To begin March 2020, I wrote two blog posts in response to early reports on the novel Coronavirus. It was still early in our country’s reaction to the pandemic, so I got a lot of push back for these posts. Some said I was an alarmist and overreacting. If you care to refresh your memory on those posts, I have linked them below: March 5th, 2020: “Coronavirus: How to Play the South Bay Real Estate Market” March 12th, 2020: “Hermosa Condos are Safe Amidst Uncertain Times” These were not predictions, but the best conservative advice I could offer during a potentially scary 100-year event. All in all, I am proud of these posts because when looking
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The past year has been a wild one for many markets. While the weekly focus here is the South Bay residential real estate market, I do pride myself on following the equity and bond markets. The stock market, of course, is a huge store of wealth for buyers and sellers in the South Bay which, in turn, affects confidence and drives capital for real estate. Significantly bigger than the equity markets, the bond market is absolutely massive. It acts as another store of wealth, income, and obviously greatly influences mortgage rates via long-term Treasuries and actual rates via mortgage-backed securities. In order for me to feel like a well-rounded adviser to my clients, not only do
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The South Bay luxury home market is a game of high stakes. Unlike the typical South Bay median priced sale ranging from $1.25 million to $2.6 million, the luxury market has fewer buyers and sellers. This scarcity can produce incredibly positive sale results, but at the same time extremely negative sale results. Looking back over the past six months, alongside the wild pandemic year of 2020, we saw an interesting market of sellers who needed to sell, along with buyers who were extremely motivated to buy. As a result, there were luxury home sales that ended not so great for some sellers, but at the same time, went very right for other sellers depending on the
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We are fully into 2021 and it is time to start gearing up for the spring selling season! The inventory is still at a slow trickle, but believe me, it will come. In future weeks I plan to write more of my standard blog posts that break down individual sub-markets and micro-markets throughout Palos Verdes and the Beach Cities. However, for this week’s post, I want to go over some MLS listings that debuted in the last week that look to be deals. Even amidst the low inventory, you can still find value if you know how to look. That said, it is getting harder and harder to identify a good deal unless it is your
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As of the completion of this blog post at 7am today, the Dow Jones is down around 2,000 points, again. This now takes the stock market down about 27% from its highs. Financial news is talking about the needs for drastic action from the Federal government from a health and fiscal standpoint. I don’t know enough to know what is true in financial markets, but it seems that this will likely affect most businesses and most markets in some way. In volatile times, it is tough to value companies unless you are absolutely sure of their income and expenses. The companies that have predictable revenues and a reliable and safe dividend can make it easier to
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For those of you that do not follow me on social media channels such as Instagram or are not subscribed to our mailing list, I will share some quick Hermosa Beach data before getting to the topic at-hand. Additionally, for those individuals that do want access to more market data, each quarter I film a South Bay quarterly report with juicy data on my IGTV, which can be found here. Hermosa Beach Year-Over-Year Data The city of Hermosa Beach had its first median price drop in almost five years. Year-over-year for 2019, price data shows a median decline of 3.34% or a $57,000 pull back when compared to 2018 prices. Much of the decline, if not
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Back in May, I wrote a blog post titled: “Big Hermosa Homes with Big Views are Making Record Highs.” Just as the title states, the blog covered big homes with big views making record highs in elevated parts of MLS areas 148, Hermosa Sand Section and MLS area 149, Hermosa Valley. Now, just half a year later, we see those ripple effects having positive price impacts on surrounding real estate. And surprisingly, much of the deals are happening right now between November and New Year’s which further demonstrates the strength of this sub-market. The Tennyson Ripple The May blog discussed the highest sale of all time in Hermosa Beach. 2906 Tennyson Place 5 bed, 8 bath,
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Who’s HOT Manhattan Beach New Construction This is no secret but Manhattan Beach has been on a new construction kick. Buyers in this city tend to be high-income earners and want to focus on their business, not remodeling a home. Although East Manhattan Beach was down as a whole, new construction prices continued to make record highs even to this day. That being said, Liberty Village is setting new records for itself as well. The Tree Section was flat in 2018 and although new construction has slowed slightly, people are still picking up new builds at a strong pace. The Hill Section poses a lot of risks for spec builders, so when a newer well-done home
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The Valley Section of Hermosa Beach has a wide range of housing options. This area is home to some of the most affordable one- and two-bedroom condos in the city as well as some of the most expensive estate properties in the city. This sub-section is quite small. From Pier Avenue to the north and Herondo to the south, the east/west boundaries are tiny with Valley to the west and PCH to the east. It is only about 11 blocks. The Sophie’s Choice of Town Homes Most town homes in this smaller sub-section of Hermosa range from 2,000 to 3,000 square feet. The one defining factor between a large gap in price is whether it is
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August in the South Bay tends to be a slower month for real estate. During this slow time, I thought it would be beneficial to examine different home offerings under $1 million. Palos Verdes Peninsula This may surprise some readers, but Palos Verdes does in fact have inventory under $1 million. Most of these listings exist in Rancho Palos Verdes on the east side of The Hill. Asking $1 million on the dot, 5320 Ironwood Street is located in the popular Silver Spur area. This home can certainly be had under that $1 million price tag if you are looking for a fixer in a great school district. You will not find single-family homes under $1
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