March 2008 
There are 33 blog entries for March 2008.
If You Waited...
Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 4:30am. 88 Views, 0 Comments.
There are plenty of potential home buyers waiting on the sidelines, in MB and elsewhere. Imagine yours was one of the families that decided about 6 months ago to stop searching and reassess in the Spring.
What would you find now? Was waiting the right call?
Let's look at the big picture first, then the local market:
What would you find now? Was waiting the right call?
Let's look at the big picture first, then the local market:
- Housing market generally – There's not much debating the fact that the housing market continued its deterioration with a vengeance these past 6 months. The current Case-Shiller index shows a home price drop nationally of about 10% over 6 months (July '07-Jan. '08), and a drop of 14% in LA County. January was the worst for sales in all of Dataquick's 20 years in business, and February was only a trickle better.
The economy – Recession talk was
What to Do with Comments?
Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 9:37pm. 254 Views, 0 Comments.
It seems the time has really come to consider a change in comments policy at MBC.
This was a week in which we had some days with substantive, well-considered comments, and some days with comments that went off the rails. So maybe it really is time to change, if this is disrupting the average reader's experience – as we often hear.
We recognize that the final decision on the subject belongs to your humble correspondent here. But we'd rather get some input first. Please vote in the poll – and keep in mind that you can vote for all the options you like. Voting closes Weds. at 8pm. Please support your rationale for voting within the comments on this story.
Know this: We've so far deleted about 5 comments in one year of MB Confidential. (Excluding SEO advertising…
This was a week in which we had some days with substantive, well-considered comments, and some days with comments that went off the rails. So maybe it really is time to change, if this is disrupting the average reader's experience – as we often hear.
We recognize that the final decision on the subject belongs to your humble correspondent here. But we'd rather get some input first. Please vote in the poll – and keep in mind that you can vote for all the options you like. Voting closes Weds. at 8pm. Please support your rationale for voting within the comments on this story.
Know this: We've so far deleted about 5 comments in one year of MB Confidential. (Excluding SEO advertising…
Weekend Opens (3/29-3/30)
Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 10:30pm. 120 Views, 0 Comments.
We're back to a more normal volume of opens this weekend. Click here for the complete list of opens published in the Beach Reporter, or at any time use the link in the right-hand column under "Prop. Search Tools."
Hill Section
916 9th is a perennial favorite here at MBC; it made Mrs. MBC's year-end list. It's the great room/living room/yard combo, mainly, that works. Offers 5br/5ba, 4550 sq. ft. It was on the market last year, as high as $3.275m, but it's at $2.895m now. The first posted open since its late-February return is Sun. 1-4pm.
923 1st offers the lay public the chance to see a $7.6m home, much as they were once offered the chance to see an $8m home. But please recognize this one requires advance arrangements/RSVP (see info in the BR open house…
Hill Section
916 9th is a perennial favorite here at MBC; it made Mrs. MBC's year-end list. It's the great room/living room/yard combo, mainly, that works. Offers 5br/5ba, 4550 sq. ft. It was on the market last year, as high as $3.275m, but it's at $2.895m now. The first posted open since its late-February return is Sun. 1-4pm.923 1st offers the lay public the chance to see a $7.6m home, much as they were once offered the chance to see an $8m home. But please recognize this one requires advance arrangements/RSVP (see info in the BR open house…
Great Escape
Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 10:01pm. 142 Views, 0 Comments.
It wasn't long ago at all that someone purchased 523 Marine – September 2006, to be exact. Purchase price then was $1.310m.It was a nice discount at the time – our older records show the property was first listed at $1.450m in May of that year.
The purchase was about 18 months ago. Then 523 Marine was back on the market in early late February of this year.
This owner sought $1.379m, and the property sold quickly – less than 3 weeks on the market. (There's some of that going around these days – what's selling seems to be selling fairly fast.)
After a quick escrow, the former owner got $1.340m (-$39k/-3% off list, +30k/+2% over Fall 2006).
Though the price was essentially flat, it seems fair to assume the owner took some kind of financial hit. The buyers'…
Meet Francisco
Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 3:24am. 109 Views, 0 Comments.
In our somewhat whimsical poll this week, we tried to determine which MB street might be the least-well-known in town.The results, which we'll publish in another brief story soon, told us that Francisco St. is the city's most obscure street.
It's with good reason. For one, Francisco is a border street, more or less, at the far south end near Hermosa. For another, there are only 6 homes with a Francisco St. address, so odds are you haven't visited anyone there. We also don't see any sales on the short block since 2001.Finally, Francisco is only part of a street. Most of the block you see in the picture here is actually 33rd St., Hermosa.
On the map here, from the county assessor's site, you can see how the grey border line between Hermosa and MB cuts a little…Median Price Preview (Q1 2008)
Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 4:37am. 97 Views, 0 Comments.
We've said here before that median price is just one of many awful measures of real estate prices and activity. Still, it's a common measure and most people can wrap their minds around it. (It never hurts to remind folks that a median is not an "average" [mean], but the one price at which half of all sales recorded are above that number, and half are below.)In comments here at MBC, someone posted the following median price stats for Q1 2006-2008, drawn from the MLS:
2006 - $1,625,000
2007 - $1,655,000
2008 - $1,832,000 These statistics were said to reflect all sales in MB in these 3 comparative periods – which means some sales we don't cover here, i.e., THs/condos and sales East of Sepulveda. And, obviously, Q1 2008 hasn't quite finished yet, so there's some…
All New, Except for All Those Months Before
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 5:21am. 121 Views, 0 Comments.
We had once sincerely hoped that the whole DOM issue would just go away. But it won't.
We'll write up some current activity on this front now, but henceforth we'll try to confine references to re-lists and True DOM to our twice-monthly market updates.
The bottom line for now is that the old tricks seem to be back. Our faith that Mr. MLS would solve this issue is largely broken, and the practice of bogus re-lists survives.
To recap: As is well-documented in MBC's 1-year history of public market tracking, it's a deeply embedded practice among local real estate agents to cancel and re-list properties that have gone stale. We call the tactic a "bogus re-list." The new sheriff in town, Mr. MLS, calls it "churning," and also a "deceptive business practice." Nice.…
We'll write up some current activity on this front now, but henceforth we'll try to confine references to re-lists and True DOM to our twice-monthly market updates.
The bottom line for now is that the old tricks seem to be back. Our faith that Mr. MLS would solve this issue is largely broken, and the practice of bogus re-lists survives.
To recap: As is well-documented in MBC's 1-year history of public market tracking, it's a deeply embedded practice among local real estate agents to cancel and re-list properties that have gone stale. We call the tactic a "bogus re-list." The new sheriff in town, Mr. MLS, calls it "churning," and also a "deceptive business practice." Nice.…
Want Lower Taxes?
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 3:49am. 104 Views, 0 Comments.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, there are only three things that are certain in a real estate downturn: foreclosures, bank failures and declining property tax bills.The LA County Assessor, Rick Auerbach, has seen beyond the horizon. He knows he's going to be flooded soon with requests for re-assessments (and lower property tax bills), given all the headlines about the RE market's rapid crash in the county. So he's offering to do the work himself first, lowering property tax bills en masse before the requests start pouring in.
In print, on radio and TV – and on the internet – the assessor is trying to get the message out and tell homeowners: Don't bother us, we'll take care of you, it'll be fine – you'll pay less, just let us do our work. (Click to download the…
Where's Homer, Again?
Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 4:03am. 125 Views, 0 Comments.
Here's hoping you had a great Beachster Sunday.
We've got plenty to cover this week, but we're going start on a more whimsical note, with a different sort of poll. This one will test readers' knowledge of the back streets and hidden corners of MB.
The idea for this poll comes out of the fact that there's now a second listing of the year on Homer (225 Homer). Well, we know where Homer is, but we had lived in MB quite a while before we saw that street. We wondered how many other MB residents even know there is a Homer in town.
Another listing at 131 Kelp posed the same sort of question for us before: Do people know where Kelp is?
Here's how the poll works: You can select multiple answers. We're asking which of the fairly obscure streets – all west of Sepulveda –…
We've got plenty to cover this week, but we're going start on a more whimsical note, with a different sort of poll. This one will test readers' knowledge of the back streets and hidden corners of MB.
The idea for this poll comes out of the fact that there's now a second listing of the year on Homer (225 Homer). Well, we know where Homer is, but we had lived in MB quite a while before we saw that street. We wondered how many other MB residents even know there is a Homer in town.
Another listing at 131 Kelp posed the same sort of question for us before: Do people know where Kelp is?
Here's how the poll works: You can select multiple answers. We're asking which of the fairly obscure streets – all west of Sepulveda –…
Weekend Opens (3/22-3/23)
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 3:50am. 124 Views, 0 Comments.
It's a short weekend for open houses given Easter – lots of listings are only open Saturday, while many of the listings that are new this week are not listed as open.
Idea for a drinking game: Browse this week's Beach Reporter ads and take a quaff each time an ad says "Hop on Over!"
You can click here for the list of weekend open houses via the Beach Reporter online, or any time use the link under "Prop. Search Tools" in the right-hand column on the front page.
As always, click on any highlighted address for more pics & details via Redfin.
Hill Section
There's a dearth of open houses in the Hill Section this weekend. It's a very observant region of MB.
We're happy to call attention to the Easter open at 939 Duncan, a big-time remodel purchased 2 years ago by…
Idea for a drinking game: Browse this week's Beach Reporter ads and take a quaff each time an ad says "Hop on Over!"
You can click here for the list of weekend open houses via the Beach Reporter online, or any time use the link under "Prop. Search Tools" in the right-hand column on the front page.
As always, click on any highlighted address for more pics & details via Redfin.
Hill Section
There's a dearth of open houses in the Hill Section this weekend. It's a very observant region of MB.
We're happy to call attention to the Easter open at 939 Duncan, a big-time remodel purchased 2 years ago by…