 Meaningless anecdotes or tips of a trend? Your call.
Malibu: Michael Gardner's real estate blog reports that a home in Malibu Cove Colony just sold for a huge discount. The home, he reports, was listed in late 2007 for $6 million, and just sold for $3.5 million. Gardner: "The home needed some work but has great views of Point Dume, is in the Paradise Cove Bay where it lies protected from the afternoon northwesterlies, and is in a neighborhood of $5-6 mil. homes that rent for $40-60k per month in the summer."
Manhattan Beach: Price cuts are old news but this one is big -- a million bucks. Manhattan Beach Confidential reports that a home listed at $8 million in February has just been reduced to $7 million. MB Confidential reports the original asking price was "fairly astonishing ... Not modest. In fact, it just didn't seem serious. Smelled like a market-tester."
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Submitted to Your Scene at LATimes.com by T Payne.
This one comes out of left field: A $10.5 million listing in Malibu with a 7.5% commission, including 5% for the buyer's agent. From Michael Gardner's Malibu Real Estate blog:
"Most agents go into a listing appointment hoping for a 6% commission
but will often get the contract signed at 5%. In areas like Malibu and
other expensive communities, it’s not unusual for the commission to be
4% on homes that are $6,000,000 or more. This home on Broad Beach (pictured) not
only offers an exclusive address right on the sand but a whopping 7.5%
commission with the buyer’s agent receiving 5%! If the house closes at
the asking price the agent who brings the buyer will walk away with
close to $250,000 AFTER the split (based on a 50/50 split) with their
brokerage! This is one motivated seller!"
You can see the house here.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo Credit: Michael Gardner
 Can you lose money by investing in Malibu real estate?
Yes, you can, and lots of it, according to Michael Hiltzik's worthwhile yarn this morning detailing a real estate investment idea gone very bad in the hills above the Malibu coast:
"State law enforcement officials are investigating whether 70 retirees and other investors in Northern California were bilked when they put up $6.4 million for construction loans on Malibu land that may be impossible to develop. The investors have foreclosed on the land, which is worth just a fraction of its appraised value as prime home building property. But they're still trying to figure out where their money went."
The investors figured the Malibu land -- four parcels totaling 174 acres -- could be subdivided into 13 parcels, and that 10,000-square-foot mansions could be built on each parcel. The land was appraised based on that assumption. The investors figured wrong: The four parcels cannot be subdivided without state Coastal Commission permission, which has not been granted. And the money they lent is gone.
They do have the land, though, valued by one Malibu real estate agent at about $3.4 million.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo: Los Angeles Times
 Excellent post over at L.A. Now reminiscing about the days when Malibu's Paradise Cove was affordable -- a "risky investment" even, and how the media, the celebrities and the money people ruined all that.
Veronique de Turenne (one of the best names in blogging), starts off, "When we bought the trailer here in Paradise Cove 14 years ago, a series of bruising lawsuits between residents and the park's owners had turned it into a risky investment and home values had tanked. We had a tiny down payment and this was the only place we could afford. Anywhere.
"It was quiet here, a mix of families and retirees. There were no car alarms. There were very few golf carts. You knew everyone you saw on the beach."
Read the whole thing here.
 Look carefully at the photo, there is a quiz below.
One of the most popular topics on this blog is the debate over what will happen to prices in higher-cost neighborhoods. To date, they have generally held their value better than greater Los Angeles, and have not suffered large numbers of foreclosures. That said, reader e-mail from "Someday the Ants Will Eat Grasshoppers":
"Your readers keep asking why the
prices are holding up on the high end Westside properties. I’m not sure what
they’re looking at, but I have been tracking prices in Westwood, lower
Brentwood, Santa Monica (north of the 10), and Pacific Palisades every day for
past 3 months. I look at every house for sale under $2M with 3 bedrooms or more,
and I look every day. Really.
"Here are the relevant numbers
(calculated from my daily Redfin downloads for those neighborhoods and that
price range):
"The average number of listed homes
dropping their asking price per
day: 1.15
"The average size of any one price
drop when it occurs: $53,090.90
"The average drop across all 50-60
properties meeting the search criteria per
day: $1,017.58
"Ratio of new homes being listed to
homes being sold: 3.48.
"So…Westside sellers are constantly
dropping asking prices, and often in large amounts (the largest I saw since Feb
was $400K). New properties are being listed for sale over three times more often
than listed properties are selling. With asking prices for these sub $2M
properties dropping about $1K per day, only the very rich would want to buy now.
I mean, if you are in that market, that’s like putting $30K per month in your
pocket just for waiting.
"People have observed that comps are
not lowering. However, the average selling price is about $200K less than the
average asking price in these neighborhoods right now. The comps are slow to
decline simply because there are very few sales right now. No one (with good
reason) seems to be buying. Eventually the transactions will happen, and the
comps will adjust. Everyone needs to be patient, although frankly, I wish
someone would buy now and then to help accelerate the lowering
comps.
"I hope you run this story
(or at least selected parts of it), because many of the high earners in your fan
club get less attention, and certainly less sympathy, about the difficulty of
getting into the market. They deserve to know that their lot will change, too,
and their hard work and patience will pay off. Life is
fair."
Thanks, Someday.
Now, as promised, the quiz. The house pictured is a 993-square foot, 3-bedroom, 1-bath in the 90405 ZIP code of Santa Monica.The current Zillow Zestimate is:
a) $599,000
b) $714,000
c) $805,000
d) $917,000
e) $1.06 million
Your thoughts? Guesses? Email story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: L.A. Times
 An update on Sunday's item reporting that Nancy Daly Riordan, the estranged wife of former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, had sold a Malibu beach house for an estimated $68 million.
The enterprising RealEstalker blog reports that the sale has hit a snag, and the prospective buyers "got cold feet and walked away."
On Friday, March 7, the L.A. Times published the following correction: "FOR THE RECORD: Daly Riordan property: The March 2 Hot
Property column in the Real Estate section reported that Nancy Daly
Riordan's house on Carbon Beach had sold for a Malibu record-breaking
price of $68 million. In fact, the house has not been sold. The story
also reported that the home has more than 200 feet of beach frontage.
Property records indicate it has 180 feet of beach frontage." A housekeeping note: In the comment thread on the initial item, a number of readers chose to make a few unkind comments about Ms. Riordan's appearance. In response, another reader pointed out Ms. Riordan is battling pancreatic cancer.
Out of respect, I chose to remove the comments. Let's try to keep the conversation to real estate, and keep it focused. Thanks.
Photo Credit: Los Angeles Urban Rangers
 Update: The following correction ran in the L.A. Times on Friday March 7: "FOR THE RECORD: Daly Riordan property: The March 2 Hot Property column in the Real Estate section reported that Nancy Daly Riordan's house on Carbon Beach had sold for a Malibu record-breaking price of $68 million. In fact, the house has not been sold. The story also reported that the home has more than 200 feet of beach frontage. Property records indicate it has 180 feet of beach frontage."
Here's the previous incorrect item as it ran:
News item: Ruth Ryon's Hot Property reports that Nancy Daly Riordan (pictured), the estranged wife of former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, has sold a Malibu beach house for an estimated $68 million. "It is believed to be the highest-priced home sale in Malibu, dwarfing the sale last year of the former Johnny Carson estate at $35 million."
"The 12,785-square-foot house, which stands out from its neighbors because it is so large, sits on slightly more than three lots with more than 200 feet of beach frontage along exclusive Carbon Beach -- also known as 'Billionaires Beach.' The mansion, built in 2002, has eight bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a tennis court."
More: "The buyer was described as 'a rich Canadian' by area real estate agents."
Analysis: An item like this isn't so much about real estate as it is about two other subjects: the concentration of wealth and the weakening of the dollar. The last couple of decades have produced new breeds of wealthy, super-wealthy, and the obscenely wealthy. Those fortunate enough to have made their wealth outside of the United States can now buy American property and businesses at a discount.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: L.A. Times
 This is our very first item about the Malibu real estate market, and we promise, it will be short. Curbed LA links to a Malibu Times story, which says the market is showing signs of sluggishness.
This anecdote on a five-bedroom home in Point Dume: "When it hit the market in June of last year, the asking price of nearly $3 million would've brought a profit above the $2,750,000 paid in 2005. But profit would not come. The listing had a price reduction several times before finally expiring from the multiple listings. According to public records, the home sold in March for just more than $2.1 million, a loss of $650,000."
The analysis is from Coldwell Banker real estate agent Rick Wallace: "Homes at less than $2 million, where only 15 of 66 this year have found a buyer that currently have or closed an escrow, are the most apt to see price reductions..."
Comments? Thoughts?
Photo Credit: Curbed LA
|
|
Meaningless anecdotes or tips of a trend? Your call.
