Timely Real Estate News……………………………………………………15 July 2010
There is some good news, not-so-good news at half-way mark for 2010
Well, it is not June in January and it’s still too early to tell how 2010 is going to turn out. But if you’re following real estate on the Westside, we continue to find a mixed bag of news: Sales volume for the communities of Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills Post Office, Bel-Air and Brentwood are still ahead of 2009 totals, but have dropped considerably from a margin of 47% positive as of the end of May, 2010 to 28% on the plus side. It seems that as we move forward into this year, sales volumes could be reaching a ‘stalemate’ with volumes in the previous years as we see the market achieving an uncomfortable balance. What’s uncomfortable? Median sales prices according to the MLS. With some minor duplication in the overall #s that we get each month from the Multiple Listing Service, we are seeing that only Beverly Hills Post Office is barely ahead of median sales prices for the first half of 2010 — just 1%. Brentwood is not that far behind — just 6% off of last year’s pace; Beverly Hills is 16% behind 2009 first-half median sales prices; and Bel-Air is off by 22%., yet when you look at the sales prices for each month, there were man more sales in all four communities over $3,000,000 in June than there were in May, for example, May – Beverly Hills 1, BHPO, – none, Bel Air 1, Brentwood – 1 June – Beverly Hills – 5, BHPO – 3, Bel Air 2, and Brentwood is tied with Beverly Hills at 5 also! Go figure. I can only report on what we get — and while the MLS is still trying to fix their sales duplication glitch, the glitches were relatively minor this past month. Is this the end of the world? Of course not. As we have discussed through the past couple of years as we have experienced the dark side of the real estate moon — every month brings surprises — Beverly Hills is way up; Bel-Air is down, etc. There seems to be no consistency, and the reason for this is quite simple: We have the luxury of vast variables in the market. the neighborhood.” And with the neighborhood, we are finding extraordinary sales of large estates that continue to skew the median sales prices each month. Should you complain? Probably not. The fact is our median sales prices are strong compared to many areas in the US these days.
We have an exciting story to tell. We live in a land of beautiful people and beautiful homes.
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OK — here’s the deal: “You give us the deed back, and we’ll call it even”.
According to the article in the Los Angeles Times at the end of June,, some of the largest mortgage services and lenders in the country are gearing up campaigns to reach out to borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth with cash incentives that sometimes figure into five figures, plus a simple message: “Let’s bypass all the time consuming hassles of short sales and foreclosures. Just deed us the title and we will call it a deal. We don’t come after you to collect any deficient between what you owe us on the mortgage and what we obtain from the sale”. Sometimes this can be wrapped up in as little as 45 days.
Mortgage companies indicate that troubled borrowers are increasingly signing up for the offer. Bank of America has already mailed 100,000 deed-in-lieu solicitations to customers in the past 60 days. Volumes for completed deals are breaking company records. The actual name for this program is ” Deeds-in-lieu-of-foreclosure”. Does this work for everyone… NO.. If you have equity in the property, the owner most likely is not going to want to walk away from that, and would most likely go for a loan modification. They also do not work if there are multiple mortgage holders. Also while it doesn’t do as much damage to the owner’s credit score as a foreclosure or bankruptcy would, it does still leave a mark. It is going to be interesting to see if this proves to be effective in assisting to “clear the decks” of some of the troubled properties we have hanging around.
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And I thought I was taking a vacation….and other fantasies
Planned for months, I was heading to my home in Coronado for the July 4th week holiday. My family from Vancouver was anxious to get to the sunny, warm climes of Southern California. Fooled you, didn’t we? The weather for the entire week in Coronado was June Gloom — only gloomier as Winnie the Pooh would say. And compounding the rather tepid weather we had at the beach, I couldn’t escape the work facing me every day. However, I enjoyed our four-mile walks on the beach each day — but you couldn’t lie out on the beach, or even sit by the pool — too cold. So we got out of ‘Dodge’ and headed to Temecula for a day of wine tasting and dinner. Oh, my, what a treat that was. It was warm, sunny, and the wine was superb. We visited four wineries — Callaway, Bailey, Monte Verde and South Coast…and had the most delightful dinner at a wine bistro in Mira Mesa. This is really beautiful wine country. We also visited Old Town Temecula and went to this wonderful olive oil factory. As part of our adventures another day, we stopped by Fashion Valley and was sad to see that the Saks Fifth Avenue store is closing. They had amazing discounts or 70 80 % on all of their clothes, and were selling everything including all of their furnishings, cabinets, shelves, and were even selling their famous Lalique lighting fixtures that will be auctioned off by Sotheby’s later this year. Another era passing by. It reminds me of when I was growing up here and we shopped at Bullocks Wilshire.
Connor faces life now….graduates from high school
My favorite (and only) nephew, Connor (Morgan’s brother), is on his way to his future after graduating from Collingwood School in West Vancouver, BC. Connor is working this summer and has been accepted at all seven colleges and universities to which he has applied. But he has not yet decided if he wants to take a year off or just “dive in”. A strapping good-looking, 6’2” mountain bike champion- but, like many of us, he has time on his side. The graduation ceremony was + beautiful, one of the instructors plays the bag pipes, and he piped all of the 127 graduates into the tent where the ceremonies where held. Congratulations from Auntie Carole.
Sometimes I feel that I can never get away from real estate, but while I was in Vancouver, we looked at some houses for my sister to use as an example of how she and my brother in law want to build. There are some truly wonderfully exciting and architectural homes in West Vancouver, most of which have really extraordinary views of the Pacific Ocean and Vancouver proper. Very inspiring!
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Recycling Metal in our Blue Bins
If you are like me, you think that everything metal can be recycled.. unfortunately that is not the case. Following is a list of what can and cannot be recycled.
What metal can be placed in the bins?
All clean, empty metal cans (tin, steel, aluminum,) including:
Soda, juice, soup, vegetable and pet food cans
Empty water based paint cans*
Empty aerosol cans with plastic caps removed
Clean aluminum foils, pie tins and trays
Wire/metal hangers
What metal can be placed in the bins?
All partially filled aerosol cans and containers for cleaning fluids, automotive fluids, pesticide, oil based paints, garden chemicals and pool chemicals
Electronics and batteries. This includes car batteries, household batteries and rechargeable batteries
All of these items need to be taken to a SAFE center such as the one at UCLA.
* Buy or tell your painter to only use ZERO VOC (volatile organic compound) paints. These paints do not emit an offensive odor during application, have no odor once cured, and do not produce off gases. They have no adverse effect on the ozone layer and have minimal impact on the ecosystem. They are not deemed
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I have a number of wonderful properties for your consideration. They include an exciting Romani (largest Canyon home floorplan) with a truly exceptional back yard for $1,899,000 in Bel Air Crest, two great Custom homes, also in Bel Air Crest, a lovely, gracious home in Mountaingate for $2,275,000, and a number of pocket listings in Mountaingate, and Brentwood as well. Just give me a call at 310 442-1384. In the mean time stay cool and enjoy the summer!