Monday, June 16, 2008

Marble and Gatedness > $1M?



The typical older, smaller north-of-Montana house lists for below $2.5M. Not this one! This 3 bed / 3.5 bath, 2,686 SF house on an 8,700 SF lot at 212 24th Street listed at $3,125K on 5/30. You can see the window of its partial second story overlooking the driveway.

"Stunning Traditional home exquisitely remodeled w/ no expense spared. Positioned on one of the most coveted & majestic tree-lined streets North of Montana. Light & bright 3 + 3½, plus an office, chef’s kitchen w/ Carrera marble, mudroom, paneled dining room, elegant living room w/fireplace, and large family room that opens onto a grassy yard with stone patio. Enjoy the privacy of this beautifully landscaped and gated home in Gillette Regent Square! Franklin School District. ..."

But didn't the 3 bed / 2.5 bath, 1,758 SF house on a 7,975 SF lot at 219 23rd Street just sell for $1,880K? That's the opposite side of the same block! Ok, it's 1,000 SF smaller, lacks Carrera marble and gatedness, but that's over a million dollars less!

The first price reduction, to $2,995K, already happened late last week.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would pay $1.3M for this asset.

dwr said...

I bet the upstairs is nice...if you're under four feet tall.

Anonymous said...

haha, yeah I saw this listing since I am looking in the area for 2-2.5 range. I thought, this would be great if it was 2.3 like what they paid for it in 06.

Maybe it will drop like a bad habit to my price range:)

Anonymous said...

Everyone thinks their house is special.

Anonymous said...

Guys, guys, get in touch with reality. You're comparing remodeled apples to run-down oranges. For a true comparison, look at 115 17th St. It is a nicely remodeled 3/2.5 with 2605 sq ft which just closed for $3.0m after listing at $3.195m. I know, I know, delusional buyer and the house will be worth $123.93 by 2011.

Anonymous said...

The buyer is going to lose his shirt, and I won't feel sorry for him. Most of the buyers in these areas are profiteers and flippers anyway . . .

Anonymous said...

I have to say, I love it when the realtors post on this board -- anonymously now of course -- and tell us we're delusion to think prices will keep dropping. These are the same retards who said a few years ago that we were nuts and that prices would never go down. Now they mock us for thinking prices will go down a lot more. Well guess what King Retards of the realty world -- we're looking at a fifty percent drop from here. That's right. The repo man is coming for your Mercedes baby, and you and your kids are gonna be sleepin' on the Promenade. And I for one can't wait.

Anonymous said...

I have to say, I love it when the retards post on this board -- anonymously of course -- and tell us that prices will drop 50% over an unspecified time period. Is that inflation-adjusted or in nominal terms? Is that for a house with easy access to a 10 on-ramp? The just respond that prices will drop 50%.

Anonymous said...

What about the sale at 115 17th for $3.0m? Isn't that a better comparison that run-down 2000 sq ft houses?

Anonymous said...

Oh, good. The cherry-picked price comp! I LOVE IT! Should we really play this game? Want to list ALL the houses that have sold under 3? 2.75? 2.5? 2.25? Which number?

And when did 115 17th sell for 3 mil?

Anonymous said...

But isn't the comp across the street rather arbitrary? 900s/f more house on 800s/f more lot does mean something. as do upgrades, though I personally hate marble and stainless (there must be stainless there, right?) I'm not the other poster, but just want to say that picking one comp is almost always kind of silly.

Anonymous said...

115 17th sales price is on MLS, and will probably hit other sources soon.

Anonymous said...

According to title co., no recent sale at 115 17th. That doesn't mean there wasn't one of course...

Anonymous said...

I was talking to a realtor with 25 plus years of experience in the Westside and other Southland areas, working on the buy side mostly for professional real estate investors and sophisticated individual speculators. She said that there are starting to be buy signals in some marginal Southland areas after the prices have dropped by more than 50%. That is, income and multi family units in marginal areas are starting to get cheap enough that the rental income just covers the mortgage, if you do not do upgrade or repairs. However, this only occurred after these areas have declined more than 40%. Lending is so tight, even to people with near perfect credit, that the financing is very demanding.

So there are starting to be opportunities, just not on the Westside.

The implication for the Westside is the reverse. The difficulty financing worthwhile cash positive investments in other areas of the Southland, even after 40%-50% declines, means that the high prices in SaMo are simply unsustainable laggards, buoyed by the people who do not have to sell and the few others who buy the hype.

What did David Hannum say "there's a sucker born every minute..." Some of them get temporarily rich quickly enough to temporarily borrow (from the bank) a residence in 90402.

Anonymous said...

But the vast majority of sales in Santa Monica are not investors but owner occupants. They will pay more than the rent equivalent, or have for a long time. I doubt that will change. NoMo SFRs are generally not something that people buy just to rent out, they buy to live in or remodel or build. Most of these people do not want to rent even if it is cheaper after tax because of the limited choices in rental inventory and the lesser control that a renter has over the property and occupancy term.

Anonymous said...

I guess you're right, only Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Manhattan Beach, Bell Air and Westwood will go down (a lot). Santa Monica will continue up at 25% a year.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I thought you guys knew everything. So how come you can't find the sale price for 115 17th? Try this:

http://pro.themls.com/All_Searches_Preview_Files/pow_one_client_detail_preview.cfm?se=1&header_title=no_header&chosen=08-272693&property_type=0

Westside Bubble said...

Thanks, Anon.

I also noticed you can paste a different MLS# in the search string to look up other current or sold listings. Very useful for us non-insiders.

Anonymous said...

The problem with bidding $1.3M for this asset is that 40 other people would as well... which is what makes it a market... which is why it will sell at a market price.

As for 40 to 50% declines in Northern Santa Monica? Does that mean the real value of all these properties is around 2000 or 2001 levels? And why haven't we seen it yet? Just the speculators keeping it inflated? What if we looked at Adjusted Gross Income for this zip code compared to average sale price? Which one is outpacing the other?

Anonymous said...

3.5 baths - this is a generous description. The upstairs 'closet bath' has neither shower nor tub. Ideal for country cousins who only bathe on Saturday nights.

I don't see a 50% drop, but neither do I think N. of Montana is immune.