See update 2/4/08, above -- Woodland is back on the market. Here are three Burbank properties that defied expectations by selling in 18 days or less. The yellow house, at 4310 W. Woodland, listed for $499,994 and sold in seven days. The center house, at 1420 E. Tujunga, has a great view but kind of a 70's "Boogie Nights" facade. It was listed for $910,000. The third is a townhouse on Olive that was listed in my office for $439,000. Peter, the listing agent, says it was a mess. Is the local market speeding up again or are these just the exceptions that prove the rule?
Have they closed or just gone into escrow? I think there's a meaningful difference.
ReplyDeleteOf course there's a meaningful difference -- but this is a lot of activity in a very short amount of time for what we've been seeing lately. That was my point.
ReplyDeleteJudy - that's three down and only 53,722 more to go (according to bubbletracking.blogspot.com).
ReplyDeleteBTW, that 53,000 compares to 36,000 this time last year. Inventory is already picking up too out of the winter slowdown, suggesting that we'll easily break last year's highs of 59,000 houses on the market.
My purely unprofessional, amateur, off-the-cuff bet is that LA County will break 65,000 houses on the market sometime this year. Who knows, maybe it'll hit 70,000? What do you think? Do you think the ever increasing inventory will have any affect on prices? Thanks in advance :-)
Anonymous, yes, I do think high inventory exerts a downward pressure on housing prices. It was ever thus and it's already happened. I'm curious to see what kind of changes in the market -- if any -- the economic stimulus bill brings.
ReplyDeleteBasically the only thing you've showed us is that 3 places sold. Because of this they defied expectations? Sounds like Realtor(tm) spin to me so I did some quick research here on the internet. And this is what I've found.
ReplyDelete4310 Woodland was on the market for 60 days! So it did not in fact sell in less than 18 days. On 12-3-07 it listed for $569,900, reduced on 12-18-07 to $529,900 and reduced again 1-22-08 to $499,900. 70k in reductions in 2 months is pretty major. Also we dont know what the purchase price was yet(or at least not me since i'm not a realtor(tm)). Since there are lots of 2/1 closer to 400-425k I think this buyer still got a bad deal even at 475k.
1420 E Tujunga tells a different story. I cant find the original listing date, however, this was a REO which the bank took back on 8-15-07 for $1,214,338. Even better though is that is was bought on 9-21-06 for $1,447,000. So IF this home sells for 910k that would be a loss of $537,000 from peak in 18 months and a $304,338 loss in 5 months.
There was no address for the Olive condo you speak of so luckily I couldnt dig into that one...
The only thing this shows is that a house properly priced will sell. These homes that sold are not a sign that the real estate market is getting better.
Thank you.
Hummer14, my point is the short time period, which is surprising considering all the otherwise-bad news. That's all.
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