Culver City California

Not a huge step up but definitely a better location and a little less Appalachian feel to it.

San Franciso, CA

Definitely a big step up from 2006. You can now get significantly more than a small shack for this price.

San Diego, CA

You saved yourself a good 200K and got a nicer place if you waited 2 years for the bubble to deflate from 2006.

Clearwater Florida

In 2006 you could get a really nice house at this price. Now you can get a McMansion that requires lots of extra dusting.

Boca Raton, Florida

Pay less to get a lot more in Boca now. Aw, you should have waited!

Over four months on the market but still no taker, you might ask why they are refusing to budge on the price when they paid a mere 14K for the place. I immediately thought, “ATM.”

One day during walk I peeked in the yard and a woman yelled from her truck, “You can go around the house and look. No one’s there.” I was curious – it was the first house in the neighborhood to drop below the half million mark.

The place is tiny – no yard, driveway, or garage

The woman proceeded to confirm my suspicions, but with a twist. The elderly woman who had recently died had had the ownership wrested from her by a son, she told me. He’d taken out the “equity” at the top of the bubble – half a million dollars.

Now that he had officially “inherited” the house, he still owed the loan, but the house was worth far less.
Frankly, he’ll be lucky to get 350 for it.

Hope he enjoyed it while it lasted.

Three years ago they paid over 700K.

Here’s an example of how the price drops tend to hit certain parts of a neighborhood first.  While the Carlson Park area seems to be showing some resilience still, those areas not within walking distance of downtown Culver City are really feeling the changes in the market.

Note that they are asking below the 2005 price.

Finally we are seeing houses moving down in price, although they are still out of whack with rents.

Recently I’ve been hearing that rents are dropping too.

Maybe rents and mortgages will start to be more in alignment in another year?

Here’s a short sale – I’d like to think some financial mishap occurred that caused them to need to take out a second and third mortgage or HELOC themselves to death – like maybe they had big medical bills. Maybe.

Most people just used their houses like ATMs. This short sale is in one of the nicest parts of Culver City. The tax bill indicates they’ve owned it a long time – otherwise it would be mighty high at this price.

Two years later, maybe break even after broker fees. Unlikely after almost 3 months on the market.
Culver City is cracking.

And this guy – dude, the year is going to wrap up with house unsold. Maybe it’s time to lower the price? Especially when you look at the last sale (Anyone else thinking HELOC from HELL?)

Sale history below indicates the bank bought the house back (my guess is that they bought it in auction when they couldn’t get bids high enough to cover the outstanding loan). The sad part is that 3 years after buying, the owners should have had some equity. They either withdrew equity or had an interest-only (pay-what-you-will) ARM that readjusted – something that made their outstanding loan owed more than what they originally paid in 2004.

Pretty nice-looking place, huh? Price doesn’t seem all that bad…
Now look at what they paid for it two years ago:

Even a range – you are getting close to half-price territory.
Hat tip to Irvine Housing blog.

I went to an open house of this residence a few months ago when they had dropped the price to 599K from an original asking price of 629K. They sold it for 580K.

If you figure 6% in closing costs, this would mean a lost of 21K on a 3-year investment.

2931 Sentney Ave sold for asking – 609K (small house far east side of Culver City)

3617 Shaeffer – a real fixer upper (visited during an open house and it was a MESS), was asking 749K in Sept, got 662K in November.

A few other listings sold below asking, but one surprising thing has been the drop in asking price for the brand new condos on Lincoln Ave. These are not even completed and they have been advertised for 850K for almost a year. This week they are asking 779K, a 31K drop (4%). Maybe the pre-construction pricing was based on the idea that real estate never goes down and they aren’t building any more land (even though this development belies the second myth).

Update Dec 4 2007 – still holding at 799K 151 days into it – poor bag holder hasn’t a clue what he’s in for…

Located just on the outskirts of Culver City, the photos look like typical “after” shots from Flip This House with all the cliches…but did they mis-time the market?

The description says: “BUYER TO PROVIDE PRE-APPROVAL LETTER & PROOF OF FUNDS TO CLOSE BEFORE SCHEDULING VIEWING.”

LOL. Wonder if that means banks are saying 800K for a house practically under the Santa Monica Freeway? Yuh, right. And anyone who can qualify for that kind of loan with the new REAL underwriting standards would not want to pay that much to suck in truck fumes on a warm summer night. Gotta keep an eye on this one.