"Designed to Sell"? Not so fast in Burbank

You can't make this stuff up. A Burbank house once fixed up for the home makeover show "Designed to Sell" has been sitting on the market for 322 days, with nine price reductions, and it still hasn't sold. If it does sell, it will be a short sale, or a foreclosure.

I'm talking about 2304 North Sparks St. in Burbank. Here's the listing, from Redfin:

"APPROVED Short Sale!! The lender will pay 3% of Buyer's closing costs! RUN to check this out!! 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home north of Glenoaks... HGTV's 'Designed to Sell' team completely remodeled the kitchen in this lovely home! .... Make an offer NOW!"

If this sounds familiar, it should -- I blogged this house in February, when it was priced at $575,000.  Here's the listing history:

July '07: $699,000
Aug '07: $689,000
Aug '07: $670,000
Sep '07: $659,000
Oct '07: $649,000
Nov '07: $624,000
Dec '07: $599,000
Jan '08: $575,000
May '08: $550,000
June '08: $500,000

Two more data points: According to Redfin, the house sold for $435,000 in October 2004, and $685,000 in October 2005.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Hat tip: JD via e-mail.

Comments

[mike]

NOT ONE OF THE BETTER PARTS OF THE LOS ANGELES AREA. I AM NOT SURPRISED IT IS AFFECTED BY THE DOWNTURN.

[Cal]

Talk about following the market down. That agent & seller simply have no clue what the market price of that home is and are suffering the death of a thousand (price) cuts.

322 DOM!

REALTORS® in the valley just had their worst 8 month stretch in their recorded history (adjust for population growth and it is even worse) and yet many continue to be in denial about the market.

[Nelcisco]

I've mentioned before that my in-laws are from Burbank on south Sparks off Alameda and everytime I came to visit them from Seattle I saw prices go up seemingly 10%
every 4 months I came to visit. And since '05 I'd ask how is 700k for a two bedroom 1.5 bath 1300 sq ft house on a 6500 sq ft lot sustainable?? "ITS BURBANK", they'd say
well, I'm sure glad you followed-up on this story Peter.

[Uncle Billy & Luther Burbank The Dentist]

Drove through burbank last week. Liked it so much I drove through it this week. It's just so cute you want to squeeze it! It's going to be so dreary there after Jay Leno leaves, though, with his NBC in tow :<

St. Joseph's hospital still has nuns that chastise you if you're sick.

[jaleh]

you guys have got to see this....it does not make sense. The house at 3121 Urban street in Santa Monica is listed for $699K....Propertyshark shows that it sold for $1.4million in 2006....wow!

reporteddate: 2008-06-12 10:05:38Price Change $699,900 2 Beds 2.00 Baths

MLS Number
08-261309
3121 urban ave,santa monica, CA 90404
Area: (14) Santa Monica
Bank owned! Fantastic opportunity to own an updated home in Santa Monica. Updated gourmet kitchen with granite counter tops and travertine floors. Italian tile in updated bathrooms with designer fixtures. This open floor plan is flooded with natural light and perfect for entertaining. Mostly wood floors. There is a Den off the living room with a fireplace. Great price and great area.

----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------

Property Type: Residential-Single Family
Rooms:Breakfast Area,Dining Area,Family,Living
Equipment:Dishwasher,Garbage Disposal,Hood Fan

[E]

Memo to HGTV "designed to sell" team:

Your kitchen remodel is pathetic. You call yourselves professionals?

Time for a name change? How about...

HGTV "designed to lose" team?

HGTV "designed to sell for much less than you ever thought possible" team?

If you want to learn how to flip a house, take lessons from this guy...

www.Jadartanddesign.com

[puckhead]

The house is one lot over from a very busy street (Glenoaks) and looks to be next to a strip mall or office complex. Parts of Burbank are very nice and if this house was up in the hills it would probably sell for the original listing price. But at this location???? Forget it.

[Laura in L.A.]

Mike, I beg to differ. The hillside of Burbank may not be Beverly Hills, and the houses aren't huge, but it's clean and quiet and the schools are decent. Has its own police and fire, too. I can get to my downtown office, door to door, in less than 30 minutes.

What exactly would you consider to be "one of the better parts" of the Los Angeles area? Just curious.

[Another]

It may be in Burbank, but it looks ghetto. A ghetto house with a nice kitchen is still a ghetto house.

[Fred]

Worth less than $400k. If it sold for $485k in 2004, you'd have to be crazy to pay more than $400k with the market heading where it's heading.

[Fred]

Also, Mike, you seem to be implying that there are some parts of L.A. NOT affected by the downturn. Even Beverly Park is starting to be hit.

[Arti]

When are we going to finally see these kinds of reductions on the westside and Santa Monica? Prices there have held up like a rock--no sales happening, and condos are hit, but not SFRs. Perhaps the only part of LA still insulated.

[tealeaf]

Arti - here you go again.

Go to realtytrac.com and check out the NODs that have been filed on the westside. they stretch all the way to the coast.

Then come back and talk about holding up like a "rock" (even though in the next breath you state "no sales happening.")

Sheesh.

[Mark]

I don't know why anyone would ever mention that their house for sale was "featured on HGTV's Designed to Sell". The show is all about how to stage rooms to look bigger than they actually are, make house-hunters picture themselves living there (hid your family photos), and throw in some brushed nickel fixtures to make it look much more classy than it actually is. So basically, disclosing that your house for sale was on that show says "most of what you see is a facade"

[Cal]

Trustee sale was set for 6/03/08 according to this (p.179): http://tinyurl.com/3jca9v

And if someone wants to explain to me what is happening with 7155 Fallbrook, check out pages 135-137. Different names, dates and loans..all the same property.

[Laker]

Sold Oct 12, 2004 $435,000.
The kitchen remodel is cheap, worth maybe $5000 tops.
Look at the bathrooms, original 30-50 year old e inch tiles.
Based on the sale price in October 2004 and housing today sells for early 2004 prices that is $390,000-400,000.
A 2nd good metric to evaluate housing today is to use Zillow LOW number. They show up a range, and i happen to see that vast majority of houses selling around that amount. In some areas like Simi Valley houses sell for 10% less than the low number. REOs sell for 20% less than the low number. So this house has a zillow low of $464,000. Take away about 10% and you get $400,000. That is the value TODAY. However, you are crazy to pay that amount as prices are currently declining 20-25% annually. The long term value of this house at 2001 price is about $240,000.

[bkl]

Judy's blog from February says that the listing agent reported an offer at $550,000 (presumably when they were asking $575,000). This is another case of the owner/listing agent chasing the market down.

[xtine]

tealeaf - I think Arti was frustrated, not defending high prices.

Mike - turn off the allcaps wouldja?

jaleh - Are you a RE agent? Did you just try and pitch us a house in Santa Monica? Because it sure seemed like that was what was happening here.

[Michael Snyder]

mike,
What color is the sky in your world? I lived in Burbank for over 17 years, and I can tell you it ranks as one of the best areas in So. Cal. to live. Award winning schools, world class fire & police and clean streets. It's centrally located but you don't have to "leave town" for much of anything. And like the rest of the real estate market, it too was "bubbleicious" for years.
As for these "designers" on these flip shows... Well let's just say I've yet to surf by one of these shows and see anything that resembles competence. There is a lot of drama and some piss poor decisions, (why did they buy that place?) but there's not a "flipper" in the bunch this contractor would let get a week behind to him.
Sadly for these now upside down "investors" they probably would have gotten out from under this property (it is in a great neighborhood) if they'd removed their egos from the equation and simply priced their house without the "television premium" when they first listed it.

[Wilison]

Where is that commenter who keeps track of westside prices?
Peter Viles--would love it if you could give that guy a weekly look--his data is fascinating!

Please let us know what is going on, friend. I'm eager to watch the westside prices collapse.

[eprobert]

As soon as I saw the title i knew Puckhead would post something attempting to isolate the downturn to just this one house!

Anyway, I know the area well and it's a cute house priced about right for that area at today's prices. The 2004 price sounds about right to sell it by the end of summer, plus or minus 10k.

[Luka]

I personally think Burbank is by and large a charming city. Sure there are bad pockets but don't get all Westside on us please.

It's like you people pray for the worst possible scenario for all.

[jag]

Arti, read Jaleh's post above yours and you'll see that you're incorrect.

you guys have got to see this....it does not make sense. The house at 3121 Urban street in Santa Monica is listed for $699K....Propertyshark shows that it sold for $1.4million in 2006....wow!

[Rich]

I'm a big fan of those shows because I like the inspirations for decorating ideas on the cheap, but I noticed especially last year a lot of programs filmed in the California market where the selling price sounded so exorbitant that I had trouble imagining an "on the cheap" makeover selling them. I didn't expect to ever see followups on the houses gone by, so it's interesting to see the fate of one of them.

I suspect work at the cost and quality level of "designed to sell" is best suited for improving a plebeian median-income house, not these upper-income places (and of course, a place with an upper-income price tag should justify its price by condition, features, amenities, and location--at least a location a little more specific than "anywhere in California")...

[El Dabe]

I still would not buy it. It would have to come down to 400k before I would even consider it. 1,449 Square feet? Where will the kids play? Where does the family hang out? People need space.