Michael & Heather Gardner

Yes there are a lot of foreclosures going on in many parts of California. But again the Westside and Malibu seem to be a shelter in the storm. Check out these stats from the TerraFirmaLA Blog.

FORECLOSURES – June 1-Dec. 31, 2007

Valley areas not doing so well

• Woodland Hills (91364, 91367) – 100 foreclosures
• Tarzana (91356) – 69 foreclosures
• Encino (91316, 91436) – 54 foreclosures
• Sherman Oaks (91403, 91423) – 43 foreclosures
• Studio City (91604, 91602) – 32 foreclosures
• West Hollywood (90046, 90069) – 27 foreclosures

Areas doing well

• Miracle Mile (90036, 90048) – 7 foreclosures
• Beverly Hills (90210, 90211, 90212) – 3 foreclosures
• Brentwood (90049) – 6 foreclosures
• Bel Air/Holmby Hills (90077) – 11 foreclosures

Prime areas

• Sawtelle/West L.A. (90025) – 6 foreclosures
• Westwood (90024) – 11 foreclosures
• Cheviot Hills/Rancho Park (90064) – 3 foreclosures
• Pacific Palisades (90272) – 4 foreclosures
• Venice (90291) – 1 foreclosure
• Santa Monica (90401, 90403, 90404, 90405) – 10 foreclosures
• Santa Monica (90402) – not available (north of Montana where there were likely few)

And Malibu (90265) 1 FORECLOSURE So where are you going to invest? Click here to find out about foreclosures by zip code.

Here are the top ten sites for December. Realtor.com is leading with Trulia recently passing up Zillow and looking to gain ground. Why is this important? Because everybody starts online when it comes to finding a home. 85% this year will and I estimate that the number will rise to 95% in next few years. Realtor.com gets 5 million hits alone each month. If you are going list your home you better have an agent who has a foot in the internet arena. I personally have my listings at 4 of the sites mentioned above. One advantage Prudential has is that we have signed a deal with Yahoo, as you may have seen the recent ads, and we now exclusively get all leads generated online. If someone does a search in Malibu and needs more information our office at Cross Creek gets the call, even if the listing is at another brokerage. Try it out by doing the a Malibu search at Yahoo Real Estate. Years ago a client might ask their agent "How many showings are we getting each week?" or "How many calls"? The new question will be "How many hits did we get?" Good agents will monitor their web traffic and keep you up to date by sending the graphs and data to you. If you are getting a ton of hits but no showings, then maybe the listing price is too high. If you are getting hits and showings, then keep the price as is. There is another site that is not mentioned but has tremendous power in selling a home. Craigslist.com has a real estate section and I always put an add online. That simple add generates over 500 page views and 5000 hits per month. See example below .So try asking your current agent how many hits you are getting each month. If he or she looks confused and can't answer, then it's time for a new agent. Here's a number to one that can answer it. See the proof below for my beach house listing.310 699 8428. Ask for me, Mike G.

Check out these recent headlines:

• "Location! Location! Location! - Better Schools Mean Higher Property Values" (USA Today),
• "House Buyers are Willing to Pay for a Good Education,"(The Wall Street Journal)

If the quality of a school directly affects the value of local real estate, then Malibu High School has just given the local housing market a big boost. Coming in 98 out of the 100 highest ranking schools in the nation and 23rd in California, parents now have even more reason to move to Malibu. Don't forget, we are talking about a public school with no tuition! Many parents in the surrounding communities often send their children to private schools that can run anywhere from $10,000-$20,000 per year. That's a lot of money that can be applied toward a mortgage for those wanting to move to Malibu. What are you waiting for?

First I need to disclose that this parcel is not buildable and more than likely not well suited for crops or anything else for that matter. There are no comps supporting the price and don't bother asking for any reports. Good news though, you do get to own a piece of Malibu. What you get is 1/3 of a cubic foot of prime pre-earthquake dirt in a plexiglass box that is destined to be a "priceless museum piece" when Malibu and Southern Califorinia fall into the sea. Yes, someone is selling some Malibu dirt online. If you are interested you can find it here on Ebay. This brings me to a question that I often get from buyers, "What is the cheapest land in Malibu?" Well, for about $60-$90k I can find you a piece of land. There will probably be "great views" and "abundant wildlife" but what are you really getting? More than likely you will get a 1/4 acre located on the steep portion of a mountain top and it may not have any access unless you get an easement from a neighbor. In other words a useless piece of land. Okay, so what about $200-$400k? For that price you may get a few reports and access to power and water. It still may be challenging to build on and in need of major investment before you can even think about applying for a permit. So here's the "Low Down on the High End". The lower the price the greater the chance that it will be extremely difficult to build on. If you want to build then there really is no "cheap land" in Malibu. A good piece of land with stable geology, access to water and power, and permits will run at least $750,000. The price goes up from there if it has good ocean views, is flat , and not too far away from PCH. Land like this will be close to $1,000,000 an acre.