A good way to figure out what direction we’re headed is to look back.  This time last year – Jan 1, 2007 – Feb 27, 2007 there were 11 homes sold in the Hollywood Riviera.  The average sale price was $1,069K.  Of the 11 sold properties the lowest priced sale was $828K and the highest priced sale was $1,400K.   The average Days on Market was 42 days and average dollar per square foot was $586. 

What’s interesting is to see what the same amount of time – 58 days – both of a first quarter (not typically the “hottest” quarter of the year) held in 2008.   10 homes sold in the 1st 58 days of 2008 with an average price of $1,147K – that is a 6.8% increase – yes – increase in average price.  This is interesting though – the lowest price home to sell in this time period 2008 was $605K and the highest was $2,130K – now there is a spread for you.  The average $ per square foot was similar to last year – $569K, a tiny bit less than last year.  The Days on Market was essentially the same as well, 43 compared to 42.  Of the ten sold, half were under a million and half were over a million dollars.  In 2007, 6 were over a million and 5 were under a million dollars – things haven’t changed much is what I’m seeing here. 

What’s going to happen as we move forward – I don’t have a crystal ball but…if things stay the same like they have so far – the month of March 2007 went like this:  10 homes sold last year in the month of March – 31 days.  (The same amount of homes that sold in 58 days.)   March is when things start to heat up – a good time of year for sellers usually.  The average price was $1.172K  – interesting that the average price doesn’t change much although the parameters to get there sure do – March last year had 10 sales and the lowest was $1 million and the highest was $1.3K – very tight price range.  Average DOM was 44, similar to what we’ve been seeing, so no news there.    If we do this in March 08 – we currently have 24 homes for sale – so almost half of them would be sold by April 1st.  We all know there will be new inventory though…sure hope so – what’s on now sure is getting stale.   We’ve had 22 homes on the market for a while – there were just 2 new listings to hit the market within the last week – one today that looks amazing and one that is pretty decent from last week.  Curious to see what happens…can’t wait to make the report!