September 2009 
There are 24 blog entries for September 2009.
Fixing The Strand
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 5:08am. 134 Views, 0 Comments.
If you're a regular visitor to The Strand ("consumer of Strand services"), you're there to enjoy one of its many benefits:
- Ocean views
- People watching
- Breezes
- Flora
- Excellent homes
It is, quite simply, a great place to stroll, walk, jog, run or play.
But there are obstacles and annoyances, too.
Last year, MBC readers – surprisingly – rated "kids" on The Strand as the #1 problem. (See MBC's poll setup last year in "Troubles in Paradise" and the results in "Open Forum (7/28-8/3).")
The city is now rating bikes as #1, newly stencil-painting the message you see here all over The Strand as we enter Fall, when fewer and fewer 2-wheeled offenders will be around to get the message.
Let's leave the kids out of this, though.
The biggest concrete…
A New Look
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 5:35am. 133 Views, 0 Comments.
New drapes. New sheets. A new tablecloth. Maybe a new comfy chair.
Sometimes you need to mix things up to make the same old cozy home feel like something new.
And that's what we've done here at MBC.
Our oft-rumored cyber makeover is complete, at least the big stuff.
We're not so sad to see the old block-print, standard-issue, ham-handedly-edited blog template go by the wayside. Your blog author is no design genius, and happily handed off the real work of website design to a professional.
We're doing a couple more things common to other websites.
MBC is active now on Twitter. Click to go to our profile page and begin to "follow," or use the "MBC on Twitter" tab on the front page, or, at any time, use the Twitter option under the "Subscribe" pull-down menu at…
No Sub-$1m Listings in Trees
Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 4:12am. 129 Views, 0 Comments.
For several months now, the number of options in the Tree Section below $1m has grown steadily.
For the moment, no more.
The least-pricey options on the open market in the Trees now are (click addresses for pics & details via Redfin):
In the past week, we've seen sales (new…
For the moment, no more.
The least-pricey options on the open market in the Trees now are (click addresses for pics & details via Redfin):
1900 Oak (4br/3ba, 2175 sq. ft.) a remodel that fetched $1.253m in Sept. 2005 and is now priced somewhat below ($1.099m);
- 2508 Walnut (3br/2ba, 1725 sq. ft.), a cottage that needs work, just featured in our "Sunday Opens" ($1.099m); and
- 750 27th (3br/2ba, 1550 sq. ft.), most likely a lot sale down the road ($1.199m).
- 742 Rosecrans (3br/1ba, 900 sq. ft., $695k) and
- 1417 Walnut (3br/2ba, 1125 sq. ft., $899k).
In the past week, we've seen sales (new…Sunday Opens (9/27)
Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 4:17am. 127 Views, 0 Comments.
Do you know they're frying all over the L.A. basin?
Did you see anything but fog for most of Saturday?
This, folks, is a selling point.
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 on any highlighted address for more pics & details via Redfin. We ask MBC readers who visit the featured homes, or any open house, to also report back in the comments here. Tell us what you see, what you like and what you don't like.
Hill Section
713 Anderson (3br/3ba, 2550) is a newer (2004) custom-built home with on one of the street's trademark half-wide lots (3250 sq. ft.).
They've done a lot of good on this skinny (25') lot, with a nice great room as the…
Did you see anything but fog for most of Saturday?
This, folks, is a selling point.
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 on any highlighted address for more pics & details via Redfin. We ask MBC readers who visit the featured homes, or any open house, to also report back in the comments here. Tell us what you see, what you like and what you don't like.
Hill Section
713 Anderson (3br/3ba, 2550) is a newer (2004) custom-built home with on one of the street's trademark half-wide lots (3250 sq. ft.).They've done a lot of good on this skinny (25') lot, with a nice great room as the…
Pushing Into '04?
Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 5:55am. 119 Views, 0 Comments.
From observations and evidence, here at MBC we often talk about how MB is living in 2005 prices, maybe slipping backward in time.
We're preparing a detailed analysis of recent resales of 2003-2007 acquisitions. While we're doing that, a couple of items just hit the radar pointing back to 2004 prices, not 2005.
First, a new listing at 325 2nd (a TH, not SFR) is a resale of a property acquired in July 2004 for $1.430m. (Click address for more pics & details via Redfin.)
The start price now, 5 years and 2 months later, is $1.379m (-$51k/-4%).
The 10-year-old TH (3br/4ba, 1875 sq. ft.) clearly has some updates, but isn't 100% current. Absent views, the big pluses are location and a relatively newer build.
Townhomes do price out differently and do tend to lose their…
We're preparing a detailed analysis of recent resales of 2003-2007 acquisitions. While we're doing that, a couple of items just hit the radar pointing back to 2004 prices, not 2005.
First, a new listing at 325 2nd (a TH, not SFR) is a resale of a property acquired in July 2004 for $1.430m. (Click address for more pics & details via Redfin.)The start price now, 5 years and 2 months later, is $1.379m (-$51k/-4%).
The 10-year-old TH (3br/4ba, 1875 sq. ft.) clearly has some updates, but isn't 100% current. Absent views, the big pluses are location and a relatively newer build.
Townhomes do price out differently and do tend to lose their…
Lucky 7's
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 3:47am. 135 Views, 0 Comments.
At practically the bookends of the local market, this week we've seen 2 sales (new escrows) with prices starting with a 7.
One is a $7m home at 218 Anderson, a splendid, sleek estate that actually seemed fine at $10m, where it started in February.
The huge (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.
Maybe this is run-of-the-mill in Malibu, the Hollywood Hills or such places, but it's a landmark-type home for MB. See the lucky listing agents' site for this chattily narrated virtual tour. (One click shuts off the game-show-host voice.)
Just to dot our i's and so forth, the actual start price was $9.988m, and most recent…
One is a $7m home at 218 Anderson, a splendid, sleek estate that actually seemed fine at $10m, where it started in February. The huge (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.
Maybe this is run-of-the-mill in Malibu, the Hollywood Hills or such places, but it's a landmark-type home for MB. See the lucky listing agents' site for this chattily narrated virtual tour. (One click shuts off the game-show-host voice.)
Just to dot our i's and so forth, the actual start price was $9.988m, and most recent…
A 4-Year Burn in the 90s
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 5:02am. 112 Views, 0 Comments.
Home price declines in MB in the last major down-cycle spanned 4 years.There were bumps, including an identifiable rising median trend during the second year, before the downward trend resumed convincingly. (Click graph to enlarge.)
By the end of the 4-year burn, median prices were down 27.7% in nominal terms (the dollars of the day), and 34.6% in inflation-adjusted dollars. (Using 2007 dollars in this case.)
We're looking back at the data now, previously produced for one of MBC's "Top Stories," in light of the simmering discussion around town – and here at MBC – as to what's going on with median prices today.
Are we down? Are we up? Have things turned around?
The history of the last decline suggests that down-cycles, once they take hold, grind on despite…
Open Forum (9/22- )
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 10:48pm. 123 Views, 0 Comments.
The Dow is near 10,000 again and the S&P is over 1,000.As this snappy chart shows, market values have been down, and now they're nearly back. (Note: the y-axis starts at 6,450 to show an exaggerated view of the drop and recovery over the past year.)
People are feeling better, and there's this (via Bloomberg) possibly great news:
A Japanese charting technique flagged the first buy signal for the U.S. equity market in six years last week, a sign that the steepest rally since the 1930s may last, Dolmen Stockbrokers said.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose above the top of the so-called Ichimoku Cloud, according to the weekly Ichimoku chart, which analyzes historical highs and lows. The last time this occurred, the benchmark surged 62 percent
…Beautiful Loser
Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 10:15pm. 122 Views, 0 Comments.
Some day quite soon we'll be writing the final chapter on 502 24th, a certified "green" contemporary that's going to cost the builder almost as much as it costs the new buyers.What's that?
Yes, the big (4br/4ba, 3875 sq. ft.), unique, fun modern is a hit as architecture, but a flop as a business venture.
The listing touts such pros as the news that the home "will be featured on this fall's American Institute of Architects (AIA) Home tour," and cons like: "Priced over $1,000,000 under what it cost to build."
That was when the price was at $2.995m. We're hearing that buyers stepped in last week and took a big chunk off that asking price. Which means a loss of more than $1m, maybe a lot more.
(Click the Redfin link above for the still-active listing, or see the…
Weekend Opens (9/19-9/20)
Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 10:12pm. 131 Views, 0 Comments.
It's another week with intriguing options. The early Fall period often brings with it new listings and new attempts to get older listings moving.
And here we are again promoting a destination-type property in East MB, to boot. They say it's your only chance to see 1501 9th, so pencil it in if you can.
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 on any highlighted address for more pics & details via Redfin. We ask MBC readers who visit the featured homes, or any open house, to also report back in the comments here. Tell us what you see, what you like and what you don't like.
East MB
1501 9th (6br/10ba, 8550 sq. ft.), a new custom home…
And here we are again promoting a destination-type property in East MB, to boot. They say it's your only chance to see 1501 9th, so pencil it in if you can.
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 on any highlighted address for more pics & details via Redfin. We ask MBC readers who visit the featured homes, or any open house, to also report back in the comments here. Tell us what you see, what you like and what you don't like.
East MB
1501 9th (6br/10ba, 8550 sq. ft.), a new custom home…