Palos Verdes Source

Today, there were 19 homes on the Palos Verdes Real Estate Broker’s Tour. We currently have 274 active single family homes for sale in Palos Verdes ranging in price from $785,000 in Rancho Palos Verdes ($479,000 in Eastview) to $18,900,000 in Rolling Hills. There are 64 townhomes/condos for sale priced between $259,000 and $2,000,00. My favorites today are:

Rick Edler’s 1200 Via Landeta, Palos Verdes Estates, (above left) is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2,377 square foot home for $1,549,000. This Upper Lunada Bay home has Ocean and Malibu views from the Master bedroom, outdoor built-in barbecue area and a large remodeled kitchen. Allen Scafati’s 2612 Via Rivera, Palos Verdes Estates, (above right) is a 5 bedroom 3.5 bath, 2,950 square foot home for $1,950,000. This Upper Lunada Bayhome is on an oversized 12,840 square foot lot, has 2 masters and a remodeled open kitchen.

Cindy Chew’s 4033 Via Picaposte, Palos Verdes Estates, (above left) is a 4 bedroom, 5 bath, 3,195 square foot home for $1,950,000. This Valmonte home was built in 2006, has vaulted ceilings, a great room and a separate den. Sandra Allbee’s 6517 Certa Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes, (above right) is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1816 square foot home for $850,000. This Los Verdes home has a flexible floor plan, secluded backyard and at this price is just waiting to be personalized.

Photos courtesy of MRMLS

The big news yesterday was that home resales nationally rose more than forecast in September. Sales of existing units rose 5.5% in September to the highest level in a year. Inventory of homes for sale fell 1.6% in September which was the second month in a row to show a decline. The biggest sales gain was in the West, where sales increased 16.8%. What does this mean for owners of Palos Verdes real estate?

Next Tuesday, the Peninsula Board of Realtors will hear an economic forecast by Robert Kleinhenz, Deputy Chief Economist for the California Association of Realtors. Stay tuned for a summation of that presentation.

Interest rates for a 30-year fixed conforming loan are currently 6% and interest for a jumbo loan is 7.875%. Even though interest rates have climbed since last month, they are still low by historical standards. Do you remember 16% fixed rate mortgages in 1981? Today’s rates look pretty good, don’t they?

For the last five years, a friend and I have hosted a Tea Party and Cookie Exchange. It is so much fun that we hold it twice a year and each invite 5 other guests. Each guest brings their own tea cup, 12 containers each filled with 6 of their favorite homemade cookies, 12 copies of their cookie recipe, 12 cookies on a serving plate for the tea party and an appetite for really delicious cookies!

We brew exotic teas and then sit down for three hours and enjoy great company and great cookies. We talk, we laugh, we eat (although eating all twelve cookies is not required). It is so relaxing and so much fun! It’s like being on a mini vacation. We all leave with smiles on our faces and are heroes when we return home to our families with a huge bulging bag filled with 12 decorative containers of cookies. My family waits with anticipation as we open each container and they taste the different cookies. Then they negotiate for their favorites.

It has grown to be quite an event with the guest list filled weeks in advance for the next party. Actually 2 of our guests have been to all the Tea Parties and we have had our recipes from the Tea Parties appear in cookbooks. It’s always such an nice group of women and we always learn something new about each other.

Good news for Palos Verdes Peninsula residents. There is a new banner (shown above) on the former Golden Lotus Restaurant site in the Golden Cove Center indicating Trader Joe’s may be coming to Rancho Palos Verdes after all. The initial plans were scrapped after the landlord decided to rescind his application with the city of Rancho Palos Verdes after some neighbors complained.

However, the Peninsula News reported “Many residents have expressed disappointment with the discontinued plans to bring a Trader Joe’s market to Rancho Palos Verdes…However, a banner spotted on the property on Thursday shows signs of hope. After talks with RPV officials, Paris Zarrabian, manager of the Golden Cove LLC, said he decided to move forward with a revised project – the proposed grocery store will remain at the current height of the Golden Lotus, and the square footage will be reduced from 13,000 square feet to 11,000. The flags will go up within weeks, and a Planning commission hearing is tentatively set for Dec. 9. If all goes well, Zarrabian said the developer will break ground next spring.”

It will be fabulous to have our own Trader Joe’s. Let’s hope the plans are approved this time. By the way, at the bottom of the banner it says, “For more information call 310-930-3505 or 805-373-1133.

Statistics for single family homes for the month of September for Palos Verdes Real Estate are now available. There were 31 closed escrows (30 in August) and 15 pending sales (35 in August). Active homes for sale have remained fairly constant (276 in September) for the last 4 months and up from the same period a year ago (227 in September 2007).

Average price for homes that closed escrow in September was up slightly at $1,476,000 compared to August at $1,454,000. Average days on market for properties that closed escrow in September fell to 57 days from 87 days in August. Months of inventory (how many months it would take to sell existing inventory at the current rate of sale)remained the nearly the same at 8.9 months; it was 9 months in August. Entire charts can be accessed by clicking here or on the “Statistics” tab above.

Currently, there are 277 single familyhomes for sale on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Additionally, 30 homes have pending sales, 27 homes are in escrow accepting backup offers and 11 homes have sold/closed escrow in the first 16 days of September.

Today, there 21 homes on the Palos Verdes Real Estate Broker’s Tour. We currently have 282 active single family homes for sale in Palos Verdes ranging in price from $785,000 in Rancho Palos Verdes ($619,000 in Eastview) to $18,900,000 in Rolling Hills. There are 64 townhomes/condos for sale priced between $270,000 and $2,000,000. My favorites today are:

Cora Fischer’s 1605 Via Barcelona, Palos Verdes Estates, (above left) is a 5 bedroom, 5.5 bath, 5,433 square foot home for $$3,195,000. This Upper Lunada Bay home has two master suites, breathtaking ocean views and a large open kitchen. Rick Edler’s 1376 Via Romero, Palos Verdes Estates, (above right) is a 6 bedroom, 7 bath, 10,095 square foot home for $5,750,000. This Upper Lunada Bay home is a spectacular contemporary with panoramic ocean views and a tennis court.

Gary Myer’s 32759 Seagate Drive, Penthouse G, Rancho Palos Verdes, (above left) is a 2 bedroom, 1.75 bath, 1,506 square foot condominium for $1,395,000. This Bay Club penthouse ocean-front unit has 180 degree ocean view and was completely remodeled by Edward Carson Beale in 2006. Heather Chamberlain’s 40 Ranchview Road, Rolling Hills Estates, (above right) is a 5 bedroom, 5 bath, 4,438 square foot home for $2,250,000. This Equestrian Estate has a spacious open floor plan, a huge gourmet kitchen, a solar heated pool and is on a 23,350 square foot lot.

Photos courtesy of MRMLS

Every time I travel down Palos Verdes Drive South, I am amazed at the progress of our new Terranea Resort. I do believe they will make their June 2009 opening!

Peninsula News recently had an article updating the progress. On October 27th a furnished Casita will be completed and open for public view from 10:00 – 5:00 (and daily thereafter). Please call 310-802-7465 for an appointment. 31 Casitas and Villas are still available for sale from $2,250,000 to $4,100,000. Forty percent of the buyers of the 51 Villas/Casitas that have sold are Peninsula residents or live in the Los Angeles area!

Work on the 360-room hotel, meeting rooms, grand ballroom, restaurants, pools, 25,000 square-foot spa and nine-hole golf course are well underway as you can see from the photo above. And “a 50-space public parking area allows residents access to the trail system and beach, which already is popular with local scuba divers.” It will be fabulous to have a hotel where our guests can stay and restaurants for all of us to enjoy!

Yesterday, the Fed lowered interest rates one-half a percent. The Fed Fund Rate now stands at 1.5% and the Discount Rate is 1.75%. What do you think happened with home mortgage rates? No, they did not go down but went up instead one-half a percent. A 30-year fixed loan at zero points for Palos Verdes real estate (and elsewhere) is 6 .375% conforming, 6.5% jumbo conforming and 7.5% for jumbo loans.

“Why the increase?” you might ask. The word on the street is that this 1/2% increase in mortgage rates may be an aberration but is probably because the Federal Government has to sell tens of billions of dollars of Treasury Bills this week to cover debt. The Government had to sell them at a discount which makes the yield higher. Some of the rate increase may also be profit taking by the lenders.

Of course, 6.5% interest fixed for 30 years is still a good rate. Only in the last five out of 35 years has the rate been lower. And today’s 6.5% rate is with zero loan points!

I have had several clients ask questions regarding foreclosure properties. There have not been too many on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Foreclosures are not your normal purchase and a buyer is usually on his own (unless he hires a Realtor to act as his Buyer’s Agent to help him navigate through the process). Here is the time-line for the process. A NOD property is one that has a Notice of Default filed against it; the owner has 3 months to reinstate before the bank can foreclose. A NOT property is when the bank files a Notice of Trustee’s Sale which is the actual sale/auction on the courthouse steps. A REO property (is bank owned) has been taken back by the bank as it did not sell for the bank approved price at the foreclosure auction; usually a REO property will eventually be listed with a Realtor.

There is a new twist to the Foreclosure Sale/Auction – Duval County in Florida will be the first in the country to hold and Internet foreclosure auction next month. The LA Times Business section had an informative article regarding the pros and cons (mostly cons) of allowing these auctions to be held on the Internet. Currently, Florida is the only state that is not required to hold a public sale after notice has been given.

Buying foreclosure properties are not for the feint of heart. Currently in California on the courthouse steps, “the auctioneer announces a property and bidders shout out their bids, raising them in $100 increments. If they win, they have to pay the entire sales price, often within the next few minutes. That usually means signing over that cashier’s check and collecting any change.” Prior to the auction, “bidders have to research the properties’ histories, understand the local market and actually visit the homes” (usually just a drive by as the homes are still occupied). Allowing foreclosure auctions on the Internet could open up potential problems for buyers who are lulled into a false sense of security by the property information that is available on the Internet not realizing how much information they may be missing.

What are the names of the Bays and Coves in Palos Verdes? That questions was asked of me a couple of weeks ago. And as a 30 plus year resident, I could not name them all. How lucky are we here on the Palos Verdes Peninsula that we have so many that we can’t count or name them all! Our coastline is truly magnificent!

Matt Waters at Rancho Palos Verdes Parks and Recreation Department did some research for me and came up with the map below taken from Don Gales book, “Wildflowers, weeds…” I realize it may be challenging to read so I am listing the Coves and Bays starting from RAT (Right At Torrance) beach which is the northern border of the Palos Verdes coastline (and the Points are in parenthesis).

In Palos Verdes Estates there is Malaga Cove, Bluff Cove, (Rocky Point) Lunada Bay (Resort Point) and Christmas Tree Cove (which is shared with Rancho Palos Verdes). The shoreline begins in Rancho Palos Verdes with Christmas Tree Cove and continues with Golden Cove, (Point Vicente) Fisherman’s Cove (Long Point), Abalone Cove – photo above, (Portuguese Point) Smuggler’s Cove/Sacred Cove (Inspiration Point) and Portuguese Bend Cove (Halfway Point).