Thursday, July 26, 2007

Tiny in Sunset Park

This 2 bed / 1 bath house at 2416 21st St., asking $1,099K (reduced within a couple of weeks from $1,200K), is TINY. It's described as, "Charming 2 bedroom 1 bath home on a beautiful tree lined street in Santa Monica. Best value in Santa Monica! Completely redone! Stainless Steel appliances, dining area, living room & detached office. Unlimited potential to expand. Huge grassy backyard, inside laundry & off street parking. Just minutes to the beach, shopping and freeway. SM school district!!..."

According to Zillow, the house is all of 772 sq.ft., on a 6,750 sq.ft. lot, and it looks it. It also includes a similarly-tiny one-car garage, with french doors and windows. The aerial photo above shows how small against the red lot outline. It could even fit another driveway on the north side. Below is the front view.

But if it's really about lot value, why redo it with the stainless steel, etc.? It doesn't appear to be a flip; I don't see a recent sale. "Best value"? That's a whopping $1,424 per sq.ft.! Yes, it's time for more rational prices to return.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

This is INSANE. Tulips R Us.

Anonymous said...

$1m+ for that crackerbox ? What a joke !

Anonymous said...

The owner appears to have bought the house in 1968, owes approximately $900K, AND it is a ONE bedroom house. I didn't know there was such a thing.

Mortgage Type: NON-PURCHASE MONEY

Lender: AMERICORP FUNDING

Lender Type: MORTGAGE COMPANY

Loan Amount: $ 665,000

Loan Type: FANNIE MAE/FREDDIE MAC

Type of Financing: FIXED RATE

Interest Rate: 5.87 %

Due Date: 4/1/2036


Mortgage Type: NON-PURCHASE MONEY

Lender: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK NA

Lender Type: BANK

Loan Amount: $ 261,200

Loan Type: CREDIT LINE (REVOLVING)

Due Date: 4/8/2036

Rate Change: MONTHLY

Priti said...

Excuse me, if it ia a naive question. How do find out all existing mortgage against the house like the guy above did ?

Unknown said...

Can you say F-O-R-E-C-L-O-S-U-R-E ?????

Anonymous said...

The little sign in the picture says "for lease" (no I can't read the sign in the photo, I drive by this house frequently). Not sure how that one will pencil out when she owes $900K.

Don said...

They may not owe the full 900K... the second is a HELOC which may or may not be maxed out.

The first though, has a $4K/month payment. Even with the likely insanely low property taxes that they're paying, they're in trouble. They've got to pray for someone who wants the land and thinks it's worth a million bucks. So much for all the foreclosures on the westside being bubble buyers.

Westside Bubble said...

I found the For Lease listing in the MLS, asking $3,600/month. Not good for covering a $4K monthly payment.

Anonymous said...

That's one small home for man, one giant ATM for mankind.

Anonymous said...

"They may not owe the full 900K... the second is a HELOC which may or may not be maxed out."

True, but it seems like a pretty non-round number to just make up in one's head in case of emergencies.

Don said...

I think that the bank determines the size of the HELOC, much like they determine the credit limit on your credit card. I don't have info on the exact procedure, but I'm guessing they set the size of the line based on the equity in the property at the time it was extended.

I wonder what they blew the money on. If they bought in 1968, the house should have been paid off completely when they took out the two loans last year. I wonder if this is another would-be mogul.

Westside Bubble said...

Wonder if the seller bought a retirement house somewhere else as well as fixed up this one with the re-fi money? This house appears to be vacant.

Anonymous said...

Ah. This seems to be what happens when the flip goes bad. The flipper puts in all sorts of the latest style appliances to woo the "woman of the house".

My grandfather in law's house in Glendale was bought and sold by several flippers and I've monitored its path to fame and fortune on zillow. The last flipper was unable to sell it for 999,000 for over a year, so the latest ad we see is for 1.034 million and he brags about it being refinished with all sorts of stainless steel appliances. Still not selling.

Anonymous said...

By the way, this is not a joke. You can check zillow.com and see recent sales in West L.A. and Venice for $1000/sqft.

My parents live there and I spent my entire pre-40 life in that area so I know it really well.

These prices are a joke and when the punch line arrives we are going to see a financial tsunami worse than an 8.0 earthquake.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that last post of mine seemed contradictory. The sales at these prices are real, but when the bottom falls out of the market, this whole thing will be seen as a terrible, grim joke on the idiots who bought property here at these prices.