15 million caught my eye because it was the largest dollar value by far. But that's not the reason it might have captured my attention.
In Brentwood, the Paul Williams-designed 1942 traditional has eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms in 6,908 square feet. The two-story house, on about 3 acres with a swimming pool and pool house, is reached by a long driveway leading to a motor court and a three-car garage with chauffeur’s quarters, etc., etc. You get the idea.
An initial search of records showed the property had been listed in January at $19,995,000 -- a pretty quick sale in this price range. But some further sleuthing revealed that it originally came on the market at $23.9 million in July 2007.
Now that $15.15 million seems like a far tumble even in this market and reminded me of my own experience selling in 2002. I priced my home too high in late spring, it sat on the market until nearly the holidays and I ended up taking much less than I might have had I priced it more competitively from the get-go when the market was hotter.
I have no idea if that's what happened in this case, but I bet others can relate to my mistake. I know we frequently say in the comments here that asking price means nothing in relation to the final sales price -- that people can ask anything. But asking price does, sometimes, mean a lot.
Just a few additional photos. Hope you enjoy them Jake.
--Lauren Beale
Thoughts? Comments?
Photo: There are greenbelt views, seven fireplaces, a media room, sun room, library, wine cellar and a two-bedroom staff wing. Credit: Everett Fenton Gidley
 The flaxleaf paperbark -- Melaleuca linariifolia
More than 100 melaleucas originate in Australia. All have narrow or needle-like leaves, bottle-brush like flower clusters and woody seed capsules. Some have contorted branches and thick papery bark that peels off in layers. Most are easy to grow.
The flaxleaf paperbark tree, also called snow-in-summer for its sometimes abundant cover of white fluffy flower clusters, comes from Eastern Australia’s New South Wales and Southern Queensland, where it grows near watercourses or swamps. Melas (black) and leukos (white) refer to the appearance of black fire marks on a white trunk. Linariifolia means with leaves like the (snapdragon-like) toadflax. In naming, botanists refer to what they already know.
A quick-growing, small, dense tree to 30 feet tall by 20 feet wide and umbrellalike in shape, the flaxleaf has a soft and spongy bark that peels off in strips. Young branches are soft and slender. The 1½-inch bluish-green leaves feel stiff but look soft. Flowering can be profuse. The small, white, slightly perfumed flowers are followed by woody seed capsules. The tree takes drought and poor soil, but also periodic inundation. It makes a good screen and shade tree and has no obvious pests.
--Peter Severynen
Thoughts? Comments?
Photo: Peter Severynen
 Wounded American servicemen and women are enjoying a deluxe resort getaway this weekend thanks to brokers who gave up their own chance to celebrate.
Earlier this year, CB Richard Ellis canceled its annual junket to reward top producers at the commercial real estate brokerage. The company was taking a big financial hit in the moribund real estate market and many Americans were still fuming about insurance giant AIG hosting a spa retreat at an Orange County resort after receiving bail-out money from taxpayers. In that austere climate, CB officials decided that it would be imprudent to go forward with their planned event and decided instead to create a charity program.
Employees who would have attended the company-funded getaway at a premier beach and golf resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, selected 50 charities that would receive more that 200 certificates good for a three-night stay, $500 worth of food and beverages and two spa treatments at the Hilton Cabo San Lucas.
The Wounded Warrior Project, which helps severely wounded service members make the transition to civilian life, received 100 certificates that recipients are redeeming this weekend.
"Our company has been privileged with notable success over the years," said CB executive Chris Ludeman. "Out of this success, we are eager to give back to these vital organizations that do so much to serve our communities."
--Roger Vincent
Photo: Participants in the Wounded Warrior Project are entertained on the beach at Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Credit: CB Richard Ellis
An interesting take on the sluggish high-end market, over at the Manhattan Beach Confidential blog:
MBC calculated the TOTAL single-family home sales dollar volume for the first half of this year, and found it is down 24% from the same period last year, at $140 million. Compared to 2007, when the dollar value of single family homes was close to $276 million, the volume for the first half of this year is down 49%.
The median sale price for a Manhattan Beach house was down 22% from the same period last year, and sales volume was down 41%. This is the lockup that's freezing the high-end market. Homes are selling when prices are lowered well below peak levels (so far this year that seems to be about 22% lower than last year); but relatively few sellers are able or willing to cut their asking prices to those levels.
As MBC notes, the average days on market for Manhattan Beach is more than 100 days. Sellers are holding on to high asking prices, and buyers either refuse --or can't afford-- to pay those prices.
--Peter Y. Hong
As foreclosure moratoriums provided temporary respites to troubled borrowers earlier this year, two other kinds of home forfeiture -- short sales and deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure actions -- rose sharply.
In a mortgage study released last week, federal financial regulators reported a 176% jump in short sales and deed-in-lieu proceedings from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter this year.
Short sales and deed-in-lieu actions require borrowers to forfeit their homes to eradicate their mortgage debts, generally for less than the full amount due. Selling a home or handing it back to the bank in this manner does less damage to a borrower's credit rating than a foreclosure, and can be less of a hassle for the lender.
Year-over-year first-quarter short sales jumped from 5,523 to 17,036, according to the report from the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision, the U.S. Treasury Department agencies that oversee banks and S&Ls. Quarterly deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure actions edged up from 1,065 to 1,158.
Completed foreclosures still far outnumbered the alternate forfeitures. They totaled 78,936, up from 76,548 in the year-earlier quarter but far below the high of 126,266 in the third quarter last year. As noted here recently, foreclosure statistics are expected to spike again soon as federal, state, local and lender-imposed moratoriums expire.
The regulators said their report covered 64% of current home loans in the United States. They noted that most of the short sales involved borrowers with prime loans, not subprime or alt-A mortgages.
The news release here describes other findings by the regulators and provides a link to the full 42-page report.
-- E. Scott Reckard
The Los Feliz home of L.A. Police Chief William J. Bratton and his wife, Rikki Klieman, has come on the Multiple Listing Service at $1,875,000.
The one-story house, built in 1964, has four bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,716 square feet. Described as an "architectural hacienda," the private walled and gated home has a courtyard entry, city light views, outdoor entertainment areas and a swimming pool surrounded by mature trees and landscaping. Inside the updated post-and-beam house are vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors and a redone kitchen.
The couple purchased the Los Feliz home in early 2003 for $1,244,000.
They plan to buy another home in the L.A. area. Bratton said he doesn't use the pool and is ready to be done with its upkeep.
No photos, but there are a few more details at latimes.com.
--Lauren Beale
Thoughts? Comments?
Here are the homes getting the hits in online searches of L.A. County listings. Realtor.com ranked these as the top five most-searched-for listings countywide within 20% of the median list price of $420,000 for last week. When we ran this feature last month the median list price for the county was $409,000.
1. 1221 Oakridge Drive, Glendale 91205
Size: Four bedrooms, three bathrooms in 1,344 square feet
Listed for: $395,000
2. 6018 Amber Valley Drive, Whittier 90604
Size: Three bedrooms, two bathrooms in 1,249 square feet
Listed for: $350,000
3. 2060 Eleanore Drive, Glendale 91206
Size: Five bedrooms, three bathrooms in 1,534 square feet
Listed for: $447,000
4. 2711 Rustic Lane, Glendale 91208
Size: Three bedrooms, two bathrooms in 1,621 square feet
Listed for: $449,000
5. 10001 Westwanda Drive, Beverly Hills 90210
Size: One bedroom, one bathroom in 450 square feet
Listed for: $399,000
Two of the same properties, #3 and #5, were on the list that ran June 9 too.
--Lauren Beale
Thoughts? Comments?
Photo: The 1924 Mediterranean-style home at 1221 Oakridge Drive, Glendale, topped the list of L.A. County median-list price searches last week at Realtor.com. Credit: Daniel P. Garcia
The back-to-the-future trend in mortgages is continuing, as an industry report on government-insured home loans illustrates.
The Mortgage Bankers Assn. said today that Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration loans represented 35.9% of new mortgage applications in June, the highest level since November 1990.
Back in August 2005, at the peak of the easy-money era, just 6.8% of mortgage applications were for these federally insured loans. Of course, back then you could get a loan without a down payment, a decent credit score or even an income if you were willing to fudge the details on your loan papers.
The allure of VA and FHA loans these days is that, although they are paperwork-heavy, they require lower down payments than conventional loans, according to the report by the trade group. --E. Scott Reckard
The other shoe has dropped. The property value hits to home owners has now dragged Los Angeles County tax collections into negative territory. After enjoying average annual growth in property tax rolls of 7% since 1996, declining home value assessments have brought L.A. County tax rolls down by about 1% from a year ago. The full Times story on property values is here. The biggest property value declines -- roughly 15% -- were in Lancaster and Palmdale. As the Times reported earlier, some neighborhoods in those cities now have homes selling at nominal prices below 1989 levels. Yes, 1989-1990 was a bubble period, as some have pointed out, but it's still remarkable for prices to sink below levels of 20 years ago, without even adjusting for inflation. It's happened in relatively few areas. L.A. County property value declines in La Puente, Hawaiian Gardens and Norwalk, the most severe outside the Antelope Valley, were in the 7% to 8% range. -- Peter Y. Hong
Despite tougher lending standards, a poll commissioned by Zillow finds that 17% of those planning to buy a home within two years expect to do so with zero down payment. Another 36% expect to make down payments from 1% to 10% of their home purchase price. That means 53% plan to buy a home with a down payment of 10% or less.
Whether these hopeful buyers will be able to get such mortgages is a question lenders will have to answer. But mortgages with low down payments -- or none at all -- put a lot of hot air in the housing bubble. Zillow's Amy Bohutinsky said of the nearly one-fifth of buyers who plan to put no money down, "Given the fact that home values are still declining in most markets [and most "bottom" forecasts reach into 2010], this surprises us."
-- Peter Y. Hong
Investor Fred Sands, who once ran one of the country’s largest residential sales brokerages, is adding to his growing commercial real estate portfolio by buying the large South Bay Pavilion shopping center in Carson.
In a sign of how much real estate values have declined since the recession began, Sands’ company Vintage Capital Group is expected to complete its purchase of the mall near the 405 Freeway on Thursday for $50 million.
That’s well below the combined $34.4 million Hopkins spent to buy it in 2003 and the $30 million it spent on improvements. Hopkins put the property up for sale for $100 million in 2005, but was unable to find a taker at that price.
"The world has changed," said Sands, who has bought and sold commercial real estate for many years. He formed Vintage Capital in 2001 to further his investment career after selling residential brokerage Fred Sands Realtors to competitor Coldwell Banker in a nine-figure deal.
The sellers are Newport Beach-based Hopkins Real Estate Group and its financial partner Genesis LA Real Estate Fund.
Genesis LA, a nonprofit corporation that provides financing for developments to benefit low- to moderate-income neighborhoods, had always planned to hold the mall for about five years and then sell and reinvest elsewhere, said Dana Haynes, development manager of the mall for Hopkins.
But Hopkins, which is part owner of a nearby former landfill being prepared for a new $800-million retail and residential complex called the Boulevards at South Bay, was not eager to sell the mall, Haynes said.
"We are disappointed to let go of it," Haynes said. "It’s not the best time to be a seller, but we found a buyer."
Sands said he plans further improvements to the 1.1-million-square-foot mall that is now anchored by IKEA, Target, Sears and JC Penney. The biggest addition would be a 16-screen theater complex, he said, and discussions are underway with two potential operators.
The 73-acre site has room for new construction. Sands said he plans to build as many as six free-standing restaurants soon and perhaps add a hotel when the economy improves. In the meantime, he said, "mid-scale" malls such as South Bay Pavilion can prosper.
"When your jeans wear out, you have to replace them," Sands said. "People still have to shop. People still have to eat."
Sands said he plans to bring more national retailers to the mall while avoiding luxury brands. "They’ve been hit the hardest" by the recession, he said.
Sands’ Vintage Capital also owns malls in Laguna Hills, Santa Clarita, New Mexico and Ohio.
Los Angeles commercial real estate continues to spiral downward, according to a report released Wednesday by Real Capital Analytics Inc.
The New York-based real estate research firm found that Los Angeles had $4.5 billion in troubled commercial properties at the end of June. In all, RCA reported there were 263 properties in default, foreclosure or bankruptcy. At the beginning of the year there were 113 -- a 133% spike.
Don Walker, senior vice president of Irvine-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting, said the large numbers aren’t very surprising. He points to the skyrocketing unemployment rate, which now stands at 11.5%, and consumers’ current tendency to cut back on discretionary spending, as contributing factors for the downturn in the market.
Walker said the worst may be to come, because commercial real estate numbers traditionally lag behind residential.
"We might be in the early stages of decline," he said. "I don’t expect a turnaround until consumers regain confidence and the jobless numbers stop mounting."
But things could be worse, said Dan Fasulo, RCA managing director. Compared to the national picture, Los Angeles is faring well.
"Los Angeles has held up better than its peers," Fasulo said. "For example, you couldn’t give away a commercial property in the Midwest right now."
Nationally, RCA found 5,315 troubled commercial properties valued at more than $108 billion.
The report lists hotels and retail properties as the most "problematic sectors" and notes the bankruptcy filings by mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. and hotel chain Extended Stay America Inc.
The report said the lack of available credit is causing property to fall into default across the country and among every investor type.
"Excess leverage is endemic to every type of investor, all of which are facing difficulties refinancing mortgages as they come due," the study said.
The figures released Wednesday are preliminary, the report said.
-- W.J. Hennigan
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