It’s here…yuck! May-Gray to be followed by June-Gloom. There is actually a definition in Wikipedia for May-Gray & June-Gloom…I’m shocked! And it’s right on the money - “June Gloom (also May Gray) is a California term for a weather pattern that results in overcast skies with mild temperatures during the late spring and early summer….” It also mentions that it may lead to “Seasonal Affective Disorder” - depression basically.
Here in the Hollywood Riviera and any other South Bay area with views, it is a horrible time to put a “VIEW” home on the market. You can’t see a thing right now - on a clear day it feels like you could reach out and touch the Santa Monica Mountains and during May-Gray - forget that there are even mountains there. One may even call you a liar if you told them there were mountains and/or an ocean out there in the pea-soup!
I sure hope it clears up for 4th of July this year. The fireworks at Torrance Beach are gorgeous when you can see them!! Let’s hope all hope for clear weather soon! Here’s what it looks like on a clear day at the sunset hour!
There are currently 27 single family homes on the market as of today with the average Days on Market at 61. 11 of those actively listed properties have reduced their prices at least once. The highest price is $2,295,000 for a home in a gated planned community called Riviera Beach Colony
- it’s a lovely home just steps to the beach. The lowest priced home is $650,000 on Pacific Coast Highway - the service street.
As far as what’s in escrow currently - there are 9 homes pending sale and their average days on market was also 61. 2 of those properties reduced their price once before going under contract. The highest price pending home is $1,999,000 for a gorgeous new construction home with an ocean view on the corner of Calle Mayor and Via Pasqual. It’s not quite done yet and never hit the MLS as active; it just came on as pending. The lowest price pending property is $650,000 and it’s down on Highgrove and needed some work. 
As far as what’s sold this year - 2008 - we’ve got 16 sales so far. It’s a far cry from this time last year (2007 had 28 homes sold by now) as far as number of units sold. This year is off by 43% for number of units sold. A lot of people are clearly “waiting it out.” We do have the same number of actively listed homes though - but many of those have been on the market a long time….a couple for over a year! The only good news here for 2008 so far is that the average price is actually up 8% with the average price for 2008 sales coming in at $1,228K and average price from 2007 sales (same period January 1st - April 22nd) coming in at $1,129K. The most expensive home sold in 2008 so far was $2,425,000 and it was gorgeous with the most amazing views!! It is one of the most expensive homes ever sold here in the Riviera, short of the homes on the Paseo de la Playa bluffs. The least expensive home sold in 2008 was $605,000 on that same PCH service street as mentioned above.
One area to look at as well when mentioning the Hollywood Riviera is the difference in the Torrance side (90505) and the Redondo Beach side (90277.) See my article - “Hollywood Riviera - Where is that Anyway” for a map of the different sides. The Torrance side’s solds in 2008 average price was $958,00 (6 units) and the Redondo Beach side’s average price was $1,390,000 (10 units.) Big Difference here!
Stay tuned for next months update!
What is the difference between Contingent and Pending? Well - technically both these descriptions refer to properties that are “in escrow.” In Escrow refers to a property that is under contract. Typically the first 17 days of the contract are “contingent” days - contingent on inspections of the property, review of disclosures, appraisal and financing approval, to name a few.
So does the listing agent put the property into a “contingent” or “pending” status in the MLS? Agents are required by their Board of Realtors to enter “active” listings into one of these categories after a contract is accepted between the buyer and seller. Realtors actually have other choices as well - Back Up Offers, First Right of Refusal (this one is new.) The two most common are Contingent and/or Pending. If the contract seems pretty “solid” right off the bat there is not much of a decision - it goes into Pending. Technically a contingent entry is still considered a property to be “available for showing” by realtors. One good reason for a contingent status: the seller accepted a “contingent on the sale of buyers’ property” contract. This is typically the reason to put a property into the Contingent Status. The Board of Realtors considers the Contingent status as one that is still “active” and continues the Days on Market (DOM) Clock still counting. Many agents don’t know this and put properties into Contingent Status for no real reason - not because they accepted a “contingent offer.” Only the Pending status stops the DOM clock from counting! If a property is in Contingent Status the Days Under Contract are included in the “market time.”
This creates a problem for agents who may be checking comps for properties and using DOM as a statistic…..often if a property is entered in Contingent Status, agents never take it out of that status and the clock ticks on the entire time it’s under contract and it would then appear that is sat on the market for much longer than it really did. Laura and I for one would like for all agents to know this is how it works and start to use the Pending status if a property is in escrow. We all know that no one shows contingent status properties. Maybe you occasionally get a phone call from another agent curious if the escrow is strong or now…but if they want to know they will call on and status.
Let’s all put properties into Pending from now on unless an escrow truly is contingent on the sale of a buyer’s property. (Especially when this really doesn’t happen that often anyway.) That way we can all really know how long a property was really on the market - our DOM can become more accurate that way!
real estate information South Bay MLS
