October home prices: Granada Hills, anyone?

Since the October MDA DataQuick median home prices and sales figures are out, just for grins, let's take a look at how prices stack up in some of the ZIP Codes with the greatest number of sales in the context of the last several year-end total figures. Perhaps there's something to be gleaned from a quick check of where we're at in parts of L.A. County.

For example, here's where things stand in Granada Hills 91344 for single-family home sales.
 
Year/Number sold/Median/Price percent change from previous year

2002   849   $310,000    17.0%
2003   926   $375,000    21.0%
2004   837   $480,000    27.9%   
2005   786   $575,000    19.8%
2006   703   $605,000     4.5%
2007   464   $595,000    -1.7%   

Where we're at as of October 2008, compared with October 2007.
Oct.*    74    $413,000    -39.3%

It's an incomplete picture until we get two more months of figures and the comparable year-end totals, but it gives you an idea of how far prices have dropped for a given area. The number of homes sold are really too small to bother doing such a rundown for most L.A. County ZIP Codes, but give a shout if there's someplace you are particularly interested in, and I'll see if it makes sense to compile it.

UPDATE: *Sorry for the confusion, that's Oct. 2008.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: This three-bedroom, 1 1/2-bathroom home of 1,234 square feet is at 16856 Los Alimos St., Granada Hills 91344. It is listed for $374,000 and previously sold for $560,000 in December 2005, according to Redfin. Credit: Elite REO Services

Comments

[Nelcisco]

Lauren I'm confused, or am I reading this wrong?

Do I see Oct 1974 it was $413k???
Thats more than Beverly Hills median price at the time.

[Till2010?]

How about Westchester?

[Laker]

Lauren,
Can you track similar numbers for Woodland Hills or Tarzana.
btw: the house in Granada Hills is worth about $160,000-200,000. Asking 2003 price of $375,000 is ridicules for 1200 sf shack.

[bkl]

"Do I see Oct 1974 it was $413k???"

No, you see time period, sales, median price, and percent change from previous year.

Example

2007 467 $595,000 -1.7% (change from 2006)

Oct. 74 $413,000 -39.3% (change from Oct 2007)

[Laker]

Nelcisco .
74 is the number of houses sold thus far in 2008 in that zip code.

[SoCalJim]

Easy and moderately easy money. Gone. Stocks. Tanking. Even some "safe" bonds. Tanking. Consumer sentiment. Horrible. Unemployment. Horrible, getting worse, especially in CA. 401ks. Destroyed. College grads working for peanuts, if they can even find a job. We are seeing resumes from some "highly qualified' pencil pushers who are desperate, offering to join at drastically reduced salaries. If these people can't find jobs and are taking big salary cuts, how can the RE market be supported. Answer. It can't. Credit markets are calling their markers, and all of the poor gamblers can't cover. That includes RE. Once the bluff is called, hand over the keys and whatever chips you have left. That is what is happening. RE has nowhere to go but down, and there is nothing to support it. Just rent. Very simple. Low risk, live in a nicer neighborhood, sq ft just as large in some cases, and no maintenance, repairs, etc.

Just imagine if obama increases taxes. A 300 pound woman doing a belly flop on cake that is the stock market. Splat.... Then companies do more layoffs, and it is a perpetual cycle. Not hard to figure out. Can you say Dow 5000s? If he has half a brain, he will delay those tax "increases".

Americans are being "rewarded" for so many years of greed and stupidity. Unfortunately, this payback affects all of us, when only some are to blame.

[justjoe]

How about Culver City, Santa Monica and Mar Vista?

[sfvrealestate]

Lauren, I'm going to be a hair-splitter again here and argue with the data. Although Granada Hills is all the same zip code, there are considerable differences between neighborhoods there. The dividing line for prices is Rinaldi. I've listed and sold homes both above and below Rinaldi. I'm sure the large numbers of foreclosures below Rinaldi is affecting the data and driving it lower -- sales prices above Rinaldi are still a good deal higher than your numbers.

[Juanito]

SoCalJim:
You are hilarious! "Just imagine if obama increases taxes. A 300 pound woman doing a belly flop on cake that is the stock market. Splat...."

I suppose you are implying that the tremendous tax cuts (none noticeable for my $140,000 household) given away by the Bush administration is managing to provide us with great upward leaps in the stock market.

What a laugher!

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Lauren, how about Hooverville, Mudville and Bushtown?

Are the lines still long to get in there?

[anon]

I second the request for Westchester.

[annon]

Can someone please tell me what happened to Peter Viles??

[amir]

SoCalJim, you're awesome!

[CraigP]

Would love to see some Hollywood East areas: Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Atwater...

[David]

How about 90025 or 90024 or 90067?

[ElBurro]

"I suppose you are implying that the tremendous tax cuts (none noticeable for my $140,000 household) given away by the Bush administration is managing to provide us with great upward leaps in the stock market.

What a laugher!

Posted by: Juanito"

How quickly we forget. I'd say the Bush tax cuts did wonders for staving off the inevitable and neutralizing the effects/mini-recession of the 1-2 punch of the dotcom meltdown and 9-11(you can thank Clinton for both of those). And you can also thank those cuts/stimulus for the Dow hitting an all time high well over 14,000 a little over a year ago. It's your own fault if you didn't sell then at a huge profit, with the writing for what was to come obviously on the wall.

If anything, it was the growing realization that either Obama or Hillary (and what that would mean for Wall Street and corporate America) would be elected that exacerbated the situation in the financial markets and on Wall Street, and leaves us where we are.

P.S. I didn't notice any tax cuts in my household, and I make a great deal more than your "oooh" $140K , if you want to play a game of "who's bigger". But then again, I have very good accountants so I pay peanuts in taxes. LOL at $140K, aren't you supposed to be not complaining? Aren't those cuts supposed to be for the "little people"?

[dclogang]

I might MIGHT pay $150,000 for this one. They need to lower the price dramatically now before they get even LESS for it later on. If they'll even be able to sell it that is...

This is Good news for us renters who want to buy (in a couple of years.) Good news for homeowners who want to move too because house prices will be lower. Ug! I'm starting to sound like a real estate agent NOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Sam Urai]

El Burro said,

"It was the growing realization that either Obama or Hillary (and what that would mean for Wall Street and corporate America) would be elected that exacerbated the situation in the financial markets and on Wall Street.

You also blame Bill Clinton for 9-11 and the dot com meltdown.

El Burro, Do you have any facts on which to base these claims? You seem to lay all our our woes all the feet of Democrats. Interest points but where is there any supporting evidence? Methinks you give them way too much power.

[Big D]

"El Burro, Do you have any facts on which to base these claims? You seem to lay all our our woes all the feet of Democrats"

I have the proof. How about the policies of Jimmy Carter that are haunting us today? How about NAFTA kissing all our jobs goodbye? Thanks Clinton. How about Clintons low income housing initative that was PROVEN for our subprime ease of credit creation? Thanks. Oh, and the straw that broke the camels back??? Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. Hello "investment banks" that created this greed. I rest my case.

Score - GOP 1, Dems 0

Kiss America goodbye with Obama

[SoCalJim]

Whether good working people actually see tax cuts or increases (or anything from government for that matter..., but that is a whole different topic), point being that companies and the people who own companies that employ people and pay them so that they can buy homes, cars, and spend, spend, spend are in crisis mode. Who would have ever imagined Lehman going down (been around for about 150 years), various banks like Wamu and look at C, auto industry, etc. now. As Paulson said, this is once or twice in 100 years event. Depending on your job, maybe you don't see much of a difference, but when addtiional expenses or debt are piled onto the top of that cake, more downward pressure, and you know where that pressure goes - straight to the bottom, i.e., to the working folks in the offices and factory lines trying to make a living, supporting two kids, trying to save what they can. Boards of companies have duties to the shareholders, not employees. Employees let go as needed to save the bottom line and are the casualties in these situations.

Unemployment is going to 9% per the "experts". That will not be pretty. Job cuts are across the board now, no industry being spared. I know people who have been out of work for a year now.

Bottom line: unemployment going up. Salaries going down. Bear markets causing havoc. How can this support RE? Interest rates are falling, but who can get a loan? Unless you have 100-200k down, which many don't. I think RE is going to get real fugly. The thing with RE is that most people are so attached to their house and think it is the "best" b/c it is theirs and have no other "wealth" besides the house (since they spent too much before, or were not able to save), so they view it as their only shot at making "real" money for retirement. Throw in "me too entitlement", i.e., my friends made a lot in 2004, so should I..., and RE is always slower to move down. But the stock market points the way.... RE just follows at a slower pace. Recession has knocked out years of gains. Sad, but true. People should have sold RE and stocks (easier said than done) when they had the chance and people were giddy talking about how much they were making per day with their house. Now it has turned into a nightmare for many. Eventually, this will all pass to some state of balance and normalcy.

On that note, happy Friday, and be thankful it is a beautiful day outside.

(Also - no negativity to people who are battling weight issues. I was just trying to make a point visually, but that is a serious epidemic in this country, a battle we are losing).

Cheers.