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).
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
New SM Landmarks
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17 comments:
That landmark designation is scary -
i bet the resale value is way down compared to what it would be if it were not a landmark
the folks that bought two years ago must be in pain
Is is worth it to own? I've been debating (and posting) on whether it's better to be a renter, since even as a bear I doubt prices will ever come down to reasonable levels in Southern California. This makes me doubt it even more.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/
financial/2008/03/10/
080310ta_talk_surowiecki
Does anyone here know more about the public beach club
i think the opening of the club will be a real boon for those of us with toddlers - we will be able to take them to play in the sand all day and then shower them off completely so that no sand gets in our cars when we drive them home
what will it charge per day for parking and usage ??
Totally off topic but relevant to anon above: In the wait for the beach club --- use baby powder to get all the sand off your children, change them into clean clothes (behind a towel in the parking lot) and then get them in the car. It sounds more of a pain than it really is --- try it, it does work.
Showers are overrated since once you wash the kids off they are, without a doubt, in the sand again before you can get them in the car.
Now back to the Westside Bubble ---
2219 Ocean AVE price was recently reduced from $3,300,000 to $1,950,000. still quite a chunk of change for ca. 1200 unexpandable (per landmark status) sqare feet with no permits on record.
You can relocate a landmark. It hurts the value of the property because it limits the ability to effectively redevelop the site. It's a process to relocate the house/building and you have to come up with a replacement parcel for it, but it is done all the time. If you think the Landmarks Commission in Santa Monica is crazy, you should see the one in Berkeley. It's quite possibly the most powerful group in town.
anon 2:06 - "reasonable levels" is tough to define, but there will be a time when buying makes more sense as compared to other investments. Probably not this year, but sometime soon. Other factors like life stages, family, stability, desire to grow roots, etc. may push you into buying at some point, but if you can hold off for awhile then you'll probably get a way better deal.
I love living in a nation that respects property rights and that believes in the rule of law...
So how are things in America?
I actually have a friend (I thought he was a smart guy) who lives in Los Altos and pushed and pushed the relevant agency up there to designate his (TINY, OLD) house a landmark so he'd save some $$$ every year on property taxes. Of course he now has to paint it whenever someone tells him to, and good luck remodeling anything.
Countrywide admits to ticking time bombs on balance sheet.
http://thegreatloanblog.blogspot.com
New Conforming Loan Limits Announced for LA.
http://thegreatloanblog.blogspot.com
Concerning the timing of buying a house: As a renter who could buy now, how do the low mortgage rates factor into the perceived continual downturn? In a year or so, the rates may have risen. Is there really a significant difference in what one might pay in the end?
Waiting on the sides w/ everybody else for the time to get in and then we all jump in at the same time, pushing the prices up. And there it goes again.
"Waiting on the sides w/ everybody else for the time to get in and then we all jump in at the same time, pushing the prices up. And there it goes again."
How many of the fence sitters have 1) 20% down, 2) excellent FICO scores, and 3) the requisite income to qualify for prices anywhere near where they are today? Please don't fall for more BS from realtors about everyone ready and waiting to pounce at any moment. They're just trying to lure in more suckers.
I do. I'm waiting to pounce. I'll wait until I think the market has established some sort of a bottom. The longer I wait, the larger my down payment. Realtors are foolish to think that qualified buyers are going to have any impact near that of the recent freakish housing boom. You might get a little pop from some of the pent up demand, but then it should make it's way along historic levels until the crash is far enough from everyone's memory and they can do it all over again.
"Please don't fall for more BS from realtors about everyone ready and waiting to pounce at any moment. They're just trying to lure in more suckers."
Thanks for the response.
OK, let's take the "lots of people waiting on the sidelines" out of the equation. How should one look at the very good possibility of rates going up when real estate prices go down, say in a year.
We've got the down payment. We're artists. What can I say, we haven't got that financial gene.
How to figure or where to go to talk to someone to help us figure what makes sense.
When we were looking a year ago, my 1st experience w/ mortgage brokers (before all the fallout w/ the sub prime mess) was that they were like used car sales people. How much house can we afford I asked, naively. How much house do you want and we'll figure out how you can do that. I thought what they proposed was incredible risky (even w/o the financial gene) and walked away. Luckily.
Still, I don't know when raising interest rates make waiting for housing prices to drop a moot point.
Anon,
I had the same idea--get in pretty early while the rates are low. Unfortunately, while the Fed cut rates, that didn't lead to a real drop in mortgage rates. They're still high (due to inflation expectations b/c inflation rising fast). So, I don't think getting in soon makes any sense.
The good news for those of us on the sidelines is that if this continues, prices will keep coming down. While we're starting to see some late 2004 prices, we still have a little way to go before most places are in 2004 territory.
here's the story behind this house:
http://www.dailyillini.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=197dd349-07d1-49a0-adb1-4b15e1752bc2&page=1
Hmm. Is this link better?
http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2008/03/28/News/Uis-Beach.House.Stirs.Legal.Debate-3288869.shtml
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