How about this recent 4 bed / 3.50 bath listing at 754 23rd St., asking $2,395K? "WOW! Large 2-story Tudor on large corner lot in great Gillette Regent Square area and priced to sell. Clean move-in condition with large formal entry, the home with its large living room and open cathedral ceiling, large formal dining room and spacious family room is ideal for large gatherings and perfect for entertaining. 4th bedroom downstairs has its own bath. Private landscaped yard has porch and covered patio. There are beautiful hardwood floors, new caperting, new roof, W/B f/p and more...."
Except the lot is on the corner of Montana Ave., catty-corner from Franklin School, with apartments to the south and west. (enlarge photo)
In other Santa Monica news over the weekend, 1028 Maple is in escrow, and 1100-1108 Ocean Park and 239 14th appear to have expired after four months on the market. And 724 Navy St., unsold since 5/6/07, suddenly has a new listing date of 9/29/07, price unchanged at $899K.
Monday, October 1, 2007
"Large corner lot" north of Montana
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16 comments:
Personally, I see nothing wrong with living catty corner to an elementary school. As for the apartments, those aren't a big deal to me either. The property has a decent sized hedge around it and it's not like I sunbathe in the nude or anything.
No way. I would never live that close to a school. The traffic in the morning when parents drop off their kids, the traffic later in the afternoon, the noise, kids littering, kids loitering, and so on.
The cons outweigh the pros for me. It might be great for buyers that have elementary school age kids, or buyers who are planning to have kids in the near future. But if you're in the market for a $2.4 million house, I'm sure there are better properties to choose from.
That place was on the market last year asking about $2.7. It is an absolute dump, and the backyard has zero privacy (and contrary to what pat said, I think spending that kind of money and having apartment dwellers across the alley peering into your backyard would get old real quick). Also, one realizes how busy Montana Ave. is when you stand in that backyard and try to imagine relaxing there.
Looks like a good discount is priced in for the location... 4 beds, 3,300 sf, for 2.4 MM. Traffic from the school is not bad since the morning dropoff is on the Idaho side of the school. Plus, it's an elementary school (one of the best in the state), so the littering and loitering is truly non-existent.
Doesn't have the greatest interior, but one could work with it, and again, it's big without the footprint taking the whole lot. Also, the city has no limit as to how high alley facing hedges can be, so your apartment dweller worries could go away pretty fast too.
Since the reality is that there are 31 homes to choose from North of Wilshire, and most of us couldn't get into the 2 that are North of San Vicente, this is a decent deal.
Good inventory graphs, Westside. There's not much to choose from in SM generally, and North SM in particular; these homeowners simply aren't forced to sell. They don't face the same market pressures that the majority of country does...
I love that... "these people just don't face the pressures..." Rosebud, where are you a realtor?
Oh, and it's TOTALLY UNTRUE. I know this area VERY well and I know some are spending their 'equity' and plenty have creative financing. They will "just face the pressures."
But what a comment like that, aka "realtorspeak" minimizes is the amount of speculation. Developers face the pressures BIG TIME. And when a large percentage of your sales at the low end were to developers, there goes the neighborhood.
The upside to this property is to tear it down and build condos like 21rst place/street and Montana. The little cereal boxes sold well a couple of years ago.
As far as RE owners facing pressure NOM, they are 2 groups: (1) the older retired couples with significant equity that likely will die in the houses because they can not afford to move due to increased prop taxes (Pre-Prop 13 properties);
(2) the buyers since 1999, mostly dual professional incomes WITH YOUNG CHILDREN who certainly face financial pressures, have overextended themselves to provide their kids a good education, and are generally close to maxed out in a good economy with rising RE asset prices and low mortgage rates. A jolt or significant change in any one of those variables and you are going to see a lot of the newer houses, larger houses, spec houses, and remodels come onto the market at whatever the market will give them at the time.
There is little or no reserve and little or no 'shame' from getting out of a bad deal (as long as they can move someplace that has decent public education.
There are also a lot of option ARMS etc. It would be worthwhile to note how many of the small number of homes NOM were transferred since 1999. Add to that probably 2-5% a year of the old people dying or moving out of state, and you get the number of houses with exposure.
I bet it is over 50% of the properties.
Good points, everyone, on the key question of how many owners would need to sell in a downturn.
Two corrections, NeedleBrain: 1. The zoning varies along Montana. West of the alley behind our subject property it is R2, but on the north side of Montana it is R1 east of that alley to 26th, so no condo redevelopment.
And 2., don't forget the ability to transfer the Prop. 13 tax base once in a lifetime over age 55, within the same county and to some others. They would get hit with big federal and state capital gains income taxes, though, beyond the tax-free $250K per owner.
pretty sleazy that a home can come off the market and relist without the fact that it had been listed earlier, with the correct number of days, out in the open.
"pretty sleazy that a home can come off the market and relist without the fact that it had been listed earlier, with the correct number of days, out in the open."
What are you trying to say, that Realtors® have no ethics?
"pretty sleazy that a home can come off the market and relist without the fact that it had been listed earlier, with the correct number of days, out in the open."
"What are you trying to say, that Realtors® have no ethics?"
You guys just crack me up how ignorant you really are – it was listed with Coldwell Banker and expired on 3/16, on 9/27 (more than 6 months later) listed with Re/Max, so it is new listing. I guess ignorance is a bliss;-)
it was listed with Coldwell Banker and expired on 3/16, [huh?] on 9/27 (more than 6 months later)
724 Navy was on the MLS with a 5/6/07 listing date. Almost 5 months gets to the new 9/29 listing date.
Buyers are more interested in how long since the property came on the market than how long with the current agent. Which is why I track that.
If i need to hire a contractor to remodel my house before selling it, are the prices for contractors down vs. where they were six months ago? In other words will the same exact new kitchen cost me less today than it would have cost six months ago?
Anyone hearing anything ?
Contractors appear to still be expensive and I overheard some people talking to the realtor at an open house the other weekend saying that they can't even get people to take on small jobs (a couple hundred grand or less). The construction boom is still going (or at least finishing up already started work) from what I can see. The suffering spec houses at the top of the market should imply less spec building getting started right now and I would imagine better construction rates in the future.
Regarding location here...There is a 2 story home for lease just down the street from this house for $6K/month...I compared it to the Idaho flip on my blog and it looks to be twice as expensive to own as it is to rent right now. Cramer is right on this one. When numbers are this out of whack, "Don't you dare buy a home".
The avg price in SM is 250/sq ft plus permits and design fees
"I guess ignorance is a bliss;-)"
You ought to know, Mr. "ignorance is A bliss".
are the prices for contractors down vs. where they were six months ago?
mirrors the RE bubble in general. Labor costs are way way down in the IE, not at all on the westside and only a slight bit if any in the SFV and SGV. Give it time though, if you can wait 9-12 months, you will be rewarded, but of course you need to decide for yourself if saving even 15% on labor is worth the wait.
oh, and westside, why don't you delete the spamish post?
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