Playa Vista, CA

Play Vista Condominium Market Report for December 2011

As we closed this challenging year in Real Estate and in the overall Economy, I am truly glad we can start a New Year. So let’s review, we had the fear of a double dip recession, European crisis in Italy, Greece, Portugal to name a few. Then we had the Japanese Tsunami and the various other catastrophes around the world. All this has impacted the housing market. Let’s keep in mind that the debt crisis at home and in Europe will continue to linger on in 2012. Ironically this volatile economic environment will push investors into the Real Estate Market. I anticipate this migration to the “safety” of “Real Estate Investments” in the coming year of 2012.

The good news Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac will continue to guarantee new mortgages on the conforming loans, what I call the “fuel” of the real estate recovery. The other great news is that nearly all of the economic data that was released in the 4^th Quarter of 2011 point to improvements, which is a recipe for a stronger housing market activity! THE BEST NEWS: consumer confidence has improved, which translates to increase in spending in all areas, including housing.

Now with that said let’s look how the Real Estate activity fared for the month of December.

There were 27 Active listings on the Market waiting for buyer in Playa Vista, CA. There were 15 Properties Accepting Backup Offers and 2 on Hold (an indication of Short Sale) and there were 7 Properties Pending waiting for Escrow to Close. There were 3 Sold Condominiums for the month of December Playa Vista. I would like to let everyone know, that in the past five days I have seen a great deal of activity in all price points, hence the delay of this report. I anticipate a very strong and much improved 2012.

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at310.486.1002email me athomes@endrebarath.comor visit one of my websites athttp://www.endrebarath.comYour Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.

Playa Vista Condominium Market Report for the month of November 2011

Here we are, the last month of the year is just buzzing by. So let’s look how the November real estate activity fared comparatively. The month has been quite mixed with good news and bad news. Every time I looked on the internet I either saw that there was bad economic news in Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal or there was good news that Germany will help out the European Financial Crisis. This roller coaster good news, bad news in my opinion is manipulating the World Economy… Sadly not in a good way… this is creating insecurities all over the Globe. The Stock Market responds to the headlines instead to the “researched facts”. This volatility is affecting the housing market as well.

I have noticed that only the savvy buyers are actually purchasing. The novice buyers are asking people for advice, but they are mostly family, friends and acquaintances, not Realtors, Mortgage Lenders or people who have a pulse on the Market, hence some have good information others do not. This in effect is keeping many buyers on the proverbial fence.

Last month I have seen the lowest interest rates in 60 years. The price of homes in the greater Los Angeles area are hovering around 2002/2003 prices. This should create a massive activity, but I do not see it. This I also attribute to the fact, that the inventory is shrinking out there, hence buyers have fewer properties to choose from, then previous months and some are waiting for a large selection.

The Active listings dropped from last month to 28 this month, this is 7.7% contraction. The condominiums which are in Escrow and are waiting for Back up offers have dropped as well from the previous month’s 8 to 5, this month. The ones on Hold status are unchanged 1 the previous month and 1 this month. Now let’s look at the Pending, this number has increased from last month’s 2 to a current of 9. Now the Sold Status has decreased from 10 to 1. This could be from a combination of the fact that Thanksgiving Week has slowed the Lenders and the Escrow Companies with timely closings an indication of the large Pending Status as well as the analysis I provided in the beginning.

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.

The Playa Vista Condominium Market Report for the Month of October 2011

The Global Economic volatility continues and Europe’s problems are visiting every part of the world. The roller coaster ride of will China bail out Europe or not and will Greece take the offer of saving their as well as the rest of the Global economies or will they turn it down? It was a busy month for all. Hence if you are an investor would you want to invest in Europe and specifically Greece? The answer is clear to me, if you are an investor you need to do your homework, since there is a very fertile ground right now for the Bernie Madoff’s style Ponzi schemes.

Once you do your Homework, the answer will be clear and you will discover that this is a good time to buy Real Estate in the greater Los Angeles area. Investors need to look at fixed assets such as homes, condominiums and investment land vs. the pie in the sky profits offered by “free lunch” and or “free dinner” seminars

Rental Demand is an all time high, since many of the regular buyers are sitting on the sidelines instead of taking advantage of the lower prices, all time low interest rates and nervous sellers. Therefore it is clear to me that it does not matter if you buy a single-family home or a condominium for the purpose of renting out you will do well. Hence it does not matter if you are a small or a large investor the opportunities are out there. Once you read in the Media Portals that this is the way to go you missed out on the best window of opportunity.

As long as there is such a large percent of buyers sitting on the fence Rental demand will be high and as we all know “supply & demand” side economics will assure you a good return on your investment.

Now with that said let’s look at how the Condominium activity turned out for the month of October in Playa Vista, CA.

There were 36 Active listings which was an increase of 8.3% from the previous month’s inventory. There were 8 properties in Back-up Status which was 33% drop from the previous month. There was 1 on Hold Status (generally an indication of Short Sales) there were 2 Pending waiting to close. This was a 78% drop from the previous month. Interestingly with numbers like this I would anticipate a huge drop in the Sold category. Ironically that was not the case instead the Sold numbers increased from the previous month. September there were 4 Sold Condominiums and for the month of October there were 10 Sold Condominiums which translates to a huge decrease.

This to me is a very interesting number, with all the turbulence occurring there is still a steady activity of sales occurring in the Playa Vista Condominium sales.

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.

Playa Vista, CA Condominium Market Report for the month of July, 2011

I just returned from being on the East Coast in Boston, MA. Hence two of my Market Reports are late. Hope you did not have to wait too long. Anyway let me jump in and give you the Playa Vista, CA Condominium Market Report now.

Finally the Debt Ceiling cloud is resolved for now and buyers and sellers of luxury Condominium in Playa Vista can return to what we call the ‘normal real estate market’. When I say ‘normal’, I am referring to the new “normal” in today’s turbulent economic times.

The long term ramifications are unknown at this time. Once thing is clear there will be an economic slowdown for a number of reasons. One important reason is the Economic uncertainties in Europe, particularly Greece, Spain and Italy. You might be wondering, what effect will this have on the Playa Del Rey, CA Condominium Real Estate Market?

The answer is very clear Mortgage Rates have been falling dramatically and we are back to historic low interest rates. Hence the historic low prices coupled with the historic low interest rates create a fantastic opportunity to step into the Playa Vista, CA real estate market.

This in turn is creating not only for first time buyers’ great opportunities, but for investors who understand that during uncertain times more people tend to lease and this high demand for leasing will increase Rental Rates in the long run.

I know that there has been a lot of concerns that the Fed has been downgrade, because it holds AA+ debt, please do not fall into the trap of what I call “headline-panic”, there are countries such as Ireland, France and Japan to name a few who’s dept is much worse than the US and they still have AAA rating. This is more favorable to Real Estate, because it will drive many investors out of the Stock Market into safer long term investment such as Real Estate. Hence be prepared this will increase Demand and might even fuel the Real Estate Market from a buyer’s market into a seller’s market.

Currently there are 29 Active Condominiums on the Market available for purchase. The least expensive one is a One Bedroom One and a half Bath of approximately 1,149 square feet of living space for the asking price of $315,000. At the other extreme, the most expensive Luxury Condominium is a three bedroom and three and bath with 2,169 square feet of living space for $875,000.00.

There were 6 Properties in Backup-Status, where the buyers still have not removed their contingencies. There was 1 Condominium in Hold Status; this is an indication of Short Sales, where buyers and sellers are waiting for Lender Approval. Interestingly there are 6 Properties that are Pending- Status. This is where the buyers are just waiting for funding and Escrow to close. The Sold statistic consisted of 11 Condominium that closed during the month of July.

For your convenience, I am enclosing a link to last month’s Report, which also has a link to the last six months in order that you could see the trends. As you know in Real Estate it is nice to know the snap shot of the moment, with the understanding of the trends. http://actvra.in/dJb

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 (USA) or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.

The Playa Vista Condominium Market Report for the month of June 2011

The month of June was very active for me, many listing appointments, and a lot of viewing of my listings. Hence I am a bit late with my Market Report. As most of you who read my Market Reports consistently will notice that my focus is always on the Trends.

I have been reading a great deal about higher interest rates being on the horizon. This is based on the premise that, the Federal Reserve's second round of quantitative easing (QE2 that it is referred to) has ended with the close of the month of June. The withdrawal of this support will leave the economy to stand on its own without any stimulus. Hence this could drive up Treasury rates. Hence this will potentially drive up interest rates.

Based on this major indicator I looking forward to find out, if this event pushed many fence sitting buyers off the proverbial fence. The fear of rate increase for getting a home loan should have pushed the fence sitters off.

Now with that said, let us look at how the Condominium Activity in Playa Vista, CA fared for the month of June.

The Active listings have had a slight increase over the previous month. There were 29 Active Condominium Listings on the Market. There were 12 properties accepting Backup Offers. This was a huge increase over the previous month. The Pending properties had an equally large increase there were 13 properties pending as well. There was no change in the number of properties on hold. There was only one property on hold status. The most important indicator was almost identical to the previous month. The sold properties had a slight decrease over the previous month. There were 5 properties that were sold in Playa Vista, CA for the month of June. I suspect the reason that was the case is, because now day's lenders are taking more time before they are prepared to fund. I have noticed an increase in last minute double checking of the borrower's work and credit worthiness. Interestingly I did the report for Playa Del Rey, CA yesterday and it is almost a carbon copy of what transpired in the month of June in both areas.

So if you would like to check out the previous months sales statistics please click on the enclosed links

http://actvra.in/4T5 (published February 2011)

http://actvra.in/6dx (published March 2011)

http://actvra.in7Vj (published April 2011)

http://actvra.in/9mD (published May 2011)

http://actvra.in/bYt (published June 2011)

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 (USA) or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.