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 Sometimes an auction has nothing to do with foreclosure. News item from New York Times via Curbed Los Angeles: The Kaufmann House, a 1946 glass, steel and stone landmark built by architect Richard Neutra outside Palm Springs, is on the auction block. The pre-sale estimate: $15 million to $25 million.
The N.Y. Times reports the auction -- to be held at Christie's in New York next May -- is an effort at "promoting architecture as a collectible art worthy of the same consideration as painting and sculpture."
The owners, Brent Harris, an investment manager at PIMCO, and Beth Edwards Harris, an architectural historian, are finalizing their divorce, the N.Y. Times reports.
Thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.
Photo Credit: Eichlernetwork.com
News item: The Ventura County Star reports a large condo project in Simi Valley has stopped in mid-development: "Citing slumping market conditions, a developer has abruptly halted
construction of a 66-unit condominium development near what is known as
Happy Face Hill in Simi Valley, city officials said Tuesday." More: "After several months of grading work, Encino-based Larwin Co. told
City Manager Mike Sedell in an e-mail that construction of the housing
development on 10 acres near Kuehner Drive would be stopped for at
least six months."
The reader who emailed us to alert us to this story noticed another condo development in Thousand Oaks that appears to have been halted in its tracks, and wonders how widespread this trend is. Thoughts? Comments? Insights? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.
Hat tip: FD in TO
 Good afternoon. We've been stuck in meetings, we apologize. As you know, the Fed cut rates today by a quarter of a point. You can read the Fed's statement here. The headline quote: "Economic growth was solid in the third quarter, and strains in financial markets have eased somewhat on balance. However, the pace of economic expansion will likely slow in the near term, partly reflecting the intensification of the housing correction."
We read this two ways: the credit crunch eased somewhat, but the Fed sees more economic trouble coming from the weak -- weakening? -- housing market. Is the housing market weakening? Technically, the Fed didn't say that -- it sees that as a likely possibility.
Update: Commenter Cal writes, "You don't think they are saying housing is weakening? Intesify a correction? How could it mean anything but?"
Fair point, let us explain our hair-splitting here, because we believe the Fed is in the hair-splitting business: The Fed said is likely the economy will slow "reflecting the intensification of the housing correction." There are two ways to read this: one is that the housing correction has already intensified -- gotten worse, and it's likely that will hurt the economy; the other is that the housing correction will get worse in the future, and it's likely that hurt the economy going forward. As we said, it's splitting hairs, but it allows the Fed to have it both ways.
Our take: We think the housing correction has intensified in recent weeks, and will intensify further.
Your thoughts? Comments? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com
Photo Credit: Reuters
 A tawdry excuse to run a photo of Britney, or a legitimate real estate item? You decide. Here goes: the normally welcome wagon-y blog Manhattan Beach Confidential, hearing that Ms. Spears-Federline-Spears may be house-hunting in Manhattan Beach, encourages her to look elsewhere:
"If you go and snap up some majestic Strand house, or a garish Hill Section lair, you're going to ruin things for your neighbors – who, we might note, will be between 6 and 12 feet away from you. (We don't do "gated" or "estates.")
"Yes, we're sure you're a willing buyer with cash (albeit with an agenda, too), but we'd really ask that you look farther and wider."
For what it's worth, a commenter on the post reports Britney is also condo-hunting in Marina del Rey.
Thoughts? Comments? Insights? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.
Photo Credit: AP
News, notes and headlines:
--L.A. housing prices have dropped 5.7% over the past year, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller home price index. That's a slightly worse performance than the average for the 10 largest cities -- a 5.0% drop. Reuters headline: "The decline in prices of existing U.S. single-family homes accelerated in August and fell at their fastest pace since 1991, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller national home price index."
--The mortgage crisis today claimed its highest-profile victim: Merrill Lynch CEO Stanly O'Neal resigned.
Don't feel bad for O'Neal: his walking-away money has been estimated at *at least* $159 million.
--Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo continues to blame divorce, job loss and illness -- but not bad underwriting -- for mounting defaults, according to this account in today's LATimes.
Thoughts? Comments? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.
 Good morning. Guest commentary today from Leo Nordine, a realtor who specializes in selling bank-owned, foreclosed houses. It's all yours, Leo:
Why aren't foreclosure sales regulated?
By Leo Nordine
In the early 1990s I tracked every foreclosure in south L.A. County, soliciting every REO listing I could get. I quickly found that some of the smaller "companies" conducting the trustee sales were crooks. Unfortunately, nothing's changed. They'll hold the auction for a Long Beach property in Lancaster, for instance, as far away as possible, but only after postponing the sale several times. But after the initial sale date, no one knows when the sale is scheduled because the trustee never answers the phone. The eventual buyer is always the foreclosing note holder, usually one who has bought the note at discount. They acquire the property under market because they have no competition.
Then there are the semi-legitimate trustees that at least answer the phone, but play the same game, not giving any information about their sales. These "trustees" are also active real estate investors, often silent partners of the foreclosing note holders. Also, lenders who hire honest trustees often get shortchanged. The buyers at the auctions all know each other. Instead of bidding against each other, they'll often partner up to keep the price down. Two, three, four, even five or six partners on one property. One of them will be the official buyer, whose name shows up on the trustee’s deed, and the rest will be silent.
I could give more examples, but you get the idea. The problem is that anyone can conduct a trustee sale, with no license required, and no regulation. It's the Wild West, and there's a lot of cowboys. I've explained this to the D.R.E., the Corporations Commissioner, and the California Attorney General’s office. All were indifferent. If mortgage brokers have to have a real estate license, why not trustee sale companies? This should have been done decades ago. The D.R.E. should do this to protect the public and institutional lenders, as well as improve the reputation of the real estate industry.
Thanks, Leo.
Thoughts? Comments? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com
Photo Credit: AP
A quick follow-up to yesterday's post about open houses in Reseda. We checked Zillow for the sales history on the foreclosed house at 6921 Lindley Ave., and it's instructive. It looks like this:
Sold 4/2004: $345,000
Sold 7/2006: $520,000
Sold 4/2007: $441,429
Listed (date unknown): $457,900
Reduced, now listed: $379,900
This is the listing billed as "You Better Act Fast" ... "Bank Foreclosure"... "Needs some minor TLC" ... "Bank is serious so make an offer!" It's a 3-bedroom, 1-bath with a one-bedroom "guest unit" that "may not have permit." It needs some cosmetic repairs and is on a busy, noisy street. The hard-pan back yard was decorated Sunday with a Bud Light can.
Our take: What shows up as an April 2007 sale is probably the foreclosure. If the home sells for the current listing price -- a big stretch -- the decline in price from the 2006 peak would be 27% in 16 months. That's steep. And that's assuming it sells at the listing price, which is unlikely.
Thoughts? Comments? Insights? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.
 Median listing prices slipped again in greater L.A. over the past week, dopping by $9,000, to $500,000, according to Housing Tracker's weekly analysis of MLS listings.
Inventory of for-sale homes slipped by 472 listings, to 46,710, but remains 16.5% ahead of year-ago levels.
The median price drops are significant: Median prices have now dropped $79,666, or 14%, from peak levels of April 2006, and have dropped $45,000, or 8%, since early April of this year.
Date Median Price Inventory
4/06 $579,666 27,251
4/07 $545,000 35,489
5/07 $545,000 38,297
6/07 $540,000 40,766 (up 20.4% y/y)
7/07 $535,000 42,685 (up 14.5% y/y)
8/07 $529,000 44,483 (up 13.6% y/y)
9/07 $520,000 46,414 (up 16.9% y/y)
10/8/07 $514,900 46,219 (up 15.1% y/y)
10/15/07 $510,000 46,603 (up 15.6% y/y)
10/22/07 $509,000 47,182 (up 17.0% y/y)
10/29/07 $500,000 46,710 (up 16.5% y/y)
Thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com
Photo Credit: Reuters
Good piece in today's Los Angeles Times reporting that big lenders are still aggressively pitching home refinancing: "Despite the mortgage meltdown, the blizzard of advertising for home loans continues. With the sub-prime market in tatters in the wake of record defaults and foreclosures, fewer pitches scream 'Bad credit? No problem!' Instead, lenders struggling to remain profitable now are targeting people who have good credit and plenty of home equity."
Countrywide Financial is a big player: "David Sambol, Countrywide's president, told financial analysts Friday ... 'There remains a very large stock of home equity that has not yet been tapped -- greater than $10 trillion -- which can be tapped to finance home improvements and other expenditures, such as education investment, small-business development and retirement spending.' "
Our take: One of the reasons this real estate downturn threatens to do unusually widespread damage to the overall economy is the refinancing boom. Even some buyers who bought their houses a decade ago, and should in theory be sitting on a small mountain of equity, are finding themselves in default and foreclosure. Why? Where did their cushion, that mountain of equity, go? They borrowed against it. Again, and again, and again. The refinancing boom has distorted economic activity in ways policy-makers seem to be ignoring: In the recent past, it pumped up economic activity with spending growth that could not be justified based on income growth; and now, not only is much of that extra economic activity drying up, but refinancing has put at risk homeowners who should in theory have a cushion against a housing downturn.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.
 More from our buzz through Reseda yesterday:
From Realtor Mary Burak: "It's a terrible market. I've been doing this for 25 years, so I've been selling -- I have referrals. But the newer agents are going out of business. ... I don't even work off of comps any more. I base it on what's for sale in the area." The market, she says, is still sprinkled with OPTs -- "overpriced turkeys." On losing a potential short sale because the lender, Countrywide Financial, failed to approve the sale quickly, and then the buyer's lender -- also Countrywide -- yanked the purchase loan. "Countrywide shot themselves in the foot twice. I'm so angry with them. Unfortunately, they don't know how to set up their loss mitigation group." On buyers right now: "They're so picky that they don't know when they're getting a deal."
From Realtor Alan Rosenberg: "The market is slowing down. There's a lot of buyers out there, but they're concerned about commiting. But interest rates are fantastic and prices are really good." He says the foreclosure problem is worst in the East Valley, but is slowly moving west through the Valley.
From Realtor Charles Henry: "We won't know we've hit the bottom until we hit it." (We're not sure what that means). In a neighborhood where listings under $500,000 were rare a year ago, he said, listings are now common at under $400,000. "Houses sell pretty quickly when they get into the high-$300,000s."
Your thoughts? Comments? Insights? E-mail story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com.
Photo Credit: www.caseysstation.com
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Sometimes an auction has nothing to do with foreclosure. News item from New York Times via Curbed Los Angeles: The Kaufmann House, a 1946 glass, steel and stone landmark built by architect Richard Neutra outside Palm Springs, is on the auction block. The pre-sale estimate: $15 million to $25 million.
