 If you move to Pacific Palisades, and plunk down $1.8 million for a house, you might bump into Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Affleck or Jennifer Garner at the local Coffee Bean. You might also live next to a bizarre house inhabited by elderly twins and a huge collection of pet rats.
This is what happened to Scott and Liz Denham, and it's the subject of a must-read story by Max Taves in L.A. Weekly that will make your skin crawl. It is billed as "a tale beyond belief."
Taves: "(Denham's) sweet old neighbor ladies, identical twins, had spent years fanatically feeding the Palisades’ rat population. Although the full dimensions of the environmental and health damage done by the peculiar pair are unknown, experts contacted by L.A. Weekly estimate that the ladies’ actions may have added tens of thousands, even 500,000, new rats to L.A.’s Westside."
The story, in brief: 78-year-old twin sisters, Marjorie and Margaret Barthel, have allegedly been keeping hundreds of rats as pets for years. City officials have done little to address the huge infestation, and the story only came to light when the frightened and frantic Denhams -- parents of two young children -- gave up on complaining to government agencies, sued the sisters and told their story to L.A. Weekly.
This YouTube video, posted by Scott Denham, gives a flavor of living next door to a house of rats.
The Barthel twins did not comment for the story, but L.A. Weekly quotes from depositions they have given in the lawsuit. "Since 1958, we've had rats," Marjorie is quoted at one point. “If you’re afraid of a few rats, read the Book of Revelation," she says at another. A medical expert quoted by L.A. Weekly says he believes the sisters suffer from a form of hoarding known as "animal hoarding."
As the Denham's lawsuit progressed, L.A. Weekly reports, "the sisters hired American Pest Control to tent the house. A crew wearing face masks and hazmat suits emerged pale-faced and sober, as if they had just witnessed the aftermath of a biohazard spill — which, in a way, they had. Scott Denham says they hauled several large garbage bags heavy with dead rats from the bedrooms, kitchen, attic, basement and guesthouse, as the Denhams took photos."
-- Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Hat tip: LA Observed
Photo: Los Angeles Times
 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
 Catching up: Westside Bubble has an interesting price about significant price cuts in Pacific Palisades. The houses are in that tricky sub-$2 million price range.
The 3-bedroom, 2-bath pictured has been languishing on the market since January, when it was listed at $1.699 million. It's now listed for $1.199, a price cut of 29%.
The other two price cuts mentioned aren't as deep: !3% and 8%.
Our take: We've seen weakness for a while in this price range (too rich for first-time buyers, not rich enough for the suitcases-of-cash crowd), but we can't remember anything close to a 29% price cut on the Westside.
Thoughts? Comments? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com
Photo Credit: Westside Bubble
 Interesting item over at Westside Bubble about the perils of pricing too aggressively. The house at right was listed in January at $1.699 million; here we are in July, the house is still available, now offered at $1.359 million.
We'll let the Bubble tell it: "Well-priced houses have sold pretty fast in Pacific Palisades this spring. This 3 bed / 2 bath house at 461 Puerto del Mar, however, is an entertaining lesson in How Not to Price. There's more to this house than the photo shows, two stories on the back, looking out on the canyon.
More: "Originally listed 1/10/07 for $1,699K, it's slowly nibbled the price down every couple of weeks, to $1,649K and $1,599.5K in February; $1,525K, $1,499K, and $1,449K in March; $1,429K and $1,399K in April; $1,379K in May; and now $1,359K at the end of June."
Thoughts? Insights?
Photo Credit: Westside Bubble
Westide Bubble sees signs of price softness in the Palisades. You be the judge; the house wedged in on the lower right, a 2-bedroom, sold in March for $1.15 million. But it was listed for $1.299 million, according to Westside Bubble. Softness? Or still shockingly spendy? Or both?
Snippet: "El Medio Bluffs is the part of Pacific Palisades south of Sunset Blvd., west of Temescal Canyon Rd. Asilomar Blvd. at the edge of the bluffs has a wonderful view of the ocean (over the trailer park on PCH, though)."
"The house on the right in the photo is at 478 Wynola, 2 bed/1 bath. You can see its very shallow back yard. It was asking $1,299K, but closed 3/23/07 for $1,150K. That's about the bottom there recently. Two other recent cheaper sales were 741 El Medio, 3/2, closed 2/2/07 for $1,440K, and 16050 Aiglon, 3/1.5, closed 2/22/07 for $1,479K."
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If you move to Pacific Palisades, and plunk down $1.8 million for a house, you might bump into Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Affleck or Jennifer Garner at the local Coffee Bean. You might also live next to a bizarre house inhabited by elderly twins and a huge collection of pet rats.
