Today's Los Angeles Times Real Estate Section reported the ten Southern California cities with the highest increase in sales prices for single family residences for the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same period last year. Both zip codes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula were on this list. Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates (zip 90274) showed an increase in median...
I can only imagine how the public feels regarding real estate in the Palos Verdes and South Bay areas with the news media's seemingly conflicting reporting . Yesterday's LA Times Business section headline, "March a cruel month - Foreclosures take over..." is only 8 days after the LA Times Business section headline, "Home prices staying afloat at the beach" (see my post "Now You're Talking" April 8,...
This is an open letter to Buyers. If you are looking for foreclosures or REOs (bank owned real estate) in Palos Verdes or the South Bay, here are some ideas to help you... One for the Money -You must have your finances ready. The Bank-Seller has already experienced shaky finances from the prior owner. Get pre-approved from your lender and have them pull your current FICO scores. You will also...
"Home prices staying afloat at the beach" is today's headline in theLos Angeles Times Business Section. They researched 18 zip codes "excluding such spend-happy areas as Malibu, Palos Verdes and Newport Beach" inferring that real estate in those 3 cities are doing even better. Kudos to the LA Times for writing a balanced article with information that is specific to our South Bay area. We are...
Tuesday night, Barbara Walters had a fascinating ABC-TV Special entitled, "Live to be 150 - Can you do it?" There are more than 84,000 centenarians (100+) living in the United States with a projection of over 1,000,000 by the year 2050. Many are choosing to stay in their own homes. This is an important demographic that will change many industries, including real estate. According the 2000 U.S....
With the first day of Spring our thoughts go to nature and real estate. The flowers are blooming and there is life in Palos Verdes real estate too. Today, there are 223 active single family residences for sale compared to 216 last month. March 1st to date, there are 74 Pending transactions for March compared to 32 last month. March 1st to date, there are 18 sold or closed transactions compared...
I am seeing increased activity in our market on the Palos Verdes Peninsula which follows normal trends for this time of year. Spring is the "season" for real estate. In the last 6 days, 20 new listings came on the market, 12 properties became Contingent, 10 properties went into Pending and 5 properties closed escrow (from sales a month or two ago). Some of the Pending sales actually were properties...
This is a question that I am asked often. The answer is "Just fine, thank you" for several reasons. First, if you look at recent statistics such as "California Association of Realtors - LA County Economic Profile January 2008" the median price year to year November 2006 to November 2007 for Palos Verdes Peninsula shows an increase of 20.4%. Los Angeles Times in Southland Home Prices dated 1/20/08...
Many Multiple Listing Services allow the agent to cancel/withdraw a listing and then relist it (even moments later) to make it appear as a new listing. I think this is a great marketing ploy but wrong. It then gives a skewed look at buyers' reaction to that particular property. Kelly and Laura of Remax Palos Verdes call this "Churning and Burning". If a property sits on the market for over 30 days,...
There is serious discussion between Congressional leaders and the White House about increasing the loan limits from $417,000 to $625,000 (perhaps as high as $725,000 in high-cost areas) for guaranteed/insured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. From LATimes.com - "And in a provision crucial to high-housing-cost states such as California, there would be a significant one-year increase in the size of...