Bob Willis

This Market Report is for the Whittier, California neighborhood known as Whittwood. Here is information about Whittwood homes for sale, as well as homes that have sold in Whittwood.

First, let me tell you what part of Whittier I am talking about. The Whittwood area is bordered on the west by Colima Road, on the north by Whittier Boulevard, on the east by First Avenue and on the south by Lambert Road. Basically, the Whittwood neighborhood is centered around the Whittwood Town Center, south of Whittier Boulevard. All homes referenced in this article are within this Whittwood neighborhood.

This Market Report on Whittwood Homes for Sale will focus on Single Family Residences in this Whittier, California neighborhood.

As of today, there are 9 Single Family Residences for sale in the Whittwood area.

Eight homes are currently in escrow.

Five homes were sold during the month of June.

The average home in Whittwood over the past 3 months took 63 days to sell.

The average home sale price was $372,366, or an average cost per square foot of $260.94.

It would take 3 months, at the current rate of sales, for all the current Whittwood homes on the market to sell.

A Sellers' Market is when there is less than 5 months of supply. Whittwood is currently in a very strong Sellers' Market. This Sellers' Market actually applies to all homes for sale in Whittier, CA that are priced under $500,000. Whittier homes for sale that are priced above $500,000 are more plentiful; and the higher the price, the more advantageous it is for the buyer being able to have more leverage and less competition from other buyers.

If you own a home in Whittwood, it is a very good time to sell. Demand is high, and there are lots of buyers in this price range looking for their first home.

Whittwood is a great neighborhood, with plenty of shopping, good schools, moderately priced homes and a stable population of people who have lived in their homes for many years.

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About the author: The above Market Report about Whittwood, in Whittier, California was provided by Bob Willis, a Whittier Realtor®.

Would you like to receive a detailed report of Whittwood home sales mailed directly to you? Call (800) 385-1585, ext. 102 for a Free Recorded Message, or go to the website, http://www.whittwoodhomesales.com.

My great-great aunt, Amelia Willis, married Edwin Tucker, the founding father of Eureka, Kansas, on August 15, 1863, just 4 years after each of them had arrived in Greenwood County. Mr. Tucker, through hard work and investing properly, had become one of the wealthier men in town. He built a sturdy two bedroom stone home in 1861, in preparation for the time he would get married and start a family. They were the envy of everyone in town, and the stone house became known as the "mansion". By today's standards, it would be considered barely habitable. It had no running water or electricity when it was first built, and the children and two parents had to share the two bedrooms until they added a third bedroom sometime around 1870. In 1883, shortly after the birth of their seventh child, they moved into a new, much larger Victorian home they had built a couple hundred feet from the original stone home.

Here is a picture of the house I took while in Eureka for the family reunion in 2003.

The stone "mansion" was the largest home in Eureka for many years, and, since the town did not have a hotel, it was often the place where distinguished visitors would stay. Horace Greeley, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Kansas Governor Crawford were some of the well known people who stayed with the Tuckers in the mansion.

It's really a matter of perspective. To many home owners, their home is indeed their mansion.

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They Sold!

That's right, bank owned properties no longer dominate the Whittier real estate market. Let's look as some numbers, as of July 11, 2009.

Overall, properties for sale in Whittier have plummeted over the past year. A little over a year ago, on May 25, 2008, there were 888 homes for sale in Whittier. Now, there are only 339 homes for sale.

A year ago, there were very few buyers. Everyone was waiting for prices to go down. They wanted to wait for the market to bottom out. Now, with the Tax Credit, and prices being low, and interest rates being very low, the buyers are fighting tooth and nail over every home that comes on the market that is reasonably priced.

Out of today's 339 homes for sale, only 31 of them are bank owned properties.

Back in January 2009, there were 55 sales of bank owned properties, out of a total of 122 homes sold.

So, over the past several months, the buyers have been eating up all the bank owned properties, the banks have had moratoriums on foreclosures, and the homes the banks already own have been held back from the market.

What does it all mean? Well, in summary, it has turned into a Sellers' Market, where sellers are calling all the shots, and buyers are struggling to find a property to buy that they can call "home".

If you need to sell a home in Whittier quickly, now is the time to put it on the market.

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Occasionally, some enterprising business person will come up with a very creative idea for marketing the business. You know the old saying for Hollywood celebrities: "All press is good press." The same can apply to businesses as well, at times.

Like thousands of other Whittierites, I drive down Pickering Boulevard nearly every day. My route passes by an old Volkswagen parts store that has had half of a VW body up on its wall for many years. The funny thing is, I know that there was a mannequin in the VW before, but I don't remember what it looked like. Now, they have a mannequin of Nadya Suleman, the infamous "Octomom", and eight babies in the VW bug, with a box of diapers on the roof.

People who have never heard of the Gold Mine VW Auto Parts store have suddenly become aware of its existence, not only to people who are driving by, but thousands of more people, because there is an article in the Los Angeles Times all about this brilliant marketing idea.

At this time, Octomom no longer dominates the news. If this display had been done when every newspaper and website was talking about her, it would not have resulted in the article in the Los Angeles Times. Imagine if they had decided to use an image of Michael Jackson right now. The shop would not have ended up in the newspaper, because there is so much chatter about Michael Jackson that it would not stand out.

Now people are thinking about Octomom, her 8 babies and a VW parts store in Whittier. And, they are thinking about driving by, just to check it out. That's what I did. Here's the picture I just took:

It has been nearly two years since I wrote a blog about the Weekly Family Fair in Uptown Whittier, where I mentioned Vinatero Wine Shop as one of my favorite places in Whittier.

Since then, Vinatero Wine Shop has won two awards from myfoxla for "Best Wine Shop in the Los Angeles Area" for both 2007 and 2008.  Will they win again in 2009?  My money is on Vinatero!

When you get up to the wine bar, you will be greeted with a smile by either Ernie or Lisa Ceja, the husband-wife team that owns the establishment.  If you want to learn about wine, then listen to the wisdom that comes from them as they pour you either a glass or a sample of wine. 

In addition to a great variety of wines, they also carry numerous gourmet beers. 

Vinatero Wine Shop is no stuffy, upper-crust establishment.  It's more like a neighborhood pub, where locals gather to taste some good wines or beers.  It's kind of like the "Cheers" of Whittier, for wine and beer.  If you don't want to hang out (who wouldn't?), then you can always just walk in and buy a bottle or case, and walk right out.  They are happy to serve you either way.

Would you like to keep up to date with Vinatero's latest news about what's happening in the wine shop?  Whether it's the day's tastings or special events, you can follow them on Twitter or you become a fan on Facebook.

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About the author: The above Article about The Best of Whittier: Vinatero Wine Shop was provided by Bob Willis, a Whittier Realtor®. Bob can be reached via email at bob@willisrealtor.com or by phone at (562) 639-9400.

For Whittier real estate, see Whittier Welcomes You. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my ListingBook website.

I service the following towns in the greater Whittier area: La Habra, La Habra Heights, La Mirada, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs.

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I specialize in helping first time buyers get into their first home. Whether you want to buy now, in six months or in a year, a Buyer Consultation with a professional Realtor® should be the first priority of your home search. It's custom designed for you and your needs! Please call me for a FREE Buyer Consultation! (562) 639-9400.