kaulat

Now we’re talking! Here is almost the exact property I’m looking for (hat tip to SW, an eagle-eyed reader). Address: 185 Quincy AVE #301, 90803 Wishing Price: $399,900 Size: 2 beds, 2 baths, 878 sq. ft. (built in 1971) $/Sq. Ft.: $455 Purchase price: $270,000 Purchase date: 1/2003 MLS#: P619139 On Redfin: 35 days Description: OPEN HOUSE EVERY FRIDAY FROM 3:00 TO 6:00 p. m. JUST REDUCED $25,000! TURNKEY!!! THIS IS THE BEST BARGAIN YOU WILL EVER FIND IN BELMONT SHORE. SPACIOUS 2 Bedroom 2 Bath Condo on the 3rd Floor 'One block off 2nd St. ' in Belmont Shore. Buyers will Love this one. Upgraded with Remodeled Kitchen and Bath. Master Bedroom with Bathroom and Wall to Wall Closet. 2nd Bedroom has Walk-in Closet. Custom Painting throughout. Large Living Room with Balcony over looking Quincy, just right for that Morning Coffee or Evening Coctail. Current owner rents a space for $50.00 in the parking garage and the space will transfer over to the new owner at the same rate. THIS PROPE...

This purchase is like breaking up with your girlfriend while she's giving birth to your twin daughters: terrible timing. Address: 5418 Heron Bay, 90803 Asking Price: $899,900 Size: 3 beds, 3 baths, 1748 sq. ft. $/Sq. Ft.: $515 Year built: 1982 Purchase price: $947,500 (YIKES, BUDDY!) Purchase date: 5/2007 MLS #: P605318 On Redfin : 128 days Description: Spinnaker Coves. Highly upgraded luxury townhouse. All bathrooms have been remodeled. New granite in kitchen. New appliances. New A/C, heat pump and 75 gallon water heater. New window coverings T/O. Formal dining room, eating area off kitchen. Plasma above fireplace. All furniture is new and negotiable. Master bath has granite, new shower and spa tub. Hardwood built-ins with granite counters off kit. and dining rm. Gated complex with pool, clubhouse, lighted tennis courts, exercise rm. Will consider a lease. Furnished, $4,000 per month. Bravo! An informative, grammatically correct, and typo free description! Somebody's definite...

While a vast majority of sellers and their agents cling to wishing prices and fantasy house values, some sellers are beginning to realize that the bubble has burst, ridiculous zero-down, interest-only, adjustable-rate loans are gone, and the only buyers out there today are too educated and observant to fall prey to the same garbage that allowed the housing Ponzi Scheme to escalate in the first place. The last thing realtors, lenders, and especially sellers want is an educated populace, but that's where we are today. And individuals brave (or foolish) enough to try to sell in this disastrous environment are learning all too quickly that not only is the pool of buyers savvy and in the power position, but tightening lending standards and a reintroduction of common sense mean that pool is shrinking fast. It was much easier to sell when lending allowed otherwise unqualified buyers to suddenly compete, adding to an already crowded buyer pool sold on the prospect of perpetual real estate ...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been on the road for work. During my travels, I happened to end up in the epicenter of real estate hell: Phoenix, Arizona. That place is a Real Estate Disaster Zone, and it started imploding in 2005--long before the housing bust we're experiencing in OC and LA. By some accounts, the Phoenix meltdown is just getting started, indicating a longer, more painful return to reality in store for California. Phoenix was one of the first bubble cities, along with Sacramento , San Diego , and the entire state of Florida . House values had V-2 Rockets strapped to them, and a bidding frenzy drove prices beyond what the local income could sustain. First in flight, first to land. And the news from Phoenix indicates this was a crash landing and there were no survivors. All of the phantom appreciation has evaporated and people suddenly realize that, unlike what their realtor told them, it wasn't going to last. So now capitulation has set in, and ho...

Great news, party people! Reliving your collegiate prime just got a little more affordable. The TKE house in downtown Long Beach reduced its price from a psylocybin-mushroom-chomping $569,000 to a 3-foot-bong-smoking $539,000 . Let's look at the pricing activity of this tear-down pig's pen: Aug 30, 2007 - $649,000 Sep 20, 2007 - $615,000 Oct 27, 2007 - $569,000 Jan 17, 2008 - $539,000 Unfortunately for the seller, despite their genuine effort at making this place more fiscally palatable, this pattern of price cuts haven't made a damn bit of difference. And the recent $30,000 haircut won't move this place either, but at least it demonstrates a degree of seriousness. Of course, in this crack-house neighborhood, it's going to need a higher degree of determination, translating to much larger price cuts. And it's certainly not helping that those same horrendous, and frankly embarrassing, pictures are still included in the listing. I mean, come on, at least throw a...

I promised I would keep tabs on our MLS-manipulating friend over at 1055 Orizaba. If you recall, my first post on the property concluded that at the $310,000 asking price... These are going from “Ridiculously overpriced” to just “Overpriced.” However, after crunching the numbers it becomes clear these units will play MLS-peek-a-boo with no sale for a while. As the seller is now painfully aware, significant price reductions are in order to sell less desirable properties in this market, and almost $400 per square foot is fantasy pricing. Well, friends, I hate to say I told you so. The price for Unit #5 has been reduced from $310,000 to $299,000--a nice little $11,000 haircut. This is significant not only because it is the first attempt at a price reduction this year, but because it represents capitulation to the economic realities at play, and demonstrates a bitter understanding that the party is officially over and the only people selling are the ones slashing prices. Now, put yourselve...

As the real estate bubble violently bursts, some communities are left in shambles. Just look at parts of San Diego and Sacramento. Those cities were the first to experience the real estate bubble, so it only makes sense that these areas would be the first to collapse under the weight of their own misguided expectations of perpetual appreciation. Orange County has been hit particularly hard, as sales have slowed and prices have dropped considerably just in the last six months. As more and more foreclosed and short-sale properties come on to the scene, asking prices dip, drop, and plunge until a sale is mercifully reached. Unfortunately, although Long Beach also experienced unprecedented price inflation, many sellers didn’t get the memo about the ensuing housing crash. Because of that, some sellers’ pricing strategy is stuck in the halcyon days of unending appreciation and the belief that selling their piss poor properties should amount to hitting the lottery. The very premise of this si...

Although many people clearly don’t get it, or purposely choose to bury their head in the sand, by now it is indisputable that this is a terrible, horrendous, dreadful, suicidal time to sell a house. I’m still waiting for our friendly visitor newquest , who attacked me because I apparently "have no idea what your [sic] are talking about," to post data proving otherwise. Still waiting… Anyhow, there are many reasons to sell in a catastrophically declining market: Divorce, interest rates resetting skyward, job relocation or loss, retirement, medical emergency, etc. All are legitimate reasons to defy common financial sense and just sell the damn thing at any price. But what all of these unfortunate circumstances have in common is a virtual guarantee that the seller will lose money on their investment. Property owners who made sure rent vs. buy calculations lined up before buying have the option to rent their place out for positive or break-even cash flow while they go back to re...

It’s a new month in a disastrous real estate environment. Do you know what that means? IT’S PRICE REDUCTION TIME! Address: 282 Redondo #302, 90803 New Asking Price: $380,000 Size: 2 beds, 2 baths, 1,026 sq. ft. (built in 1986) $/Sq. Ft.: $370 Purchase price: $445,000 (Yikes!) Purchase date: 1/2006 MLS#: R800119 On Redfin: 29 days Description: Awesome 90803 Condo at a great price! Laminate floors, designer paint, stainless steel appliances (included!), stackable washer/dryer (included!), scraped ceilings, romantic fire place in the living room, balcony, separate dining area off of kitchen. Central air and heat, pool, spa and rooftop sun deck! Walk to shops, dining and the beach, or enjoy the beautiful sunset from your private balcony - it doesn't get better than this! Come see and fall in love. By the way, can we knock it off with the “designer paint” crap already? It’s up there with “gourmet kitchen” in the pantheon of Most Completely Useless Descriptors. When this place first came...