Thursday, March 13, 2008

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).

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was wondering your thoughts on the Westwood (90024) market... as of late haven't seen much if any movement and I know you have preached over and over the market will take time to digest and the cycles will come, just wanted to know any thoughts you had on how long its going to take for single family homes in the 90024 area to see major negative sales volume or sales price decreases.

Don said...

Anon, my tip is to start tracking the values and watch for yourself. A lazy proxy for values is to pick up, e.g., the dataquick numbers each week. I've been tracking a swath of the westside from 90034 to Santa Monica and Venice (but leaving out Westwood, West L.A. and Beverly Hills), for a bit over a year now, so I've been able to see some signs of downward movement, but they're still a bit slight. The composite downward slide from November-Jan has been especially interesting to see.

Anonymous said...

$1.9 mil for that thing. It looks like a fun house, not a house worth close to $2 mil. And there is a junky used car place 75 feet away. WOW

Anonymous said...

For anon tracking values in Westwood, the front page of the LATimes today shows home prices falling as much as 19% in some areas (like Inland Empire, duh!) but goes on to say L.A. and wealthy areas are not dropping as less inventory is on the market. Seems people in rich areas like Westwood are well funded and don't have to sell, so inventory continues to be low and prices are flat....

Anonymous said...

Navy is a dog of a street.....little crackerboxws with blue collar drug dealers living with their parents. Lincoln traffic at the end of the short block....hookers stumbling down the block...its as close to a SM ghetto as you can get...you might as well live at 20th and Pico.

I'd rather live in a 'cleaned up' portion of Oakwood in Venice than SM's Navy street

Anonymous said...

It's a pretty house, and seems a pity more architects (if you can call them that) of SFHs don't do more of this kind of thing. It really would add value. However, this home is only facade, as the sides are long and featureless, so you would need to pass through another room all the time. As for the price ...just look at your next door neighbor (and his price for that matter). Some people haven't woken up yet, and at this stage in the game I would imagine their excuse is cryogenic stasis.

Anonymous said...

To anonymous at 2:14pm--I'm sorry I didn't see this post earlier to respond, since this is now old, but you've got to be kidding. Navy St. may not be a showplace, but drug dealers and hookers? Oh, come on. I live a couple of blocks away and it's perfectly fine. Nice hyperbole. Oh, and by the way, yes, this block is closer to Lincoln than the beach, but nevertheless, you can walk to the beach. I'm only a few minutes west of here and I walk to the beach almost every day. In fact, I can walk with a chair and beach bag and lounge on a lovely beach without the hassle of parking. That's why people live here.

I know this blog just lives to bash Santa Monica, but let's try to keep it grounded in reality. If you want something beautifully manicured, yes, look somewhere else. I happen to love Ocean Park precisely because it's NOT grossly gentrified, and many of my neighbors do, too.

jlc said...

I live on Navy Street and have for over 12 years. I have yet to see hookers, drug dealers and the other ilk the other poster referred lurking on my street. As for this blog, we are closer to the beach than Lincoln. Perhaps a refresher course in basic geography is in order? I have been in 750 Navy and yes, the lots here are small. However, the house inside is beautiful with African hardwood, stone, marble work and stained glass amongst other custom features. For those of us who appreciate the classic look and not just another boring "International" style house that so much of Santa Monica seems so fond of, this is a plus in the neighborhood. Also bear in mind that with the insane restrictions that the city demands of builders, it is extremely difficult with the setback issues on small lots to do anything along the sides of the structures on Navy.