This weekend: A flurry of condo and townhome auctions

Still sorting out your weekend plans? Maybe it’s time to snap up that discounted downtown loft.

Beverly Hills-based auction company Kennedy Wilson is closing out 55 units in the Market Lofts building with a session Saturday. The auction is part of a trend playing out across the region as fancy edifices put up during the boom years are now sitting vacant.

From The Times’ May 18 story on the subject:

Across Southern California, projects conceived during the housing boom, but completed after the bust, are sitting largely vacant. Developers are desperate to unload these units, but they face some particular challenges. Banks often won't provide mortgages to buyers in buildings that are less than 50% occupied, reducing the pool of eligible purchasers. Converting the projects to rentals means even steeper losses because the cash flow often won't cover a developer's construction costs.

The one- and two-bedroom lofts on sale this weekend are on West 9th Street and South Flower Street and are built in typical Brooklyn style with exposed, 9-foot ceilings. The lofts are constructed above a series of retail shops including Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Cold Stone Creamery and Quiznos Subs and a Ralphs grocery store.

Other amenities include a furnished lobby with three elevators, a landscaped deck, a swimming pool, a spa, a 20-seat screening room and a fitness center. Starting bids will run from $140,000 to $295,000 for properties previously priced from $438,500 to $888,761.

Check out the full details here. Those who want to register can still do so.

If downtown isn't your style, then 14 luxury townhomes are also on the block this Sunday at Hansen Villas in Pacoima. The auction will be at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys. More information is here.

And speaking of condominiums, the Evo condominium building threw itself a party Thursday night for residents on its sixth-floor pool terrace. The developers were celebrating their 200th condo sold. The 24-story tower is at West 12th Street and Grand Avenue downtown.

-- Alejandro Lazo

Photo: The Market Lofts in downtown L.A. Credit: Kennedy Wilson

Real estate roundup: U.S. foreclosures slow, California new home sales dip

The number of foreclosures dropped in October for the third consecutive month, a sign that efforts by banks to take back troubled properties may be easing, according to a report out this morning by RealtyTrac.

The number of foreclosures -- default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions -- was down 3% in October from September, though that number is still 19% higher than in October 2008.

One out of every 385 housing units in the U.S. received a foreclosure filing in October, according to the report. The dip in the number of filings was a positive sign. But James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of Irvine-based RealtyTrac, said in a statement that the moribund economy and the potential pitfalls facing the housing market could imperil any housing rebound.

“Three consecutive monthly declines is unprecedented for our report, and on first blush an indication that the foreclosure tide may be turning,” he said. “However, the fundamental forces driving foreclosure activity in this housing downturn — high-risk mortgages, negative equity, and unemployment — continue to loom over any nascent recovery.”

Nevada, California and Florida posted the highest foreclosure rates out of all the states. California had the second-highest rate, after Nevada, with one in every 156 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in October.

A total of 85,420 California properties received a foreclosure filing during the month, a decrease of 1% from the previous month but still nearly 50% above the total reported in October 2008, according to the report.

California's default notices and scheduled foreclosure auctions were up 120% and 73% respectively from October 2008, when California foreclosure activity was in the midst of a three-month lull after a state law required lenders to give troubled homeowners extra notification before beginning foreclosure.

With financing still tight and so many cheap foreclosure properties on the market, it is no wonder that few people are buying new homes these days. A report by the California Building Industry Assn. confirmed that new-home sales continued to drop in September.

The report shows that sales in new-home communities of 10 units or more were 11% below September 2008, with only 2,310 new homes and condominiums sold, compared to 2,580 in September 2008.

In the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale region 300 new homes were sold in September, a 9% increase from the 273 sold in the same month one year prior.

-- Alejandro Lazo

Large solar-powered home community opens in Santa Fe Springs

Not far from downtown Los Angeles, Comstock Homes is opening what it claims to be the largest solar-powered home community from a single builder.

The Villages at Heritage Springs will take up 54 acres in Santa Fe Springs, and will include 384 residences once it is complete. For now, 18 single-family homes and 19 townhouses are for sale.

Comstock Homes, the residential division of commercial real estate developer Comstock, Crosser & Associates, builds only in California.

The solar roof tiles on the Santa Fe homes, provided by San Jose-based SunPower Corp., could help lower homeowners’ power bills by up to 60%. The properties also feature dual pane windows, high-efficiency heating and air conditioning, tankless water heaters and energy-efficient lighting.

Townhomes in the gated community range in size from 1,390 to 1,910 square feet and cost between $385,000 and $457,000. Single-family homes are 1,763 to 2,166 square feet and priced from $485,000 to $576,000.

-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Edelman for the New Solar Homes Partnership

Most-searched-for L.A. County homes

 

What Los Angeles County houses are people looking at online these days? Realtor.com ranks these as the Top 5 most-searched-for listings in the county last week within 20% of the median list price of $424,500.

1. 11202 Danbury St.,  Arcadia 91006
Listed at $348,000, the 1949 single-story has three bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,457 square feet.

2. 14917 Roxton Ave., Gardena 90249
Listed at $449,000, the 1951 two-story has four bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,616 square feet.

3. 1112 Arkley Drive, Walnut 91789
Listed at $395,000, the 1966 traditional has bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,867 square feet.

4. 1018 N. Buena Vista St., Burbank 91505
Listed at $343,000, the 1926 Spanish-style home has four bedrooms and three bathrooms in 1,920 square feet.

5. 21103 Violeta Ave., Lakewood 90715
Priced in a range from $369,900 to $417,000, the single-story 1962 house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,415 square feet. 

Interesting to see when and for how much these homes previously sold. Home No. 1, for example, sold on 10/21/2004 for $450,000, according to PropertyShark.com, and before that on 6/28/2002 for $320,000.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: The Gardena home was the second-most-searched-for property last week at Realtor.com among L.A. County homes within 20% of the median list price of $424,500. Credit: Jackie Solorzano

Hot Property: 'Modern Family' producer-director lists L.A. town house at $599,000

 

Jason Winer, an executive producer and director of the ABC comedy “Modern Family,” has listed his three-level Hollywood-area town house for $599,000.

Part of a courtyard complex built in 1926 by Paramount to house its writers, the two-bedroom, 1 1/2-bathroom bungalow has 1,330 square feet of loft-like living space, a private patio and a detached garage.

The property previously sold in 2006 for $560,000, public records show.

--Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: The open-plan living room has high ceilings. Elisa Gil-Osorio of Sotheby’s International Realty’s Sunset office is the listing agent. Credit: Jeffrey Ong

Hot Property: Former 49er Joe Montana lists 500-acre wine country spread for $49 million

Football great Joe Montana and his wife, Jennifer, have listed their 500-acre estate, with acreage in Sonoma County’s wine country, for $49 million.

[Note, an earlier version of this post referred to the estate as only being in Sonoma County. It has acreage in Sonoma and Napa counties.]

The Calistoga property includes a 9,700-square-foot Tuscan-inspired main house, an equestrian center, two year-round creeks, a pond, a regulation-sized basketball court, a skeet shooting range, a caretaker’s residence, a guesthouse, a swimming pool with a spa, a gym, a bocce court and a producing olive farm.

The main house has a loggia open to the outdoors, a sitting room in an upstairs tower and a climate-controlled wine cellar and tasting room. There are three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms.

Designed for indoor-outdoor living, the home has an outdoor courtyard with hand-painted frescoes, antique statues and fountains. An outdoor viewing tower has 360-degree views of Mt. Saint Helena and Knights Valley.
 
-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Coldwell Banker Previews International and Pacific Union / Christie’s Great Estates have the listing at www.villamontanaestate.com. Credit: Jim Bartsch

Open mansions: A sign of the times?

Public open houses being held at Westside properties priced as high as $21.9 million is the subject of my story today at latimes.com. Most of us can never afford a house costing more than a fraction of that price. If you are a diehard lookie-loo, at least now you can step inside one.

The real estate agents I talked to were split on whether this is a good idea or a bad one, but it's something to think about when you have family in town over the holidays and are looking for that only-in-L.A. experience.

--Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Agent Florence Mattar has been holding public open houses at this $21.9-million home in the "bird streets" area of Hollywood Hills. It has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms in 9,691 square feet. This is the living room. Credit: Everett Fenton Gidley

Redfin announces sale prices in real time, uh, maybe

The online brokerage Redfin announced a cool new tool for those interested in SoCal real estate prices. The Seattle-based online brokerage is now posting closed-sale prices and photographs for houses in a variety of big real estate markets as soon as the listing broker marks the property as sold.

The new version of the company’s website integrates data from the local databases that brokers use to take properties on and off the market, according to a release by the company this morning. The upgrade added 9.6 million photos for 1.4 million recent property sales with an average of more than 100 data fields on the property’s features.

Michael Smedberg, chief of of Redfin’s query and statistics team, says the upgrade will allow consumers to do their own comparative analyses of homes that were previously the purview of real estate agents.

“Comparative Market Analyses are one of the real estate industry’s ‘killer applications,’ ” Smedberg said in today's release, “but they're often shrouded in mystery; agents have direct access to data such as prices and photos for just-sold homes, but buyers rarely do. Without that direct access, consumers have had to rely on the expertise and availability of their agent, and this in turn made it hard to figure out on their own what to offer or ask for a listing.”

The company also announced that it has added trackbacks to its site, which will allow bloggers to automatically link to Web pages featuring properties.

Test run: It appears that Redfin’s site is groaning under the load of its new features. All morning the home page has had this message: “We're working hard to bring you a better Redfin. The site is unavailable for a brief time while we update our service. Please check back in a few minutes.”

Redfin Chief Executive Glenn Kelman just confirmed in an e-mail that the site keeps crashing for “the first time in a year or maybe two” and that we should hold off on our posting. Whoops. Too late.

-- Alejandro Lazo

Self-help guru James Arthur Ray lists Beverly Hills house

Motivational speaker and author James Arthur Ray, the subject of the L.A. Times article "Sweat lodge deaths a new test for self-help guru," has put his Beverly Hills home on the market for $5,495,000. From the report last month:

Three people collapsed in a sweat lodge during one of his $9,695-a-person "Spiritual Warrior" retreats outside Sedona, Ariz., and later died. The sheriff considers it a homicide investigation; no one has been charged.

Ray originally bought the 7,234-square-foot contemporary Mediterranean for $4 million in March, according to public records. Purchase details were reported in Hot Property. 

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Hot Property: Reggie Bush lists Hollywood Hills home

 
Reggie Bush, former USC tailback turned New Orleans Saint, has listed his Hollywood Hills home at $5,099,000.

The tri-level contemporary, which has an elevator, sits at the end of a cul-de-sac and has 360-degree views encompassing Long Beach, Catalina Island, Malibu and the mountains. There are four bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms in 4,831 square feet. Glass entry doors open to a soaring living room. Designed for entertaining, the home has a theater, a swimming pool and a spa.

The entire penthouse level is devoted to the master bedroom suite with his and her bathrooms, an over-sized closet and a deck.

Bush, 24, has been with the Saints since 2006 when he left USC before his senior year and was the No. 2 pick in the first round of the NFL draft.

The 2005 Heisman Trophy winner purchased the home for $4.7 million in 2007 for use as his off-season home, according to reports at the time.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Reggie Bush Hollywood Hills home has a swimming pool and a spa.The listing agent is Joshua Altman of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills. Credit: Marc Angeles