Here in the Hollywood Riviera real estate market there are 9 pending sales right now – that’s good news. The very good news for our neighborhood right now is that we have a home that was listed for $1,799,000 in escrow right now. There hasn’t been a sale above $1,465,000 since November 1st, 2008. This will create a comparable for the higher end market which has been taking a beating lately as far as appraisals go. Even if someone has wanted to refinance their home, the house has to go through the appraisal process and no higher end comps bring down the average.
Click here to see the current pending sales.
There are currently 43 homes for sale right now in the Hollywood Riviera. This includes everything from $625,000 for a fixer on Pacific Coast Highway to $2,799,000 for a brand new contemporary home looking over Torrance Beach. Click here to see the list of homes for sale in the Hollywood Riviera.
To see what has sold in the Hollywood Riviera since January 1st, 2009 – so a little longer than the 1st quarter ‘09…..Click Here. 12 homes have sold since January 1st, 2009. That is down from 17 homes the same time last year. The average price of the 17 sold homes last year was $1,190,000 and the avg $/sq ft was $577. The average price of the 12 sold homes in 2009 is $972,583 and the avg $/sq ft is down to $509.
According to the 2008 California Association of Realtors Survey of Seller’s – 84% of people use the internet to begin their search of property and this is up from 72% in 2007 and up from 62% in 2006 - so the internet snowball is rolling. What is it that would be of interest to an internet shopper? Pictures – it’s not the words. It’s like breezing through a magazine; most people just look at the pictures and their captions – rarely read an entire article. I’ve even heard from one buyer, that they read the description and didn’t see any pictures to prove the description so they thought it might be a hoax. As a seller, you certainly don’t want that going through the minds of a potential buyer. Then there’s the “worst pictures ever” category. Might be better off with no pictures than the bad ones…see below. Can you imagine? Get good pictures - insist!
(picture care of MLS Trash Can)
With every down there is an up – the silver lining to our real estate trends lately is that the entry level California affordability index is at one of its highest levels ever…59% vs 33% a year ago. Add to that terrific mortgage interest rates and we’ve got Los Angeles county showing a 41.3% increase in sales volume – Feb. 09 vs Feb. 08! Dataquick News story reports that Southland sales volume has outpaced last year again with the median price remaining unchanged. As the entry level buyers start buying up the inventory that is out there, the next level of buyers – the “move up” buyers can start to make their move and so on. Eventually we will see some movement again in the higher end market which is still somewhat soft right now.
Here in the Hollywood Riviera there is so much inventory – 45 Single Family Homes on the market right now and 7 condos or townhouses. Pending sales number 6 right now - which is better than it was a few days ago. We actually have a “high end” house in escrow right now ($1.799K list price)…one of the most expensive houses to sell in almost a year….the last most expensive sale in ‘09 was for $1.4K on March 31st, ‘09.
The lack of high end sales has killed the average sales price for the 1st quarter. In 2008 we had a bunch of nice high end sales…2 homes above $2 million dollars and a few in the $1.5K+ range. We have some great homes here in the Hollywood Riviera – super high end with amazing views, amazing finishes and super locations! Who doesn’t want to live in the Hollywood Riviera – close to some of the best beaches in the South Bay, close to the Riviera Village – great restaurants, boutique shopping and Trader Joes!
Of the 45 homes currently for sale there are some that really stand out – 
This new listing at 636 Calle Miramar is a neat property on a nice large lot, with views, gorgeous remodel and beautiful backyard complete w/ amazing pool – all this for $2,499,000. Next standout is 
635 Calle de Arboles – a gorgeous home built in 2005 with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms – it’s a deal at $1,545,000. The next price level standout is 
this gorgeous ocean and coastline view home at 308 Via Anita priced well at $1,155,000. Next down the price chain is 
this charming home at 5403 Calle Mayor for $929,000. It’s got a beautiful secret garden style backyard and charm, charm, charm inside! For the bargain hunter or first time home buyer in the Hollywood Riviera there is 
this new listing in the ever popular “lower Riviera” at 236 Via La Circula for only $839,000 – this is a great price for an entry level 3/2 in the lower Riv.
For any and all info regarding the Hollywood Riviera, feel free to call Kelly & Laura. We would love to get you familiar with this wonderful neighborhood!
€œZillow€, €œRedfin€, €œTrulia€, €œEAppraisal€, €œHouse Values€, €œCyberHomes€, these are just a few of the websites out there promising to help you find your home€™s value. It€™s so confusing, isn€™t it? €˜Zillow€™ seems to be one of the top offenders if you ask us. They would be great at finding a home€™s value if all the homes here were exactly alike with exactly the same upgrades, the same views, the same everything. In the Hollywood Riviera, we all know this is far from the truth. Each and every one of these houses is different…even the €œtracks€ are all different now. So many have been added on to, or completely gutted and started over, and some have been torn down and rebuilt brand new. Zillow, and these other websites rely solely on the public tax records to place value on your home. Then they go through the tax records and find the most recent transfers within a certain proximity to your home. We€™ve seen the €œzestimates€ be off by a few hundred thousand dollars. A lot of the public tax records are inaccurate for one thing. Often tax records have the wrong number of bedrooms, square footage, etc and again take in no regard for whether the property has a view or not…which we all know can change the value of a property upwards of $100,000 or more sometimes. The bottom-line is that you need to hire a “human being” who knows the area well. Someone who has been inside these houses and knows the condition of the homes. Someone who can come inside your home and see all the upgrades and assess its true value. As Realtors we spend a lot of our time viewing homes – that’s our inventory, so we pride ourselves on knowing it. This is how value gets established – knowing what the comparables really are.
Recently, the number of sales is so low in our area, that it makes determining the value of a home very difficult. There are very few homes to compare to “yours.” Unfortunately, in today’s buyer’s market it works out that value is typically drawn by looking at the last comparable sale and taking about 10% off of that if you plan on “selling” the property and not just sitting on it.
