High/Low Prices of 2009, Hills

We'll wrap up 2009 with a look at the highest and lowest prices paid for SFRs west of Sepulveda.

This post will focus on the Hill Section. We'll follow up with more on the Sand & Tree Sections soon in later posts. For the 2008 wrap-up, click here.

One nice improvement over last year's post – clicking on property links now takes you to the full-feature listing pages, even for most closed sales, thanks to some hard work by Redfin to unleash that information. Redfin's improvement on already-great search is definitely one of our favorite side stories of 2009. Enjoy.


Hill Section

Highest price: 218 Anderson aimed high this year, beginning very near $10m ($9.988m) in February. Had it sold near there, it would have been on a par with last year's top-dollar sale, 900 Pacific, which went for $9.85m.

Alas, that was not to be, but Anderson still took top honors this year, selling for $6.525m in November. The nearly $3.5m discount from start was also the biggest correction we saw in 2008 and the biggest we can recall in MB. (See "Ground Down to $6.5m.")

The very big (8br/9ba, 8500 sq. ft.) home on an ocean-view double lot offers all kinds of extras, like 2 masters and almost 2 kitchens (one a "caterer's cooking station") plus a gym and lap pool.

And while it seems plenty nice as-is (click here for the narrated virtual tour), the last we heard, the new owners plan to undertake a major new renovation. So the priciest sale in the Hills could get costlier as the months and years tick by.

Honorable mention: 814 10th is not officially sold yet — it's posted as being in escrow, and has been for several months. The ginormous new home (5br/7ba, 9000 sq. ft., including separate cabana) was listed at $6.995m for about 4 months before finding a buyer. We hear that's a lease-option deal rather than a straight-up sale. So the eventual sale price could be near $7m and could qualify as highest for the year 2009, or they may not close at that price, leaving Anderson as #1 for 2009.


Lowest price: 402 Larsson (3br/3ba, 1800 sq. ft.) scraped out the bottom for the Hills this year at $816k, a discount of 9% off this year's start price of $900k, and 26% off the list price from 2007 ($1.1m), when first this home hit the MBC radar.

In between, the home has faced foreclosure and cure, and appears to have been rented out a while. The buyers got a smallish fixer on the "wrong" side of Larsson, but hey, they're in the 90266, with a Robinson option, no less, with the lowest cost of entry for this year.

(To follow up on some questions regarding MBC's last reference to Robinson – the small school has to be viewed as a little perk of the area, but truly, if you're in any MB school, you're in fantastic shape.)


Runner-up: It's like splitting hairs here. 505 Anderson sold for a nearly insignificant $9k more than Larsson at $825k. Similar size at 4br/2ba, 1850 sq. ft., a real fixer though without the Larsson liability.

That's the Hills. We'll follow up shortly with the Sand & Trees.

Close the Books on 815 2nd

This time of year, most of the action is in closed sales. And so, again, we're wrapping up the story of a longtime local listing that had hit the rocks, but finally has new owners.

815 2nd was a speckie that flopped badly and recently sold in bankruptcy court for $2.650m. That's -$2.145m/-45% off the home's start price from nearly 2 years ago.

It's big (5br/5ba, 4725 sq. ft.), modeled in the increasingly popular Cape Cod style, and offers ocean views – better than expected given the location just partway up the hill from Ardmore. All that and more, as MBC noted in a previous story:

• a cool lower level (too bright to call a "basement") with a tiered home theater;
• lots of crisp finishes and fine details;
• the design favors lots of cozy, private spaces over the huge megarooms you would normally find in a Hill manse;
• a unique family layout with... unfortunately, some pretty small bedrooms; and
• surprisingly modest (in a good way) overall.

With all that going for it, what was the problem?

In no particular order: price, timing, location and layout.

Price began at $4.795m in February 2008, nearly $1,000/PSF, a premium price you'd expect on a home that has it all, including a great location. But no.

Timing? The dirt was acquired for $1.8m in September 2006. That was late to get rolling with a spec project.

Then, as the finished product was ready to offer up, the local market had begun to quake from the Summer/Fall 2007 financial troubles. Yet 2nd launched at a high price, as if all was well, and premium demand would remain unaffected. Incorrect.

A year passed before the price was down a full million – and by then it was a short sale at $3.799m. (See "First Hill Newbie to Go Short.")

That location was an issue neglected when the project was greenlighted, but prominent throughout the attempt to sell the home. 2nd St. is among the busiest streets in the Hills, and at this particular spot on the way up, engines roar.

And layout – we were charitable above. The "unique" layout with the "cozy" spaces was not a big draw. In the multi-million-dollar range, people expect grandiosity, not cozy. Related: The footprint of the home on the lot wiped out any chance for a yard. The paved back patio is nice for entertaining, but it's not a yard.

Those issues combined in a perfect storm of sorts, throwing the partnership that built the home into bankruptcy and, no doubt, costing investors a bundle.

On the bright side, savvy buyers just grabbed a huge home for just a couple ticks above what they could have paid for a new home in the Tree Section with a third less living space, no ocean views and no Robinson school district. Nice catch. 

Because there was an MBC pricing poll on this property, it's worth a quick check-in to see how many MBC readers suggested the general neighborhood in which the property would sell. (Click that story link for reader comments on the property.)

For this one, we have to reach all the way back to April 2008, when the home was at $4.495m, just a minor adjustment from its start price. As our results story shows, only a trifling 11% were bearish enough to vote for "below $3.5m." 

That's another curious result in the series of MBC pricing polls, where there's no clear pattern. Sometimes the mass of voters guesses too high, sometimes much too low. 

In April 2008, it was pretty hard to foresee this outcome. Maybe not quite as hard, though, as it was when the project was first drawn up.

Close the Books on 2812 Elm

We have now seen the ending to a saga that involved a home's being offered for sale for more than 800 days.

2812 Elm has just closed for $1.325m, but it's what happened between 2004 and 2009 that makes for a revealing and cautionary tale about the local housing bubble.

Elm was remodeled completely in 1999 and held until February 2004, when it sold for $1.299m. That was a healthy sum then for an attractive, average-sized home (4br/4ba, 2500 sq. ft.) with a couple of layout issues – an oddly split second level and a downstairs bedroom off the kitchen.

Not so many months later (16 months, to be exact), the new owners were out. As the local bubble inflated rapidly, they saw a nice profit as they turned over the keys. They sold for $1.584m in June 2005, a 22% increase in the market price, $285k more than they had acquired the home for.

What happened between Feb. 2004 and June 2005 to increase the home's value at an annualized rate of 16%? Really, nothing happened. It was all a bubbly illusion. But the buyers were there, the money was available, and everyone went along with the boldly marked-up resale.

Yellow flags? Red flags? Not then.

Apparently believing that the bubble was real, the 2005 buyers made their own run at a nice profit. Just 15 months after moving in, the owners tried to cash out for $1.769m (+$185k/+12%), beginning in Sept. 2006.

Believing that the bubble could, should or would endlessly inflate proved to be a big mistake.

The local market had begun to turn by Summer 2006, before the sellers first listed the home for sale. But they seemed to feel some momentum that simply wasn't there.

Failing to get their price, the sellers held out at $1.769m for nearly 9 months. They dropped down to $1.649m in Summer 2007.

It's one measure of how poorly priced the home was that it failed to close a deal during the Great Spring Rally of 2007 – the last big burst of optimism in the local market before its pronounced decline, from late 2007 through the current moment. In those heady Spring days, there was still free-flowing money around if you looked, and some market sentiment to the effect that either MB was immune to the popping of the bubble all around us, or that the worst had already passed locally.

Only by early 2008 did the price on Elm come down to $1.599m, finally flat to the June 2005 acquisition price. By then, the rug was slipping out from under the house. (Pardon the metaphor.)

A year and a half on the market somehow had not been enough to suggest that the home was overpriced when acquired in 2005, and that the sellers would be lucky to get out with a contained loss. The price did not budge again for 10 months, before the listing finally canceled in late October 2008, logging 773 combined days on market by MBC's count. (There were bogus re-lists.)

Maybe only then, after the financial market meltdown of 2008, did it become clear that the local real estate market would not be making a dynamic recovery any time soon. That meant the home would have to be unloaded at a significant loss.

And so, 2812 Elm returned this Summer as a short sale, putting a real 2009 spin on the story. The start price: $1.299m, fully $300k below the last asking price, and $285k less than the sellers had paid.

In fact, as you may recall from above, that start price was precisely the home's Feb. 2004 acquisition price. As if we needed further evidence that MB is now living in 2004 prices. (For more see "How Resales of '03-'06 Purchases Are Faring," or our continuously updated online spreadsheet listing such resales.) Now it was clear how artificial the boost in price had been between the 2004 and 2005 sales of the same property.

The closed price of $1.325m late last week is a slight tick up from this year's starting point, but still down 16% from June 2005, and still represents an early 2004 value for the home.

The listing ran a couple of months this year, pushing the total days of market exposure somewhere over 825 DOM or so, a record we doubt we'll see broken any time soon.

Who took the brunt of the short sale loss?

If the records we see here are correct, 95% of the 2005 purchase ($1.504m) was financed. The once-leading financial institution responsible for that travesty imploded a couple of years ago and was bought for dimes on the dollar by a megabank.

Given that the megabank in question just repaid the taxpayers billions it had borrowed, a mere $180k loss may not be missed. But it's been noticed here in MB, as the cost of Elm's not-so-rapid rewind.

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UPDATE:  The listing for Elm switched after this story was published from a closed sale to "pending" again, perhaps a quirk of the short sale process. We'll watch out for any new change in status and update this post again.

Holiday Open Forum (12/27- )

Here's hoping all's well for you & yours, and a special thanks for hanging in there while MBC took a little unannounced holiday break.

Don't get the impression that 2010 will be a slow year here. Anything but.

We'll pick up the pace in earnest on Monday, but first, we knew it was time for a new "Open Forum."

Just one immediate topic of broader interest – the 360 South Bay development (El Segundo Blvd. @ the 405) is suddenly breathing again. Well, planned to breathe again in Feb. 2010.

The developers have been buying ads (including those faux news sections of the newspaper) and sprucing up their website (check out the quick cuts on the developers' website) to whip up interest in the unfinished resort condoplex-to-be.

All along, they're hyping the development's beach proximity.

Well, yes, it sounds funny from MB west of Sepulveda, but, in fairness, they're not all that far inland.

Kaye Thomas has an almost journalistic, indepth take on the development over at her blog, noting the many remaining obstacles to the project selling out. She's careful, but you'll easily see her long-running skepticism shine through.

What else is news? Or will be?

As always, use this "Open Forum" thread to post off-topic news clips, discussions, bowl game predictions (including, if you must, the Sun Bowl) and the like.

Strand Sales of 2009

During MBC's first 2 full years online, very few Strand properties changed hands.

In 2009, it was a minor flood. (And we use such a term cautiously in reference to our town's tony tsunami zone.)

Many Strand properties were offered, many were taken. Here's the list of sales, lowest-priced to highest (click any highlighted address for more pics & details via Redfin):

• 3216 The Strand almost certainly winds up as a lot sale, given that the duplex on site is deeply flawed. (The listing leads with "Best priced piece of land available on The Strand.") However, it's still occupied for the time being.
  

The pricing, also, wasn't so great, and took a while to work out. After a brief foray at $7.3m in 2008, the home returned at $5.9m in March, gradually winding down to $4.7m in August. That's probably a notch below what the conventional wisdom predicted for this 3500 sq. ft. patch of beach frontage.

• Nearby, 3404 The Strand, offering the same lot size, sold a few months before for more money – $5.350m – but with a structure worth saving. Well, a person can hope.

The custom, cool, 2-building Spanish could be brought around to 21st century standards with a little work and inspiration, and that seems such a better fate than razing a minor landmark in the northern part of town. 

As with 3216, this home was first offered for a price seemingly pulled from the very thin air of the stratosphere: $7.8m, before settling back almost $2.5m below that.

• The lone completed, ready-to-wear sale was at 1712 The Strand, (3br/4ba, 4500 sq. ft.) a new home first offered in 2008 but only officially on market in February this year.

Unofficially, the start price was first $12.5m, but in February it began at $10.5m. A quick offer came in and the sale closed for $9.0m in late March.

• Not new, but plenty spectacular, was 1800 The Strand (5br/6ba, 5325 sq. ft.), a south-facing corner-lot home that just happened to be at the base of one of the best walkstreets in town, winding 18th St. (see "Great Streets: 18th St. (Sand)").  

The home was offered in April at $13.5m, but when the sale closed in August, the price was kept private.

For the first time now, based on the county assessor's report, we can report the final price as $11.65m.

• We close with another lot sale, but what a lot sale in this case: 204 & 208 The Strand were offered separately, but purchased together. The lots will be combined for a new beachfront dream home. (The existing homes are rented out for the interim.)
  

Total value of the 2 lots: $12.8m ($6.1m for 204 and $6.7m for 208).

Worth noting: The, achem, "lesser" of those, 204, actually began at $8.2m, so it was ground down quite a bit, and quickly, to its eventual dirt price.

Some great properties there, but mainly a lot of potential. Did you notice that most of the offerings needed to adjust by $2m or so? Hey, what's $2m at the beach?

Thanks to those last 2 sales, the southernmost stretch of MB may be the premier section of LA-area oceanfront property by 2013-14, when all the construction down there is finally finished.

There's the triple-lot home at 212 The Strand (see "Big, Beautiful, Too Much?"), just completed this year, another new home at 2nd/The Strand which is nearly a wrap (well, maybe next Summer). Within a stone's throw are several other recent and nicely done homes.

Sure, nearly $13m is a lot to join that club, but it's good company. Even if $13m is just the price to get started.

We'll Take the Gaslamp

A sharpened-up little postwar cottage in the gaslamp district just went for about a million, over at 528 24th. (Click for more pics & details via Redfin.) 

Here are some things about this taut little remodel that are not for the average family moving into MB:

• 2 bedrooms. 
• 1200 sq. ft.  
• Not much of a yard on a 2700-odd sq. ft. lot, a size common to the area.
  

But if you can make it work, $1.060m (the closed price) is a decent price of entry. And the high-style home, just about perfect all around, will help make the tight squeezes seem a little less squeezy. (This virtual tour shows the listing pics with a bit more splash, but also some cloying smooth jazz.)

Add to all that the sense of getting a discount of sorts, and it feels right.

The same home was purchased just 3 years ago for more: $1.250m, and that was before the latest remodeling work. So by making their move now, the buyers saved at least 15% off the peak.

Before that 2006 sale, the home nearly doubled in value during the boom.

The first new owners of the 2000s took title in May 2002 for $645k. That was actually a lot of money back then, especially for a fixer, but that's the gaslamp district for you, always in demand for those who will take the tradeoffs – even 24th St., which is the street most affected by Grandview traffic on school days.

Add the post-2002 rehab work and the bubbly atmosphere we all lived in then, and the home rose $605k in value over 4 and a half years (+94%).

Some money went into a restyling of the home to its current, contemporary look after the 2006 purchase, so you could argue that its paper value rose even higher at some point before slipping back near $1m last week.

There really aren't recent comps from the area reflecting homes in similar, sweet condition, but there are few nearby sales, all near $1m-$1.2m (click any address for more pics & details via Redfin):

• 543 24th, just down the block, was an REO needing work when it closed in June for $1.080m. That price was bid up from the REO's start at $891k (see "Closing an REO Loop" and "Two New REOs.") The home was clean, but dated and dark. Though it was a candidate for scraping, it's been spiffed up and rented out. A significantly larger lot (3640 sq. ft. = 33% more land) plus the poor condition make it just a reference, not a comp.

• 537 21st (pictured), a couple blocks over near Valley and Live Oak Park, also just closed last week, for $1.010m. It has the same lot size as 528 24th and a third more living space at 1600 sq. ft., plus a third bedroom. But it's dated, and perhaps not livable as-is without serious work. We hear builders were sniffing around, but don't know the intent of the actual buyers.

• 472 35th (3br/2ba, 1125 sq. ft.) requires a stretch, but is probably the closest comp among recent sales. It's not in the gaslamp at all, but it is in the Sand Section, up on the plateau near the end of a block. The home itself was essentially new, an open-feeling, mid-century-modern home that was fully redone this year. It sold for $1.195m in mid-November, right as 528 24th was getting under way at $1.150m, $90k above its final price.
  

If forced to choose between similar homes on the plateau near Rosecrans and on 24th St., we'll take the gaslamp, thanks.

MB Market Update for 12/15/09, Hill & Sand

As we noted yesterday, the new MB Market Update spreadsheets are online for your viewing by clicking here, or at any time by using the pull-down menu at the top of the page under "MB Market Updates." The current update, dated 12/15/09, covers the first 2 weeks of this month.

Our first post on this month's activity so far covered the Tree Section, a little inversion of the norm that helped us make up for a missing update. It also meant we focused right away on where much of the buying action was in December.

Back we go now to the Hill Section and Sand. (For the 11/30/09 updates on these regions, click here for Hills and here for Sand.) 


Hill Section

Inventory is getting scarce in the Hills now, down to 8 as we near year end. (Click here for the list of actives.)

The only notable action with any "active" listing was the dropping out of 114 N. Poinsettia (5br/6ba, 6400 sq. ft., including basement), the new-not-so-long-ago Spanish at the corner of busy 2nd and Poinsettia.

The home is quite beautiful, but has always been overpriced.  It began at $7.750m in May 2008, dropped substantially, quit late last year, and moved down further during this year's attempt to sell. Last at $4.995m.

Historical note: While priced at $7m in August 2008, 114 Poinsettia "won" an MBC pricing poll, being nominated as the most likely out of three $7m listings to drop to $6m first. Turns out, $5m should have been an option.

Also in the Hills, we saw 3 closed sales (click here for the Hill solds page):

• 408 N. Dianthus (3br/3ba, 2175 sq. ft.), a nice remodel acquired in March 2006 for $1.708m, has closed at $1.590m (-$118k/-7% from then). The home sold fairly quickly – less than 2 months – and just $5k below asking. Maybe you're thinking: Smart seller, didn't mess around. Yep. Also true: Seller is a real estate agent.
  

• 903 10th (6br/7ba, 5120 sq. ft.) was discussed recently in "A New Low in the Hills," a story which generated some debate over whether PPSF was a relevant measure of the deal the buyers got on this very big home, paying $2.475m. What's obvious is that if this was a spec project, it didn't work: the lot was acquired for $1.725m in August 2007, leaving very little margin for construction costs to be covered by the sale.

• 808 Duncan Place (5br/5ba, 3525 sq. ft.) has closed for $2.088m, down 13% from its start in July, but healthy nonetheless.

That's the Hills, folks. Now to the beach.


Sand Section

As of 12/15/09, there were 32 active SFRs in the Sand, with 14 priced below $2m (click for the <$2m actives page) and 18 priced above $2m (click for the >$2m actives).

We'll start with the 4 new offerings, 3 of which launched at about the same time and almost the same price, $3.6m:

• 476 33rd is a maxed-out (5br/5ba, 4300 sq. ft.) new home at the the end of the block and the top of the plateau, just about exactly at the top of the sand dune that makes Sand Dune Park both famous and notorious. (Were the dune open, the home would experience some impacts from dune users, mainly those walking north to cars or to access the beach via 33rd.)

If you can suck up that location issue, though, you get a tremendous benefit: A side yard that nearly doubles the lot's official 2700 sq. ft. footprint. It's an easement courtesy of the city.

Out of the blocks, the price is $3.6m, but there's this: An NOD was filed in August, and a notice of trustee's sale was issued 2 days before this listing began. Let's just say this listing won't follow the usual course.

• 228 34th (4br/4ba, 3725 sq. ft.) is the beach-close party house mentioned in "Open-Air Living, Open-Air Driving," the story so entitled because they're throwing in a Porsche convertible for the lucky buyer. Price here is also $3.6m, down from $3.999m the last we saw it on market.
  

• 328 16th (4br/5ba, 4200 sq. ft.) is a Mediterranean designed and built by 2 familiar names around town. We find the location charming, with both ocean views from high up 16th and downtown proximity without the noise.

The build has signatures of the architect, including lots of round archways and an overall modern feel. Starts at $3.6m plus $43k. The lot was acquired for $1.850m in Feb. 2008.

• 217 35th Place is back after a hiatus, once at $1.5m, now returning to market at $1.2m. For that you get a former duplex, now SFR, offering 2br/2ba, 968 sq. ft. Acquired in April 2006 for $990k, so they're still looking for that nice markup – just not 50% like before.

We should also note the return of 435 10th, at the end of the 10th St. walkstreet near downtown and along Valley, which had a deal briefly and flopped out, dropping the price to $1.650m in the process.

The one other price cut in the Sand brought one more newer home near $3.6m, as 332 20th dropped to $3.695m – now $1.1m below its debut price in February 2008.

This remains one of our favorites, but it always seems to lag on price.

Worth noting: The lot here, like 328 16th, was acquired for $1.850m, but much earlier: June 2005 versus Feb. 2008.

Just 2 closed sales in the Sand in this period, and they're closely related. (Click here for the Sand solds page.)

Neighboring 317 17th ($2.0m) and 321 17th ($2.3m) were sold at the same time, closing a week apart, to the same new owner.

The difference in dirt value traces to the difference in lot sizes – the standard 2700 sq. ft. for 317, and a bigger 4050 sq. ft. at 321 (that's 1 and a half, math geeks).

Suddenly that's a 6750 sq. ft., ocean-view lot near the top of the hill, near downtown, ready for anything. Can you imagine a good way to make use of that?

MB Market Update for 12/15/09, Trees

The year's almost out. Just one more MB Market Update for 2009 after this.

The new MB Market Update spreadsheets are online for your viewing by clicking here, or at any time by using the pull-down menu at the top of the page under "MB Market Updates." The current update, dated 12/15/09, covers the first 2 weeks of this month.

Remember, you can easily click between the different pages (seeing MB by region, and by active or sold) using the blue tabs at the top of the page.

December so far has seen a nearly equal number of new listings and sales (new escrows), 5 new offerings and 4 new deals made. Also, 2 listings returned to active status during this period shortly after cancellations last month.

With 5 more pre-holiday dropouts, there's another net reduction in inventory, down to 63 SFRs west of Sepulveda, by our current count.

Just looking at the last 2 years for historical perspective, this inventory level is a bit below the same point in 2007 (70 SFRs) and far below the same point last year (121 SFRs).

You could say '07 and '09 were like little pieces of bread on the overstuffed sandwich that was 2008 inventory.

Let's look at inventory by sub-region west of Hwy. 1 by comparison to 2008:

Hills: 8 now (31 in '08)

Sand: 32 now (43 in '08)

Trees: 23 now (47 in '08)

Looking back, plenty of sellers were stranded on the market last year, having decided to sell earlier in 2008 before the financial meltdown changed everything in September/October. In fact, a glance at last year's spreadsheets shows many sellers (especially in the Hills) that have only recently closed deals here in 2009, an illustration of how long some of those impacts took to work out.

This year, total sales are roughly at the same pace as 2008, but perhaps fewer sellers tested the market. (A subject worthy of a larger and separate analysis later.)

Normally we begin to run through the sub-regions west of Sepulveda by focusing on the Hill Section. However, the Tree Section got short shrift in our 11/30/09 update, so we'll start this time with the Trees and draw in some info from the last period, too.

It's fitting to begin with the Trees because that's where almost all the action was in the first half of December.

We mentioned 4 sales (new escrows) so far this month? All in the Trees. (See the Trees solds page.) Of those, 3 were under $1.5m, one above. They were:

• 1801 Elm, the probate auction house. Have you heard enough about that one? (See "Probate Auction Ends at $805k.") It's actually still active at $845k, the required minimum bid in court for anyone who wants to steal it from the auction winner.
  

• 1705 Oak, a little cute cottage (pictured), sparklingly remodeled, lasted just a few weeks at $999k.

• 3400 Pacific, a small and dated home with a location challenge, was last at $899k. First mentioned here at MBC when the listing pitched the fact that the owner had missed 4 mortgage payments. (See "Why Wait for the NOD?")
  

• 590 36th, a big remodel (5br/4ba, 4300 sq. ft.) that had a deal in August that flamed out, has a new one. Purchased for $1.574m in March 2005, last at $1.599m after a remodel – does it close above $1.5m?

Add to these 3 from December these other sales (new escrows) that posted in late November (see 11/30/09 Trees solds page):

• 652 19th, a $1.2m fixer with a nice location going for it; 

• 1508 Ardmore, a 1950s cottage with updates from late last century and some extra sq. footage in a big garage, last at $999k; and
  

• 2401 John, new construction long rumored to have a deal – it posted in escrow in late November and closed in this period at $2.275m. 

That was well above the consensus opinion of readers in our pricing poll (see "Poll Results: 2401 John"). Just a third of those voting believed John would close above $2.1m, and only 14% thought it would go above $2.250m.

Build quality and location pushed John above other new homes in the Trees to sell over the past several months. It was the first standard-size new construction to close above $2m since 1901 Walnut in February (at $2.150m).

Despite the sales activity, this is not a time when most sellers choose to enter the market. So from Nov. 15-Dec. 15, we saw just 2 new listings other than 1705 Oak, which already made a deal:

• 758 14th, the troubled Arbolado home that has hit the MBC radar occasionally over 3 years, most recently in "Would-Be Flip Returns as REO." The fairly large (4br/3ba, 3050 sq. ft.) and reasonably well-located home went for $1.695m in July 2006, came back last month at $1.356m and is already down to $1.288m. Sometimes REOs appear impatient.
  

• 3521 Maple is an adequately sized (4br/3ba, 2525 sq. ft.) home on an extra-sized lot (5800 sq. ft.) with a pool. The listing began Monday.
  

It's a short sale, but not one of the typical bubble buys gone underwater. Last purchase was 1997 at $562k. Plenty of loans got added later, putting this short at $1.1m now.

Per the listing, the home's got some some "DEFERED MAINTENCE" issues (not to mention the listing's editing issues). Still, at that price (with a pool!), it's going to draw interest right away.

More common this time of year are dropouts, many of them strategic as sellers wait out the holidays. In the Trees alone, we've counted 9 listings quitting over just the past 6 weeks.

Over the past month (spanning both updates), there were 4 closed sales, 3 in addition to 2401 John, referenced above. (Click here for the 12/15/09 solds page for the Trees; click any property address for more pics & details via Redfin.) They were:

• 2901 Oak, a Spanish that was new in 2008, sold for $1.699m, about $300k less than the price at launch last year (see "Renting Can Cost You, Part II"); 

• 500 14th closed just a bit above its August 2004 acquisition price. Then: $1.290m. Now: $1.329m. (See "More Evidence for '04 Prices Today.")
  

• 1900 Oak didn't come close to its 2005 price ($1.253m), closing at $980k this month (-$273k/-22% over 4 years).
  

That does it for the Trees for now.

Soon we'll wrap up the Hills & Sand for the first part of December.

Reminder: Please Take the Survey

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We're near 200 responses now, a fabulous rate of participation. Thanks to everyone who has already chimed in.

Though the survey will take you 5-8 minutes, it seems to hold people's attention: 98% of those who start it complete it. (And one non-completer was a relative of your blog author who confessed to skipping the questions.)

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How Much Would You Pay to Bring a Buyer?

When you list your home for sale, you decide who gets paid, and how much, for helping.

The always-negotiable standard commission rate, in total, is about 6% – with half to the listing agent and half to the buyer's representative. In the South Bay, it seems the standard is closer to 5%, given higher prices (i.e., same or more money even at a lower commission rate), which means 2.5% per side.

Of course, a small percentage of a large number is still a lot of money. When you sell your house, you want the money. So people look for ways to cut costs.

From the listing side, you have options to save. You might go FSBO, maybe use a low- or flat-fee service to put your property on the MLS and wait to see what happens. (A letter-writer in yesterday's LA Times claims to have succeeded more or less this way; scan down to "A way to save on commissions.")

As a seller, you might also list with a discount firm. Or you might persuade your friend who's got a license to take your case for less. All these methods, and more, might save thousands of dollars.

What about the buyer's agent?

Who's thinking about the buyer's agent?

That person is purely imaginary at the time the rate is set. He or she doesn't get a vote. You might assume they'll be happy to make a little money fulfilling some eventual buyer's overpowering desire for your home.

So should you view the buyer's agent as a lucky intermediary, a necessary evil who takes some of your profits?

Or should you view the buyer's agent more like your eyes and ears, your real connection to the physical world of buyers, the one person who can actually make your sale happen?

Blake Roberts writes today about the re-emergence of full 3% commissions for buyers' agents in standard listings – a sweetener in today's environment. By his calculation, excluding listings that canceled, there have been 306 listings in the South Bay this year offering 3% to buyers' agents, and they've been flying off the shelves (in a metaphoric, not seismic, manner of speaking):

• 202 sold
• 50 in escrow
• 54 still active

That's 82% sold (including escrows) – again, without canceled listings in the denominator. Pretty impressive regardless.

Blake's point: Whether you like it or not, dangling a little extra money in front of buyers' agents appears to help your chances of making a sale. And that's because our current system of RE sales is a capitalistic endeavor for agents, who are human, and who therefore respond to enticements of this nature.

Blake even offers his own perspective, saying that a higher commission offer makes him think of more potential buyers in his network:

As the commission goes up, we'll dig a little deeper into our cold case database looking for a potential home/client fit.

Is it possible today, in a world of broader-than-ever property exposure (mainly online), an increasingly disintermediated real estate sales process and expanding buyer options, that a part of a percent offered to RE salespersons could tip the balance and get a property sold?

Much the same perspective emerges in a recent 3-part series posted on the Irvine Housing Blog. (See Part I on FSBOs, Part II on Cash/MLS Listing Services and Part III on Full-Service Brokerages.) The bubble blog, which launched in late 2006, largely warns that today is still not a good time to buy, and provides cautionary tales each day about the fate of bubble-era buyers.

But blogger Larry Roberts (no known relation to Blake) argues that you need to see the system with clear eyes if you're going to participate in it:

If you list with a cash listing service (or a relative), you pay for the listing, so you cut out 3%. You can set the commission at whatever level you feel motivates buyers agents who work the MLS. If you get cheap and put 1%, clients of buyers agents will still see the property on the MLS, and I am sure the buyer's agent will work just as hard for 1% as they would for 3% in a normal transaction.... Do you see the problem? Human nature gets in the way....

You can set the total commission at 4% and have it all on the buy-side. This will entice every buyer's agent on the web to see your property; human nature again.

Is a slow, but slightly hopeful, market like today's one where sales commissions should get squeezed, or increased?

Or are we stuck in old ways of thinking, not yet considering the full range of options buyers and sellers have?

Weekend Opens (12/12-12/13)

The holidays are truly just around the corner, but we have one true debut this weekend near downtown and another first-time announced public open at Monticello.

That's right, 2009 is nearly ending, but we're not quite running out of new material.

Now, say you're not inclined to venture out this weekend – hey, what a perfect time to take the MBC reader survey! It takes 5-8 minutes. We're still seeing that virtually everyone who starts it, completes it. It must be kinda fun. Check it out!

Click here for the complete list of opens published in the Beach Reporter, or at any time use the link from the "Property Search Tools" pull-down menu in the top navigation bar.

As always, click any highlighted property address for more pics & details via Redfin. Please report back here at MBC on any open houses you visit – what you like, what you don't like, etcetera.


Hill Section

913 Highview looks like it'll hang around for the holidays, and sometimes that means the sellers mean to make a deal at some point. After 6 months on market, they've had some time to think about what it might take.

The home is elegant, newer (2004 build) and relatively compact for the Hills (3br/4ba, 2350 sq. ft.). The location on Highview is on a quiet little block near downtown.

There's been good feedback on the home from readers here, but price, now $2.249m, obviously remains an obstacle. One measure is to look at the acquisition price: 913 Highview was purchased for $1.910m in Feb. 2005.

That means today's price is still up $339k (+18%) from there. Most of MB is living in 2004 prices, not 18% above 2005.

Open Sun. 1-4pm.


On a different score, don't get too excited by that $974k listing in the Beach Reporter at "919 John." Yes, a mere dog run on that part of John could be worth $2m. That's what we call a printer's error. 919 Johnson, in East MB, is on offer at that price.


Sand Section

328 16th (4br/5ba, 4200 sq. ft.) debuts this weekend, a Mediterranean designed and built by 2 familiar names around town.

The location is a bit charmed – extremely close to downtown, yet off the beaten path. High enough on the hill to draw in some good ocean views.

The build has signatures of the architect, including lots of round archways and an overall modern feel. After that, the elegant details – Venetian plaster, cherry wood floors, high-end kitchen – are all to be expected, but no less enjoyable for that.

This project was gutsy for a speckie, post-bubble – lot was acquired for $1.850m in Feb. 2008, after the end of the boom was apparent and we'd already seen the first mini-meltdown in financial markets. That said, they've added a lot of value here. It'd be interesting to see where the break-even point lays. 

The listing begins at the strangely precise price of $3.643m. 

328 16th is open Sun. 1-4pm.

Also, just like last weekend, the whole set of 5 modern condos in El Porto Norte is open Sunday 1-4pm. (See last week's open house feature for more on the condos.)

The addresses are all mixed up, but getting there is simple: just go as far north as you can on Highland, almost to the Chevron station, but stop at 43rd, look up, go east – can't miss 'em.


Tree Section


2100 Pine (5br/5ba, 3180 sq. ft.) got a little ribbing from MBC last week after the new listing agent rewrote the description to compare the home to Monticello. (See "Monticello?" for more, plus comparison pics between the landmark and the local home.)

Now the home deserves its time in the sun. Folks who have seen 2100 Pine generally like it. One reason it that this is a custom build suited the the owners, who clearly like a classic, authentic American vibe.

You know, Connecticut, the Cape, Long Island, or even Monticello – all those places back East. The wainscoting, old-wood beams, handmade fixtures and so forth fit into a timeless package – with, of course, all the modern appointments. On top of it all, the outdoor living space is far more fully realized than you see on speckies.

That the home is now on the market for John Q. Public is a surprise, not part of the plan. And that's to the benefit of whomever might stumble across it one day and fall in love.

For 6 months, the home hasn't found its new lovers, partly because of a start price of $2.425m, which is well above what most – most! – new homes in the Trees are getting these days. At $2.149m now, it's moving toward where it needs to be.

Point of tension: The owners paid $1.4m for the lot in Aug. 2006, a squeeze on the margins for any sale.

2100 Pine is open Sun. 2-4pm.


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MB Market Update for 11/30/09, Sand

As the responses pour in to our MBC Reader Survey, one of the first things that's apparent is that readers like our MB Market Update writeups.

And here we are, more than a week between such writeups, virtual tail between virtual legs. It's time to catch up. (And it's time to take the survey if you haven't. Thanks!)

You'll recall that the last update was for activity from Nov. 15-30, which is starting to seem like a while ago. So we'll sprinkle in some up-to-the-minute info to make this update more current.

An overview of inventory at month's end and Hill Section activity was published previously (see "MB Market Update for 11/30/09"). We'll cover the Sand here, and get to the Trees shortly.


Sand Section

As of Nov. 30, inventory for the Sand Section was at 30 total, among the lower figures for the year. These included 13 active under $2m (click here for the list) and 17 active and priced over $2m (click for that list).

Would you believe there were new listings hitting the market just before Turkey Day? Think big:

• 202 Ocean is a maxed-out (5br/6ba, 4150 sq. ft.), newer home at the bottom of the 2nd St. walkstreet. It's a Cape Cod that's just about perfect, with great décor, good flow for entertaining, nice ocean and Catalina views. That Ocean address means an extra-sunny, open exposure to the west.

Just about the only major liability is that the immediate area has been a construction site for years, and still promises to be for a while to come. As 202 Ocean was completed, the triple lot at 212 The Strand – just north – got under way. That huge home is now complete (see "Big, Beautiful, Too Much?"), and the finishing touches are going up on a home directly west on 2nd at The Strand.

But a couple of neighboring homes (204 and 208 The Strand) are slated for demolition soon, with a new double-lot Strand home to come. (Worth noting: those 2 lots went for a combined $12.8m.) Put aside the noise, and there's this other wrinkle: 202 Ocean loses some views when all these projects wrap up.

202 Ocean was offered last year for $7.5m, definitely stratospheric, but re-debuts now for $6.2m, or $1.3m less. As seems to happen often, this home was featured in the American Martyrs "Sophisicated Snoop" tour in May, a sort of prelude to formal marketing. This time, we think it'll find its buyer.

• 3516 The Strand actually has a name: Villa Toscana Sul Pacifico.

As you might hope for in a bold new Strand offering with the added contrivance of a formal sobriquet, this big (6br/5ba, 5550 sq. ft.) home reaches for another level entirely with its ambition.

They've jetted in reclaimed materials from old Tuscan homes, 600-year-old fountains and sinks from Cyprus, old ceiling beams and roof tiles. Some of the other parts were manufactured in Italy as well.

The home is back for its second tour, having been featured at MBC pre-completion back in April in "Another Week, Another Titan." Price is down a paltry mil, from $13.999m to $12.999m.

• One other new offering sold almost immediately: 216 30th (2br/3ba, 1975 sq. ft.), a mid-90s build along a walkstreet, west of Highland (corner at Bayview), for well under $2m – $1.675m. They're accepting backup offers if you're intrigued.

Not new, but freshening up, trying to add some buzz with cuts:

• 121 17th (pictured), a strange and smallish 80s custom build, is coming off its ultra-high $3.999m start price, now down to $3.475m, but that really can't be all they'll move, can it?; 

• 228 20th, quite near the one-year mark on the market, is finally priced below $3m (by a buck), after a start Dec. 17, 2008, at $3.899m (don't believe the DOM on this one); and
  

• 3408 Crest is down to $899k, same as the Sept. 2005 acquisition price, after an attempt to mark it up to $1.050m didn't pan out.

Now, those are the sellers looking for deals. Who found buyers?

Sound the trumpets, folks, because our first winner has been around the block more than a few times:

• 505 3rd may finally have a deal that sticks, but first, the short sale process has to work itself out. 

Short version: This subpar home (4br/2ba, 2475 sq. ft.) in a nice location was acquired as an investment in Sept. 2005 for $1.6m, but after various attempts to resell at a markup from 2007 to the present, it was last at $1.425m.

• 528 24th is a refreshing contrast, a very quick sale, although still one with a loss attached. 

As MBC described it in the 11/15/09 update, when it was new to the market, the home is a "taut, sharply remodeled little 2br/1ba, 1200 sq. ft. cottage in the gaslight area." Current owners paid $1.250m in Oct. 2006; listing began at $1.150m.

The one other listed new deal, if you look at the spreadsheets, was 435 10th, but it has actually returned to market here in December. That's a 50s-era house (4br/3ba, 2025 sq. ft.) with a 70s vibe, right along Valley and very near downtown (steps to Vons!), now at $1.699m.

As you know, near the holidays, more and more listings cancel to wait out one of the slower periods of the year. In the Sand, just 2 did in the last half of November, and one has since returned. Gone for now is 221 3rd, a pretty spectacular walkstreet house west of Highland and down South, last at $4.495m. Quitting, but quickly returning here in December (what's that called? Oh yes, a "bogus re-list") was 2516 Alma.

Closed sales in this period were an interesting spectrum (click any highlighted address for pics & details via Redfin, yes!, for closed sales!):

• Brand-new, modern-style, downtown-adjacent 128 9th nabbed $4.9m, quite a bit off the $6.499m start price, but 82 DOM was pretty quick for a high-end listing of this nature (see "Downtown Beauty Goes");

• 229 24th, a gorgeous big (5br/4ba, 4200 sq. ft.) Spanish west of Highland, closed for $4.2m (see "New & Gone"), a not-incidental discount of $1.295m/-24% from start;

• 317 5th (4br/5ba, 4150 sq. ft.) is a corner-lot contemporary on a South End walkstreet that faced tougher sledding than maybe anyone expected. Priced at $3.2m to begin in April 2008, it just hung. a. round. (538 DOM by our count.) People didn't like the 90s feel, the sellers' high demands, etc., but now it has closed for the strangely precise price of $2,653,508, which, you guessed it, amounts to $546,492 (-17%) off the start.

• Down at the lower end, totally rebuilt 472 35th (3br/2ba, 1125 sq. ft.) got $1.195m, not so far up from its Feb. 2008 acquisition price (as a wreck) of $1.0m.

• 220 36th, an updated 60s box (3br/2ba, 1325 sq. ft.), moved quickly this year (< 2 wks.) by coming down a lot from its April 2006 price ($1.425m) to $1.139m, a 3-year drop of $286k/-20%.
  

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Open-Air Living, Open-Air Driving

Once again, someone's trying to sell a house in MB with a car thrown in as a bonus.

In the case of 228 34th, we're talking about a 4br/4ba, 3725 sq. ft. North End house near the beach that failed to sell over a full year in 2008-09, and which apparently rented out late this past Summer. (Redfin link does not display pics at this time; a note in the listing promises photos by Dec. 11.)

At $3.6m, the listing is back $399k lighter than its last list price, and that doesn't count the cost of the Porsche 911 convertible that's being offered with it now.

It's the 2010 model that's offered with the home. (Itself a 1983 model.) The classic, sexy little speedster is listed between $85k-$145k new on the Porsche website.

There's a fun symmetry between the home and the car, you must admit:

• When you're home, 228 34th is noteworthy for its large roofdeck (1700 sq. ft. per the listing). You can live almost topless, enjoying the big sky and those big-blue-marble views all the way out to Japan, er, well, Catalina.
  

• When you're not home, there's still no fussy rooftop limiting your exposure to the glorious sun and wind. 

What a package. (Yes, as we write, we're expecting rain again, but try to remember Summer.)

Though the new listing doesn't yet have pics, we did pluck one out of the nice collage in this story on the website of the Realestalker, who wrote about this "celebrity beach home" back in September 2008. (The celeb is a player of American football, area native Tony Gonzalez, currently with the Atlanta Falcons.)

As to the convertible come-on, some readers are saying: "Again?" 

Yes, again. It was July 2007 when MBC posted "Take the House, Take the Car," in which a 2007 Mercedes S550 was being offered to anyone who purchased a particular Tree Section home at full price. They never needed to make good on that offer, though.

Must you be speedy to catch the 911?

At $3.6m, there's got to be a ways to go still for 228 34th. Have we all forgotten the best deal of 2008 for the Sand Section, a bigger, smashing brand-new home across the walkstreet at 221 34th, which closed for $3.315m in January? No, of course we have not.

So at what point does the car drop out of the deal for 228 34th? One to watch.

Another New Low in the Hills

New and newer construction in the Hill Section keeps getting cheaper. Well, less pricey.

Witness the newly closed sale at 903 10th, a new home as of about a year ago in which the builder has been living a while.

903 10th closed for $2.475m on Friday, and for a big home (6br/7ba, 5120 sq. ft.) on a sunny southwest-facing corner lot, that's a remarkable $483/PSF. That's well below the PPSF for the past 3 closed sales of new construction in the Hills (click any property address for more pics & details via Redfin):

• 218 N Dianthus (4br/5ba, 6100 sq. ft., $3.920m, $643/PSF)
• 1019 Duncan (4br/4ba, 4800 sq. ft., $2.900m, $604/PSF)
• 1023 10th (5br/5ba, 4350 sq. ft., $2.455m, $564/PSF)

Of these, smaller 1023 10th (pictured) is just a couple blocks away from our subject property, edging close to the Post Office and Sepulveda. Same size lots (7500 sq. ft.). It's not a bad comparison, on balance.

That sale was in August, but now, 4 months later, someone has just paid essentially the same price (+$20k) for almost 800 more square feet plus the corner lot. Not a friendly comp if you just unpacked in the new home.

Of course, 903 10th was not exactly new. And one somewhat older home (2003 build) did scrape out a new bottom by the PPSF measure earlier this year: 1042 2nd (5br/4ba, 4425 sq. ft.), which closed for $1.810m in August, a PPSF of $409/PSF. (See "Atypical Deal on the Hill.")


One of the more noteworthy deals of the year in the Hills was right across the street from 903 10th, where 881 10th (5br/5ba, 4000 sq. ft.) sold in September for $2.150m. That was down $650k/-23% from its April 2006 acquisition price of $2.8m.

That was a stunning drop in value for the 2005-built home, but 881 10th actually closed $55/PSF higher than the newer, 25% larger home at 903 10th.

We can also just compare 903 10th to itself.

Back in August 2007, the lot was acquired for $1.725m. (You can see the old listing here via Redfin; you may have to "log in" to see it, though.)

The goal, then, was clearly NOT to build a 5000-plus-square-foot house and sell it for just $700k more, which is what has just happened. Why, that'd just $135/PSF to build. Uh-oh. Those aren't the numbers you see for new construction around here.

Upon completion in 2008, the home was offered, informally, for $3.7m. Sky-high, sure, but that's some measure of what the builders thought it was worth. This year, the listing began at $3.195m in July.

The final price was down $720k and 23% from there. Probably not the profitable project that penciled out in Summer 2007, but a late-season deal for the folks who relieved the builder of this burden.

Open Forum (12/8- )

Some readers may have noticed a few recent additions to our front-page links.

Two local realtors have been trying more seriously to write up their thoughts and observations regularly, an activity now stylishly referred to as "blogging" –

• Janie Sue Nagy has a good mix of MB-specific news, general buyer info and listing discussions. She started up in October and has posted with reasonable frequency. She's posting to Twitter more often (@BestMBHomes). We first found her blog because she links to MBC (thanks!).
  

• Dan O'Connor has had a blog for some time, but made a push this Fall to post a bit more frequently. He also appears to be spending money to promote the blog online. He's tried to offer suggested "deals of the week" and has pointed to notable sales here and there, certain must-see properties and even analyses of active listings.

More realtors becoming bloggers – that's probably good news. There's room for improvement, but don't we all have that? We're hoping to see both Janie Sue and Dan make bigger pushes into regular writing and more analysis.

Also new to the blogroll: MB Civic Couch.

The site's been around for a year, with a mission to develop local news stories and to help area nonprofits get their message out. There's big potential for a hyper-local approach like this. We'll refer to Civic Couch stories more regularly as their posts seem to be of interest to MBC readers.

More discussion about MB? We're ready.

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Please use this "Open Forum" to discuss the blogs referenced above, or any news clip, personal opinion, or remembrance from your youth or college days – whatever strikes your fancy.

Probate Auction Ends at $805k

Amid the smells of a campfire and roasting marshmallows, and the sounds of a classic fast-rapping auctioneer, the deal got done Sunday night at 1801 Elm in rapid fashion.

The final auction price: $805k.

That's right in the sweet spot of where most MBC readers thought the auction would end.

As we noted in our post on the poll results, 55% of those voting in the poll guessed $700k-$850k for the final price.

20% had the range exactly right, having guessed $800k-$850k, while 21% were just a tad short, guessing $750k-$800k.

Did we say campfire? 

This was not a bonus offered by the all-business auction company. It was the neighbors, who saw something of a happening forming next door and took to the front yard to cook out and enjoy the scene. The scents of marshmallows and smoke wafted over the auction action.

The scene was a minor flood, with perhaps 150 people gathered for the spectacle. Probably 80% were strictly observers, since about 35 bidders actually registered.

Fewer than 10 bidders actually showed signs of life once the auction got under way, and the price jumped from $250k to $500k and began moving up.

Quick was the word for the auction. The rapper auctioneer promised that the whole deal would be done in about a minute, and it was all really finished within 2.

Interest slowed as the price neared $800k, with the most persistent bidder (obviously) taking it to $805k. As the auctioneer set to shut it down, there was a peep from another bidder who seemed ready to take the price up a bit more, but by auction rules, he was too late after "sold," which came very fast after "going twice."

So how did the final auction price compare to market value?

It's not a steal, it's probably a sliver high and it's probably the final price. We just can't fathom seeing a bidder come to court in 30-45 days and overbid this price, which would require at least $845,750.

The winning bidder Sunday faces a stiff penalty of $80k (10%) if she fails to follow through on the deal. Were that to happen, the court would be looking for buyers next month.

No certain word on the auction winner's plans for the property, though we're guessing the home's got a date with a 'dozer (see "Pricing Poll: 1801 Elm" for more on the property condition).

We put word out on Twitter first (@MB_Watcher), and might have gotten the info out a bit quicker if we had connected Twitter to the mobile phone... we'll get that going soon and be ready next time.

Sunday Opens (12/6)

First, we'll just remind you about the probate auction Sunday afternoon at 1801 Elm – see the story immediately below here for our poll results and more.

As to Open Houses, lots of folks are paying to see them this weekend – the Sandpipers' tour.

Feeling a bit tight right now? There are still plenty of freebies. That includes 5 all in 1 new building in El Norte.

Click here for the complete list of opens published in the Beach Reporter, or at any time use the link from the "Property Search Tools" pull-down menu in the top navigation bar.

As always, click any highlighted property address for more pics & details via Redfin. Please report back here at MBC on any open houses you visit – what you like, what you don't like, etcetera.


Sand Section

Get thee to El Porto Norte if you're into ultra-modern, ocean-view condos. You've got your pick of 5, all in the same new building, now all open for the first time we've noted (not all are listed online yet):

• 4321 Crest, #A – $1.499m in listing, $1.599m in Beach Reporter slug
  
• 4323 Crest, #B – $1.789m (best pics of all)
  
• 4320 Highland, #C – $1.859m
• 312 44th, #D – $2.299m
• 316 44th, #E – $2.299m

We'd heard tell that one of these was already sold, but all 5 are posted open. Maybe a fish got away.

Avid readers may recall when we first learned of this project in March 2008, and described the would-be condos then in "Coming Soon to El Norte."

At that point we credited the developers for having cojones to begin such an ambitious project at an increasingly tough time in the market... and the market only slid downhill from there. Perhaps fearing the worst, MBC said then:

These builders are like toros, bullish on the future. The question is whether they'll find buyers in a year or two, or whether this project will offer some of El Norte's most splendid new rentals.

The lot was acquired for $3m, and those start prices total up to $9.75m, so even with some wiggle room on pricing, there's probably quite a ways to go for the project to be profitable, and before these swanky units would need to slide to the lease market.

As the interior pics for 4323 Crest show, the townhomes are presented with a high-style contemporary flair, really tricked out. Plus they boast "green" certification.

It wouldn't be fair to compare them to the John condos, the "Surprising Development" on MBB. Those were also modern and green, also on a busy street. But these 5 boast ocean views and none of that mixed-use confusion in the MBB set. 

Well, a location right on Highland Ave. in the furthest-north part of town will be a deal-breaker for lots of folks. Though we don't formally track condos, this is a set we'll watch.

All 5 condos are open Sunday, 1-4pm.


Tree Section

Here's something that's a little more digestible for the average entry-level MB buyer.

1705 Oak (3br/2ba, 1250 sq. ft.) is one of those original 1950s cottages that's been given some love in a series of updates. You still see the old house there, but you can also see a 21st century home, too.

There's extra square footage claimed from a finished room in back, now an office, adding some appeal for those who normally couldn't fathom fitting into a 1200 sq. ft. house.

At $999k, it's priced well above the $800k-range entry-level homes we've seen in other parts of town to reflect the charming updates. It's also below where it could be without the Oak location strike.

One comparison that comes to mind is 2613 Oak, technically 4br and technically bigger at 1775 sq. ft., but both with several updates to shake off the 50s feel. Despite its flaws (no real master bath, tiny "3rd" and "4th" BRs), 2613 got $1.199m in October. Does that make 1705 a steal, or did 2613 trade too high?

1705 Oak is open Sun. 1-4pm.