May 2008 
There are 26 blog entries for May 2008.
Weekend Opens (5/31-6/1)
Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 5:22am. 106 Views, 0 Comments.
We're getting back to normal, or above-normal, with lots of opens this weekend. Our weekly feature mainly looks at new offerings, but 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."
As always, click any highlighted address below for more pics & details via Redfin.
Hill Section
If you're a regular reader, you know they just don't give us many new Hill Section listings in a given week, and even fewer new opens.
953 9th is a new listing, but not posted as open. Offers 5br/4ba and 4100 sq. ft. for $2.650m. It's on the same street as Mrs. MBC's pick 2 weeks ago, 619 9th, which is open (Sun. 1-4pm) and which will run you $4.195m. Can we get really micro for a…
As always, click any highlighted address below for more pics & details via Redfin.
Hill Section
If you're a regular reader, you know they just don't give us many new Hill Section listings in a given week, and even fewer new opens.
953 9th is a new listing, but not posted as open. Offers 5br/4ba and 4100 sq. ft. for $2.650m. It's on the same street as Mrs. MBC's pick 2 weeks ago, 619 9th, which is open (Sun. 1-4pm) and which will run you $4.195m. Can we get really micro for a…
A $600k Reality Check
Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 5:32am. 214 Views, 0 Comments.
Hold a house for a year, and you're not very likely to make money if you try to sell it.Even in MB.
This is a lesson hard-learned, but gradually dawning on the owner/seller of 317 17th, a walkstreet home near downtown.
17th was purchased in Nov. 2006 for $2.050m. As MBC recently noted, that was "about 30 minutes ago in local real estate time."
Just over a year later, the owner offered 317 17th for $2.799m. And that struck MBC as, well, ambitious. (See "Stuff Our Stockings (Please).")
We described $2.799m as a "highway-robbery price" and noted that the seller sought a profit of $749k (+36%) after a short hold. We speculated, in a perhaps non-PC way, that the reason for sale might be that the owner "face[s] imminent court-ordered institutionalization."Quite…
Renter Turns Buyer
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 10:30pm. 203 Views, 0 Comments.
Of all the many people weighing the rent-buy equation, one has the ear of perhaps a million people.David Leonhardt of the New York Times calls himself "an evangelist for renting," the sort of guy who has tried, repeatedly, to persuade people that the rent-buy equation only favored renting in recent years with bubble-inflated housing prices. (See, for instance, this piece from April 2007.)
But Leonhardt is leaving Manhattan (the island, not MB) and moving to the Washington, D.C., area, where he now finds housing more affordable and buying more rational. He's under contract to buy a home. (See the story of his "conversion" in Wednesday's NYT.)
As Leonhardt explains it, his decision was tied to the "rent ratio" in the area. (Others call this the "price/rent…
Call Off the Bump
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 3:43am. 248 Views, 0 Comments.
A 3-week experiment with a price increase now has been called off at 923 1st.As we noted earlier this month (see "One Up, One Down"), on May 6, the list price for 923 1st shot up from $7.375m to $7.595m, same as the price from March 26-April 28. There were just 8 days to catch the discount then.
Today, the price is down again to $7.350m, $25k below where it stood from April 28-May 6, so it seems buyers didn't completely miss out on a bargain here.
It's hard to figure what's up, but it's not hard to imagine some terse meetings about pricing. (We're guessing.)
The listing began at $7.998m in early January, so it's now down $648k (-8%) from there.
The home is spectacular in many ways, and would be an especially great place to visit for a rollicking pool party.…
More About You
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 4:53pm. 254 Views, 0 Comments.
We learn a lot from readers here, even though the MBC comments section is anonymous. Correspondents reflect several different viewpoints based upon factors that include homeownership status.Twice recently, we have run polls that gathered interesting evidence on who reads MBC. Our most popular poll yet asked simply which RE-related actions readers had taken, if any, in the past 2 years. (See "Recently Bought? Or Sold? Why?")
In comments on that story, people described their decisions to buy and sell in recent years, and gave some sense of market psychology. In the poll, we learned that slightly more than a quarter of the MBC readership has bought or sold in the past 2 years. Most readers have not been active in the market in that timeframe.
About a third of…
Holiday Open Thread
Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 5:42pm. 202 Views, 0 Comments.
Memorial Day is the traditional kickoff to Summer.We're not getting the hot weather this year – more of a shorts-and-long-sleeves kind of day – but it's still shaping up to be one of the nicer days in a week.
How are you celebrating? Where? With whom?
And on point with the purpose of the holiday, what or who are you remembering most today?
In Baghdad, it's 101 and getting hotter throughout the week.
MB Market Update for 5/15/08, Trees
Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 4:28am. 143 Views, 0 Comments.
The new MB Market Update spreadsheets are available: download the 5/15/08 update by clicking here (note: this one is revised, fixing layout problems), or at any time by using the link at the upper-right corner of the main MBC page. Information in this update closed May 15.
This is the third of 3 articles describing market activity May 1-15.
Tree Section
There were 51 active SFRs in the Tree Section as of May 15, with 27 priced below $2m, and 24 priced above $2m.
We had 7 new listings, 3 of them new construction:
This is the third of 3 articles describing market activity May 1-15.
Tree Section
There were 51 active SFRs in the Tree Section as of May 15, with 27 priced below $2m, and 24 priced above $2m.
We had 7 new listings, 3 of them new construction:
2901 Oak (pictured) is located on a not-terrible part of Oak. Home is essentially Spanish, 5br/5ba and 3250 sq. ft. Starts a hair below $2m at $1.995m.
- 2504 Poinsettia is very surprising – they say "not cookie-cutter," and they're not kidding. A
Weekend Opens (5/24-5/25)
Saturday, May 24th, 2008 at 4:17am. 120 Views, 0 Comments.
May and June may be great selling months, in general, but Memorial Day weekend is a time for car races, barbeques and beach time, not new listings or open houses.
Literally 1 new SFR listing west of Sepulveda has come on since last week, and that's a $6m+ Sand Section home (2719 Manhattan Ave.) that isn't open this weekend. So we'll pick out listings worth special attention for one reason or another.
The way the weather is shaping up this weekend, don a parka if you dare to trod from open to open.
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."
As always, click any highlighted address below for more pics & details via Redfin.
Hill Section
Everyone talks…
Literally 1 new SFR listing west of Sepulveda has come on since last week, and that's a $6m+ Sand Section home (2719 Manhattan Ave.) that isn't open this weekend. So we'll pick out listings worth special attention for one reason or another.
The way the weather is shaping up this weekend, don a parka if you dare to trod from open to open.
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."
As always, click any highlighted address below for more pics & details via Redfin.
Hill Section
Everyone talks…
MB Market Update for 5/15/08, Sand
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 6:41am. 118 Views, 0 Comments.
The new MB Market Update spreadsheets are available: download the 5/15/08 update by clicking here (note: this one is revised, fixing layout problems), or at any time by using the link at the upper-right corner of the main MBC page. Information in this update closed May 15.
This is the second of 3 articles describing market activity May 1-15; again, shooting for shorter this round...
Sand Section
There were 36 active SFRs on May 15.
The biggest news was the raft of sales (new escrows), 7 in all, so we’ll start there:
This is the second of 3 articles describing market activity May 1-15; again, shooting for shorter this round...
Sand Section
There were 36 active SFRs on May 15.
The biggest news was the raft of sales (new escrows), 7 in all, so we’ll start there:
- 437 1st, a 2007 purchase ($1.450m) that was tidied up and last offered at $1.65m;
401 3rd (pictured), a large remodel that may have been "underpriced" in a way that only a $2.7m home in the South End could be – lasted less than 2 weeks;
MB Market Update for 5/15/08, Hills
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 5:33am. 124 Views, 0 Comments.
The new MB Market Update spreadsheets are available: download the 5/15/08 update by clicking here, or at any time by using the link at the upper-right corner of the main MBC page. Information in this update closed May 15.
We now split up the discussions of our 3 areas west of Sepulveda into separate articles. By necessity, we'll be short on text and pics this round. As always, you can click on a highlighted address for pics & details on active listings via Redfin.
Total SFR inventory west of Sepulveda was at 108 on May 15, just +1 from the end of April. It is, nonetheless, another new inventory record in MBC's year-plus of public market tracking.
In the whole of our subject region west of Sepulveda, we recorded 14 new listings in this 2-week period and 14…
We now split up the discussions of our 3 areas west of Sepulveda into separate articles. By necessity, we'll be short on text and pics this round. As always, you can click on a highlighted address for pics & details on active listings via Redfin.
Total SFR inventory west of Sepulveda was at 108 on May 15, just +1 from the end of April. It is, nonetheless, another new inventory record in MBC's year-plus of public market tracking.
In the whole of our subject region west of Sepulveda, we recorded 14 new listings in this 2-week period and 14…
