A 1.4% slip? Big deal

Today's L.A. Times reports that home prices in Los Angeles are down 1.4% in a year-over-year comparison. This is good news to me as it's such a minor decline and certainly not even the 5% to 7% slip that the experts predicted! Median home price in So. Cal. now is $505,000.

No July 4 celebration

The City of Burbank has announced that it will not have its annual July 4 fireworks show this year due to the high fire danger on the hillsides. Good idea. Fires have broken out after the Starlight Bowl show even in wet years.

Increased activity

Good news for sellers of Burbank real estate: homes for sale inventory in the Burbank, Toluca Lake, Studio City and Hollywood Hills areas seems to be thinning out and properties are selling faster. And even going in multiple offers. Of course, the properties selling quickly are the ones that are in great shape, updated and priced right to begin with. Will this stop or slow down again? Prediction: yes, after July, as it usually does. As always, if a property needs work, is non-conforming, priced too high, etc., it's staying on the market for a long time.

Today's caravan

There were 28 new properties on the Burbank Realtor caravan today. Two years ago today, there were eight. However, here's the good news for sellers: many properties are once again selling in days, rather than weeks. Most of the quick-to-sell properties are in the middle range, of course.

Burbank Planning Board

My appeal of the project on Harvard Ave. was denied by the Burbank Planning Board last night. No surprise there. It seems that the Board is going to pretty much rubber-stamp anything that meets the current codes. I won't be appealing to the City Council. However, I'm debating going to the CC to ask them to consider down-zoning in the area. Any thoughts?

Planning Board appearance

I'll be at Burbank's planning board tonight (May 14) at 6:00 pm. A 20-unit apartment complex is planned for Harvard Road, right behind my house, and I have filed an appeal against it. How many more people can we shoehorn into this neighborhood?! I know this is not politically correct for a Realtor to be opposing a developer, and I'll probably lose, but I want to have my say. I think this will be televised on Charter channel 6.

60 Minutes

Oh, boy. The 60 minutes piece that aired on May 13 is controversial among Realtors, to say the least. What 60 minutes doesn't say is what Redfin actually does for sellers, or how they handle multiple offers for their buyers, how many of their listings expire due to lack of exposure, etc. Of course, I'm a full service Realtor and of course I'm going to resent discounters -- they make this all look so easy. It's not.
I'm also wondering: the commission arrangement is between the seller and listing agent. Shouldn't sellers have some say in rebates going to buyers? After all, it's their money...

Movoto.com?

Today's L.A. Times has an article about a new buyer/seller search site called Movoto.com. I checked it out and it looks pretty complete. Has anybody had any experience with it? It will "refer" an agent to you when you ask about a specific house.

Other blogs

I've found some other blogs that might be interesting for home sellers and buyers. They are: real-estate-blog.com and good ol' Trulia.com (it's called Trulia voices). If there are others out there that might be worthwhile, please let me know.

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Okay, now it's mid-May. How's the market? Properties are staying on longer. We are noticing more price reductions. But they're small price reductions. And, once again, buyers now have the luxury of time within which to make a decision on a house. So, the local market is okay -- actually maybe even a little better than it was last summer! Thoughts?