Tracking L.A.: Mar Vista 90066

Last week I linked to some Redfin stats about the overall L.A. housing market, and asked for some reader suggestions on which Zip codes I should begin tracking. Here's the first of three or four: Mar Vista 90066, a corner of the city of Los Angeles just east of Venice and just south of Santa Monica.

Pictured listing: 12677 Dewey St.

A three-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath home measuring 1,269 square feet. Located on a breezy hill about two miles from the beach, but close to the (noisy) Santa Monica Airport. From the listing: "Close to everything and cool ocean breezes. Motivated seller- Submit all offers."

Listing history:
Listed    7/29  $779,000
Reduced 8/23 $749,000
Reduced 9/22 $729,000

Sales history: Sold for $235,000 in May 1994.

More on 90066, from Redfin:

Date                              Oct. 6

--Listed for sale             106
(home and condos)
--Foreclosures for sale       4
--Median list price        $795,000 
--Median sales price*    $757,000
--Median days listed        63.5
--% reduced in price        34.8%
--Median total reduction   6.6%

*Based on homes sold or taken off the market in the previous 90 days

Once again: I'd like to monitor two other pricey Zip codes -- in the $700,000 range. I'm thinking one in the west Valley and one in the Pasadena area. Nominations? Thoughts?

--Peter Viles

Photo credit: L.A. Land

Comments

[c]

For west valley I nominate Woodland Hills (91367/91364) & Calabasas (91302).

[sfvrealestate]

I know it's probably too close to Pasadena for you, but what about Burbank's 91504? Good schools, mostly single family homes.

[Jeff]

This is a great idea to track. I'd love to see a Pasadena area neighborhood tracked. Ideally La Crescenta (the nearby and not quite as expensive neighbor to La Canada, where a lot of Pasadena-proper residents want to move to for the schools. Median price about $660K). Or possibly South Pasadena itself, the other great school district and cool neighborhood around the Gold Line station, Mission street shops, thursday night farmer's market, etc... (median price ~ $808K).

[iabb]

Two words:

STILL
OVERPRICED

[Gaston Greene]

Do Torrance. Prices are still way high and stubborningly refusing to drop.

[Aaron]

I vote for South Pasadena: 91030.

[Lynnette]

How about Studio City, 91604? There is at least double the inventory of Mar Vista, and is considered a very desirable Valley neighborhood with a somewhat walkable community.

[smrr]

south pas and sherman oaks.

they both qualify as aspirational neighborhoods and both have listings that qualify. maybe s. pas you need to go a wee bit higher, but sherman oaks has had listings under 7 for a while.

woodland hills remains pretty high south of ventura, but you will definitely find dwellings under 7 where you couldn't a year ago.

[Westside Bubble]

Good zip code to pick. To me Mar Vista is an indicator for the lower-priced Westside. My sense is prices have been falling in the mid-priced ($700-800K) areas, and there's big buyer resistance at the upper end (sellers seeking $3M).

See monthly inventory statistics and occasional updates on what's listed and selling in Mar Vista at http://westside-bubble.blogspot.com/ (search for "mar vista" on the blog).

[E]

Pasadena?

The Valley?

If I'm putting some other city on a postcard...it AIN'T L.A.

[what bubble?]

I think Arcadia or South Pasadena would be fun to examine. Both are known for their stellar public schools. San Marino is too but by the looks of things, they're still in denial.

Also a huge price chop that I noticed in South Pasadena - 1124 Hope Street was listed on Redfin about six months ago at around 1.2 M (i'm sure you can find the history for this somewhere, i'm not making it up!)

But instead of showing a price chop and the # of days it has been on the market, the agent pulled the listing and uploaded the house again as a new listing @ $898,000

So don't just go by the "official" numbers on Redfin. Because surprise, surprise, agents are up to their usual tricks.

[Tom]

I'd like to second Woodland Hills.

[riredale]

Wow.

I'm writing this from Portland, Oregon, so my perceptions of "value" are entirely out of whack. That said, if the price had not been mentioned, I'd have guessed the seller was asking $249k and the actual sale price would be $225k.

I lived in MDR until 1990 and flew out of Santa Monica often. I never realized what a price premium there was for Mar Vista.

[smrr]

riredale.
the bubble was 100 x worse in LA. Shacks selling for 190 went to a million in 8 years.

and to borrow another blogger's tag: "What bubble?"

[Mark_Pasadena]

For Pasadena, please don't track by zip code. The nice thing about Redfin is that it correctly separates Cities by neighborhoods, not just zip codes. The absolute worst zip code to choose would be 91104 (which you've picked in previous posts). The 91104 zip code is a nice, upper middle class neighborhood East of Hill and a lower income crime ridden neighborhood West of Hill, so any statistics you get from that based on zip code are worthless.

If you HAVE to use a zip code, then 91106 or 91105 would be the zip codes for homes with upper middle class neighborhoods that don't overlap with lower income ones. 91101 for Downtown Pasadena is also nice (mostly condos though) as a good middle class neighborhood with walking distance to all the restaurants, nightlife, and shopping that Pasadena is known for.

For neighborhoods in Pasadena, South Arroyo would be a good pick with median sold price at $757k, though median listing price is $972k (though this will change in the next 2 years as the Option ARM bubble deflates): http://www.redfin.com/neighborhood/2495/CA/
Pasadena/South-Arroyo

[latesummer2009]

How about Santa Monica Condos in that range. With the draw of public schools it could be interesting. Also, I believe Santa Monica, one of the last dominoes to fall will be hit hard, once all is said and done.

Foreclosures are now beginning to surge there.

http://www.westsideremeltdown.blogspot.com

in addition the "immune" 90402 would be an interesting area to watch. 10 foreclosures there currently.

[JB]

Hey Peter, thanks for tallying my vote for 90066. It was my first time posting on this blog, and it paid off! FWIW, I still think prices are too high in Mar Vista. A bunch of houses have been sitting in the 700-800s for a while now. My husband doesn't think prices will come down much; I think there are lots of ARMs that will take people out. We'll find out who is right...

[SouthPas Renter]

I vote you look at So Pas.

[stan derrin]

Dont worry jb,
the westside and all real estate is about to fall off a cliff this week.The mass collapse of the financial markets and banks in the last week is going to hit real estate asap.And extremely hard.You will see price reductions of 20-50k a month.
I wouldnt touch a mar vista home for anything over 275K because really you will be able to get a nicer santa monica home for that price in the next 2 years.Thats what prices were in the mid 90s.
Figure this: the dow30 is at 9500.The first time it was at that price was in 1999 or so.I would think home pricces should be at 1999 prices based on the current value of the financial markets since homes are a component of the economy like stocks and should reflect that.Seems like re prices have a lot of catching up to do with other markets.

[Saved by this Blog]

I vote for Torrance.

[DSL]

South Pasadena 91030 please.

No hanging chads in this voting booth.