Expo Line meetings this week

The Expo Line Construction Authority's next phase 2 Community Workshops — on grade crossings, station and parking locations, bike routes and more — are scheduled (more information):

* Tuesday, April 1, 6:30 pm, Crossroads School, Roth Hall, 1714 21st St., Santa Monica
* Thursday, April 3, 6:30 pm, Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, Gymnasium, 3200 Motor Ave., Los Angeles

33% haircut in Panorama City

Remember how the Case-Shiller index's biggest drop is in lower-priced Los Angeles houses, 21.9% so far from the November 2006 peak?

How about a 33% haircut in two years in the Panorama City neighborhood of our October 29 "Beautiful white iron gate" (no longer on the market but no sale recorded)?

This 2 bed / 1 bath 1950 tract house, last sold 04/24/06 for $448K, is now asking $300K. Not much description: "Two bedrooms,one bath...Nice home for first time home buyer".

No indication if it is REO or a short sale, but neither its 2006 sale price nor its current asking price are unusual for this neighborhood. Listed 3/4/08, there's no action yet.

Monthly inventory update

3/28 - All inventories are at record levels for this time of year, for the time I've been tracking. The Westside total of 1,694 is greater than all months last year except the fall peak of 1,731 on 11/2/07. And high DOM demonstrates some extremely stale listings.

3/21 - SM <$3M is down slightly, but SM overall is up a little, as is PP and MV.

3/14 - SM and PP are up, but Mar Vista is down (it appears partly from expired listings).

3/7 - Santa Monica is up; Pacific Palisades <$2M is down, but up overall; Mar Vista is down. Amazing that people are committing to house purchases (including 4140 Sunnyside, below) just as the economy appears headed off the cliff.

       LA County  Santa Monica  Pacific Palisades  Mar Vista
                <$3M New Tot DOM<$2M New Tot DOM Tot New DOM
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 1/30/06  27,732
 2/28/06  29,420
 3/31/06  31,819
 5/ 1/06  34,032  38  33
 6/ 2/06  37,847  56  36      38
 6/30/06  42,317  66  40      49
 8/ 4/06  45,315  70  34      50
 9/ 1/06  46,781  71  27      59
10/ 6/06  47,369  83  25  98  71
11/ 3/06  45,780  80  20  91  77
12/ 1/06  43,103  65  18  72  96  39  20
 1/ 5/07  35,646  54   4  60 117  33   6  71  66
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 2/ 2/07  36,715  38  15  45 124  29  16  61  71  70      
 3/ 2/07  41,251  42  14  51 114  26  10  68  79  55  25  76
 4/ 6/07  42,857  41  23  49 107  18   8  73 103  54  52  50
 5/ 4/07  45,918  46  28  54  92  19   6  82  79  71  37  52
 6/ 1/07  52,198  50  25  61  78  17  15  87  78  77  39  53
 6/30/07  52,769  42  18  56  81  17  11  92  77  74  33  61
 8/ 3/07  54,166  53  28  68  86  23  12  78  76  84  39  68
 8/31/07  57,432  57  21  72  98  18   7  69  75  90  40  79
 9/28/07  58,973  59  17  74 103  26   9  90  81  87  20  87
11/ 2/07  58,731  62  19  81 120  29   7 106  77  98  35  88
11/30/07  59,108  52  14  67 136  23  11  88  94  96  23  96
12/31/07  53,475  42   5  53 148  19   2  73 119  79  13 116
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 2/ 1/08  53,722  54  16  67 157  26  16 101 118  89  36  96
 2/29/08  53,520  50  10  68 178  29   8 108 108  88  21 103
 3/ 7/08          52   4  71 187  27   4 116  91  79   5  99
 3/14/08  53,359  57  11  75 176  31   6 118  90  72   9 101
 3/21/08  53,566  55  13  77 174  32   7 120  99  74  14 101
 3/28/08          57  16  81 171  32  11 122  92  82  20 105
 4/ 4/08

All Westside

             2/1    3/28 
                2/29 
Bel Air-H.Hls.85  82  95
Bev.Ctr.-M.M. 71  67  75
Beverly Hills 65  64  66
B.H. P.O.     78  80  92
B'wood Vic.   50  56  53
Brentwood     77  86  96
Chev.-R.Pk.'8'21  19  20
Culver City   42  48  50
Malibu       185 200 213
Malibu Beach  38  49  57
Marina Del Rey26  36  25
Pac.Palisades101 108 122
Palms-M.Vista 89  88  82
Playa Del Rey 22  19  15
Playa Vista    5   4   6
Santa Monica  67  68  81
Sunset-Hwd.H.189 185 215
Topanga       49  44  63
Venice        72  72  74
W.H'wood Vic. 48  51  48
West L.A.     20  18  25
Westchester   72  54  79
W'wood-C.City 37  36  42
             ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
Total       1509    1694
                1524

Notes

See here for 2007 monthly totals. LA County inventory via OC Renter. Santa Monica Days on Market (DOM) is for <$3M, and omits Santa Monica Canyon (in City of Los Angeles but S.M. Post Office). Pacific Palisades DOM is for <$2M and count omits mobile homes. "New" is for previous month, or month-to-date for current partial month.

I don't think so

Pushing the envelope for Sunset Park spec houses is this 5 bed / 5.5 bath basic stucco McMansion at 2307 Ashland Ave. listed 2/7, asking $2,390K:

"New custom built 5BR (4+maids) 5.5 BA Mediterranean in Sunset Park. Quality craftsmanship and attention to detail. Dbl wrought iron and glass doors open to dramatic two story foyer w/curved staircase, classic iron railings, topped with a stunning chandelier. Palatial columns in LR, FP, solid wood flrs w/cherry finish. Luxury gourmet kitchen w/6 burner Jenn-Air stove and Jenn-Air ref. Adj breakfast area and fam rm. Master ste w/ sitting area, FP, balcony, spa tub and stall shower. Garage...."

The previous 2 bed / 1 bath modern 1950s house house on that lot was listed June-August 2006 for $1,189K but apparently didn't sell. Zillow's last sale information shows it sold 12/24/03 for $727K.

But the highest Sunset Park comp I have is the 4 bed / 4 bath craftsman house at 1341 Pearl St., listed 8/20/07 for $2,199K, closed 10/26/07 for $1,950K. Which is on the hill looking west toward Ocean Park, whereas 2307 Ashland is the second lot east of very-busy 23rd Street and two blocks north of the end of the airport runway. I don't think so.

January Case-Shiller

It's the last Tuesday of the month, time for the latest (January 2008) S&P/Case-Shiller numbers, continuing their plummet, now back to early 2005. Sure doesn't look like a bottom anytime soon!

(December chart) (November chart with Santa Monica index)

Los Angeles (black line, includes Orange County) is now down 18.1% from its peak in September 2006 - 3.7% from December, 3.6% from November, 3.6% from October, 2.1% from September and 1.3% from August. The national (orange line, aka Composite) index is down 13.4% from its peak in June 2006 - 2.2% from December, 2.0% from November, 2.2% from October, 1.4% from September, and .9% from August.

Besides the original city index they have each city broken into Low, Middle, and High tiers (Under $511,420, $511,420 - $735,266, and Over $735,266). Los Angeles' Low Tier rose the most and has fallen back the most so far from its November 2006 peak, 21.9%. The High Tier rose the least and rather plateaued since 2006, but it too is falling more steeply, 13.4% so far from June 2006.

Open thread!

Anon commented yesterday, "I really have a bunch of houses in the area that I'd like to discuss. [Wish] we had a way to do that!"

Rico wrote, "More grist for your real estate photography mill at 2009 Fairburn in Westwood. Please take your dramamine before looking."

And Anon wrote, "Check out the TRAILER for sale at 24 Aloha #24. MLS 08-250187. Is this a JOKE? Over a million $ for a trailer?!"

Let's try a first-ever Westside Bubble Open Thread. See if you like a place to post other listings that deserve the spotlight. Please try to keep it on the topic of Westside listings, though.

Paul Zahler index?

This 4 bed / 3.5 bath house at 238 17th St., asking $2,700K, may have a greater use. Or not. First, its description:

"Tradtional home w/4BD, 3.5BA in prime north of Montana location. Features include living room w/beamed ceilings & fireplace, spacious dining room & recessed lighting. 3BD up & 1BD down. Bright master suite w/hi ceilings & walk-in closet. Extra-large kitchen & family room opens to private backyard w/pool. Detached 2-car garage...."

Developer Paul Zahler built a number of houses very similar to this in the latter 1980s. I've been wondering if their similar age and size could make them useful to create an index to supplement my lot-value index. They're quite recognizable, and I looked up the ones on 9th, 10th, 12th, and Euclid, as well as 507 Euclid. Here they are, in order of last sale date.

Address   Last Sale  Price  Bed/Bath  SF  Built

718 12th    9/24/87    $820K  4/3   3,214  1987
618 Euclid   1/8/88  $1,070K  4/4   3,858  1988
238 17th    1/13/89  $1,430K  4/3.5 2,970  1988
507 Euclid  9/18/97  $1,595K  ?/3   3,955  1986
309 9th     7/27/05  $2,550K  3/3   2,862  1986
437 12th   11/28/06  $3,241K  4/4   3,322   n/a 

Turns out (1) their sizes vary too much, (2) there aren't enough, and (3) some have been updated, so they're interesting data points but not a full index.

Georgina! is back!

Peculiar recent sales back on the market aren't just next to the freeway.

We noted this 5 bed / 6.5 bath house at 1221 Georgina last June 18, asking a breathtaking $5.895M:

Is the name "Georgina" (named for the wife of Senator John P. Jones, founder of the city of Santa Monica) that magical? Is its back yard - one lot from the traffic noise of San Vicente Blvd. - that special? Is its typical north-of-Montana stucco-and-tile that lovely?

Listed 6/6/07, it sold 8/10/07 for $5.6M. But it's back on the market already, now asking (only) $5,275K. That's a $589K haircut in 7 months (if it sells for asking, with a 5% commission). Wonder what happened?

Weekly inventory update

3/21 - SM <$3M is down slightly, but SM overall is up a little, as is PP and MV.

3/14 - SM and PP are up, but Mar Vista is down (it appears partly from expired listings).

3/7 - Santa Monica is up; Pacific Palisades <$2M is down, but up overall; Mar Vista is down. Amazing that people are committing to house purchases (including 4140 Sunnyside, below) just as the economy appears headed off the cliff.

       LA County  Santa Monica  Pacific Palisades  Mar Vista
                <$3M New Tot DOM<$2M New Tot DOM Tot New DOM
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 1/30/06  27,732
 2/28/06  29,420
 3/31/06  31,819
 5/ 1/06  34,032  38  33
 6/ 2/06  37,847  56  36      38
 6/30/06  42,317  66  40      49
 8/ 4/06  45,315  70  34      50
 9/ 1/06  46,781  71  27      59
10/ 6/06  47,369  83  25  98  71
11/ 3/06  45,780  80  20  91  77
12/ 1/06  43,103  65  18  72  96  39  20
 1/ 5/07  35,646  54   4  60 117  33   6  71  66
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 2/ 2/07  36,715  38  15  45 124  29  16  61  71  70      
 3/ 2/07  41,251  42  14  51 114  26  10  68  79  55  25  76
 4/ 6/07  42,857  41  23  49 107  18   8  73 103  54  52  50
 5/ 4/07  45,918  46  28  54  92  19   6  82  79  71  37  52
 6/ 1/07  52,198  50  25  61  78  17  15  87  78  77  39  53
 6/30/07  52,769  42  18  56  81  17  11  92  77  74  33  61
 8/ 3/07  54,166  53  28  68  86  23  12  78  76  84  39  68
 8/31/07  57,432  57  21  72  98  18   7  69  75  90  40  79
 9/28/07  58,973  59  17  74 103  26   9  90  81  87  20  87
11/ 2/07  58,731  62  19  81 120  29   7 106  77  98  35  88
11/30/07  59,108  52  14  67 136  23  11  88  94  96  23  96
12/31/07  53,475  42   5  53 148  19   2  73 119  79  13 116
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 2/ 1/08  53,722  54  16  67 157  26  16 101 118  89  36  96
 2/29/08  53,520  50  10  68 178  29   8 108 108  88  21 103
 3/ 7/08          52   4  71 187  27   4 116  91  79   5  99
 3/14/08  53,359  57  11  75 176  31   6 118  90  72   9 101
 3/21/08  53,566  55  13  77 174  32   7 120  99  74  14 101
 3/28/08

Flight to cash

This chart shows the crash in short-term T-bill rates this week. Normally short-term rates follow the Fed rate closely. Not last August, and especially not this week, where the 28-day T-bill went to 1.16% Monday, 0.71% Tuesday, 0.26% Wednesday, and 0.37% Thursday.

I would suggest you read yesterday's Market Ticker. His main points are (my emphasis):

In other words the current trading price is 0.4% annual yield on the 13-week T-Bill, a level lower than that seen at any time in the last 50 years ...

It means that people are willing to "park their money" with the government at a rate far less than price inflation and in fact for all intents and purposes ZERO because they do not believe that they will get it back from anyone else. ...

The Truth: The people with a working brain in their head know what's coming and that it is going to be extraordinarily ugly. They are prepared for it and have moved their billions of dollars into cash where they know they will get it back - the short end of the US Treasury Curve. ...

The Truth: You must raise cash. NOW. Not commodities, not gold, not "solid stocks", not anything of the kind. CASH, defined as actual CASH or Short-Term United States Treasuries. Again - up to $100,000 in FDIC insured banks with the rest in short-term US Treasuries - either directly (Treasury Direct) or via a Treasury Money Market fund such as VMPXX (Vanguard).

Housing Panic cited this with a quote from Manias, Panics and Crashes:

The final phase is a self-feeding panic, where the bubble bursts. People of wealth and credit scramble to unload whatever they have bought at greater and greater losses, and cash becomes king.

Paul Krugman today and Mish yesterday also explored it.

Lot value west of 7th

This new listing last week, a 3 bed / 3 bath at 234 Alta Ave., asking $2,980K, may give lot value west of 7th, north of Montana. It's a 50 x 175 foot lot (8,750 SF), one of the original 100-foot-wide lots that had been split like this. The city ended new splits here a decade ago.

"Live in one of the most exclusive areas in Santa Monica. West of 7th Street and North of Montana. Excellent opportunity to completely rebuild or build your dream home. A rare piece of property ready to be developed. Great neighborhood with wide streets and ocean breezes. Call agent for showing...."

A current "after" comp is the 5 bed / 3.5 bath at 317 Alta Ave., listed 11/8/07, asking $3,799K, that went "Looking for Backup" last week. It has a classic bungalow front with two-story large updated addition behind, on a deeper 211 x 50 foot (10,550 SF) lot. It was last sold 5/17/05 for $3,209K.

"Just blocks to the ocean or Montana Avenue from this all American Craftsman Traditional. Spacious Living room, Formal Dining room & powder room all have authentic molding & craftsman details. There is a large kitchen, breakfast room & bar area. The Family room opens to a stone patio w built-in BBQ, play house, paddle tennis court, grassy yard, pool & spa. The Master has a walk in closet, a spa tub & a balcony w access to the roof top deck. This is a great floor plan for an active CA lifestyle...."

Then there's the 4 bed / 4 bath house at 506 Palisades we visited last June, listed 3/23/07 for an extraordinary $7,950K, then $6,295K, and finally sold 12/6 for $5,900K.

North-of-Montana developer distress

Driving by this construction site at 607 26th Street (the east / Brentwood side, north of Montana) last week, something looked wrong. Like an abandoned project. No workers, leaning fence, weathered wood. The County doesn't list a sale in the last 2 years, but recorded a value of $1,797K on 5/4/06.

Then there's this 5 bed / 6 bath new house at 333 14th Street, originally listed 6/29/07 for $4,888K, now down to $4,195K nearly 9 months later, much longer than most other listings.

"New Const 'Mediterranean Masterpiece' designed by J. Charles.5bd, 6ba. Stunning entry w/step down liv rm,wide plank walnut hwd flrs, & a study.Frml din rm w/butlers pantry.Fam rm w/fr doors that open to grassy yard. Gourmet kit w/ custom cabinets,stone counters,pro stainless appl & breakfast area. Mstr ste w/spa like bath,his & her closets 3 addtl en-suite bds. Full basement w/bar area,media rm,office,maids rm & climate controlled wine cellar.Finest detail,design & finishes.Wired for todays tech..."

After 1990, distress in selling new spec houses cut the value of lower-end houses. Is this beginning to happen again?

Freeway foreclosure*

*SM Distress Monitor beat me to the post on this strange bank-owned 2 bed / 2 bath house at 3121 Urban Ave., asking $837K. It was last listed in June 2006 for $1,425K, and sold 9/26/06 for $1,390K, way over other comps near the freeway that are well below $1M**. Makes you suspicious that a fraudulent high price could be justified by comps only a couple of blocks to the south.

I wanted to add these photos. Above, the beige spot in upper right is the freeway soundwall above its minimal backyard. Below is another view looking to the right, from our post on 3208 Urban Ave. last July 7.

**Added: See our September 5 list. The featured 2 bed / 1 bath house at 2937 Delaware Ave., listed 9/2/07 for $720K and sold (with multiple offers) 10/16/07 for $757K, is a better house in a better location than Urban.

Weekly inventory update

3/14 - SM and PP are up, but Mar Vista is down (it appears partly from expired listings).

3/7 - Santa Monica is up; Pacific Palisades <$2M is down, but up overall; Mar Vista is down. Amazing that people are committing to house purchases (including 4140 Sunnyside, below) just as the economy appears headed off the cliff.

       LA County  Santa Monica  Pacific Palisades  Mar Vista
                <$3M New Tot DOM<$2M New Tot DOM Tot New DOM
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 1/30/06  27,732
 2/28/06  29,420
 3/31/06  31,819
 5/ 1/06  34,032  38  33
 6/ 2/06  37,847  56  36      38
 6/30/06  42,317  66  40      49
 8/ 4/06  45,315  70  34      50
 9/ 1/06  46,781  71  27      59
10/ 6/06  47,369  83  25  98  71
11/ 3/06  45,780  80  20  91  77
12/ 1/06  43,103  65  18  72  96  39  20
 1/ 5/07  35,646  54   4  60 117  33   6  71  66
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 2/ 2/07  36,715  38  15  45 124  29  16  61  71  70      
 3/ 2/07  41,251  42  14  51 114  26  10  68  79  55  25  76
 4/ 6/07  42,857  41  23  49 107  18   8  73 103  54  52  50
 5/ 4/07  45,918  46  28  54  92  19   6  82  79  71  37  52
 6/ 1/07  52,198  50  25  61  78  17  15  87  78  77  39  53
 6/30/07  52,769  42  18  56  81  17  11  92  77  74  33  61
 8/ 3/07  54,166  53  28  68  86  23  12  78  76  84  39  68
 8/31/07  57,432  57  21  72  98  18   7  69  75  90  40  79
 9/28/07  58,973  59  17  74 103  26   9  90  81  87  20  87
11/ 2/07  58,731  62  19  81 120  29   7 106  77  98  35  88
11/30/07  59,108  52  14  67 136  23  11  88  94  96  23  96
12/31/07  53,475  42   5  53 148  19   2  73 119  79  13 116
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 2/ 1/08  53,722  54  16  67 157  26  16 101 118  89  36  96
 2/29/08  53,520  50  10  68 178  29   8 108 108  88  21 103
 3/ 7/08          52   4  71 187  27   4 116  91  79   5  99
 3/14/08  53,359  57  11  75 176  31   6 118  90  72   9 101
 3/21/08

Aspiring floppers on Navy St.

Back to new listings, and what a pair these are! In the center is the almost-finished 2 bed / 1.5 bath house at 750 Navy St., SM, asking $1,900K, described as:

"Great Ocean Park Location! Authentic reproduction of Queen Anne brownstone style. Ornamentation details recast from historic pieces punctuated by elaborate art glass designs. Travertine marble on first floor and African Paduc hardwood on second. Master bath has Travertine marble with stone inlay designs throughout. Fireplaces on both floors. Roof-top deck with ocean facing views. House is in final phase of completion. A Must See!..."

On the right is the 1 bed / 1 bath house at 748 Navy St., asking $999K with plans:

"Great Ocean Park Location and investment opportunity! Residential street lined with single-family homes, walking distance to beach. Build your own Tuscan style home with custom details. Architectural plans for 2-story, 2 bedroom/2.5 bath open floor plan, two FPs, 2-car garage and rooftop deck with ocean facing views. All preparatory work, required underground utility feeds and sewer lateral are completed. Comes with full plans , geology and engineering report ready for city submittal...."

Whew! Where to start? First, these are only 25x80-foot lots! The OP1 zoning here requires minimum 4-foot side yards, so a new house is only 17 feet wide. The bulge on each side is for the alley-facing garage, wider than the house.

A recent comp for the first is the new 2-story 4 bed / 2.75 bath house at 716 Marine St., originally listed for $1,759K on 4/20/07, finally sold for only $1,500K on 11/30/07, on a 25% bigger 25x100-foot lot.

A comp for the second, if plans but no work equal fixed-up, is down the block at 724 Navy St., a 2 bed / 1.5 bath original bungalow, originally listed for 5/6/07 for $949K, finally sold 1/25/08 for $849K. Both were featured for months here in Not selling in Ocean Park.

Then there are the descriptions. An "authentic ... Queen Anne brownstone" that is stucco, not stone. "Ocean-facing views" that can't see the ocean over the 4th Street hill. "Walking distance to beach", about 3/4 mile (the used-car lots on Lincoln Blvd. are much closer, only a block).

February DataQuick

DataQuick's February statistics were pretty much the same as January's. Los Angeles County volume (above) for February was down 45% from February 2007. Median price was down 16.4% from the August 2007 peak. Note the graph above highlights in yellow the second quarter of each year, historically the highest volume and largest price rise.

Below are median prices for four southern California counties. Like last month, Los Angeles County is back to spring 2005 levels, and Orange, Ventura, and San Diego Counties are back to spring 2004.

Over the falls

I didn't post much last week, partly from feeling in shock at events unfolding. We in the world of bubble blogs have seen the future coming for the last couple of years, with graphs and cute roller coaster analogies, but now it seems to be really happening. That's a lot heavier.

We know the narrative, as the MSM is reporting the symptoms. But the reality is frightening, standing at the lip of the waterfall, peering into the void.

Mish encapsulated it vividly in last Thursday's Financial System Broken - Markets 'Utterly Unhinged' subheads:

Home Foreclosures Hit Record High
Homeowner Equity Is Lowest Since 1945
Owners Give Up
Overleveraged Hedge Funds Are Blowing up
The worst Is Yet To Come

So what to we do to cope near-term? A bad recession will impact lots of us. Investment losses. Job losses. Obviously don't buy a house; the Westside is part of the river too, even if in the slower current near shore. Although some people obliviously are.

Keep your head down, spend less, save more. Put your savings where? Run to safety in Treasuries - at 1.5%, half of inflation? Buy a bear fund, and hope you get the timing right (a week ago would have been better)? Buy gold or oil - in a commodities bubble? Insured bank CD rates aren't bad - they need the money! What are your suggestions?

On that subject, be sure to read Market Ticker today, about bull and bear trends and preserving capital.

Weekly inventory update

3/7 - Santa Monica is up; Pacific Palisades <$2M is down, but up overall; Mar Vista is down. Amazing that people are committing to house purchases (including 4140 Sunnyside, below) just as the economy appears headed off the cliff.

       LA County  Santa Monica  Pacific Palisades  Mar Vista
                <$3M New Tot DOM<$2M New Tot DOM Tot New DOM
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 1/30/06  27,732
 2/28/06  29,420
 3/31/06  31,819
 5/ 1/06  34,032  38  33
 6/ 2/06  37,847  56  36      38
 6/30/06  42,317  66  40      49
 8/ 4/06  45,315  70  34      50
 9/ 1/06  46,781  71  27      59
10/ 6/06  47,369  83  25  98  71
11/ 3/06  45,780  80  20  91  77
12/ 1/06  43,103  65  18  72  96  39  20
 1/ 5/07  35,646  54   4  60 117  33   6  71  66
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 2/ 2/07  36,715  38  15  45 124  29  16  61  71  70      
 3/ 2/07  41,251  42  14  51 114  26  10  68  79  55  25  76
 4/ 6/07  42,857  41  23  49 107  18   8  73 103  54  52  50
 5/ 4/07  45,918  46  28  54  92  19   6  82  79  71  37  52
 6/ 1/07  52,198  50  25  61  78  17  15  87  78  77  39  53
 6/30/07  52,769  42  18  56  81  17  11  92  77  74  33  61
 8/ 3/07  54,166  53  28  68  86  23  12  78  76  84  39  68
 8/31/07  57,432  57  21  72  98  18   7  69  75  90  40  79
 9/28/07  58,973  59  17  74 103  26   9  90  81  87  20  87
11/ 2/07  58,731  62  19  81 120  29   7 106  77  98  35  88
11/30/07  59,108  52  14  67 136  23  11  88  94  96  23  96
12/31/07  53,475  42   5  53 148  19   2  73 119  79  13 116
--------  ------  --------------  --------------  ----------
 2/ 1/08  53,722  54  16  67 157  26  16 101 118  89  36  96
 2/29/08  53,520  50  10  68 178  29   8 108 108  88  21 103
 3/ 7/08          52   4  71 187  27   4  91 116  79   5  99

Funhouse fotos from Mar Vista

You know I prefer to use my own photos here. But these three from the MLS for Mar Vista stand out, though the first two probably didn't intend to. Above is a 5 bed / 3 bath at 3115 Veteran Ave., asking $1,599K. Below is a 2 bed / 1 bath at 12110 Greene Ave., asking $649K. Dizzy yet?
Then there's this 3 bed / 3 bath at 4140 Sunnyside Ave., asking $999,999. Artsy photo, not sure about the house.

New SM Landmarks

The Craftsman house at 929 Lincoln Blvd. (photo above) was formally designated by the Landmarks Commission on February 11, according to the Santa Monica Mirror. It last sold 5/31/06 for $1,630K. We visited it here on June 19.

Its final step will be approval by the City Council. Which on February 26 also re-heard and upheld the Landmarks Commission designation of 2219 Ocean Ave. (below). We know it for being listed for $3.3M since 9/20/05, visited here on April 3. Kinda small, but it faces the ocean.

Update: price was reduced this week to $1,950K (Anon got it first).