154 Acari Drive, Brentwood – Coming Soon! Great Property for Land Value

Ask us about  this new listing.
This property has living space of 1800 square feet, 19,200 sf lot( mostly flat)
It’s a fixer great for a developer- perfect opportunity to make it your own custom home in Brentwood!
Fab views- great street,
Views 3+3,  …

www.154AcariDrive.com for more information please visit.

1333 Beverly Glen Unit 502

Description – Wonderful opportunity to own a unit in the full service Glen Towers for an unbelievably low price! Travertine entry opens to spacious living room w/high ceilings, wet bar & cornered fireplace. Great flow for entertaining. Huge terrace runs the length of the unit w/stunning city light views. Large kitchen, laundry room & servants entrance. Great master w/ample closets, bath w/vanity. Security, Valet, pool, rec room. Recently remodeled lobby & hallways. Two bedroms, two bathrooms plus powder room in slightly more than 2,000 sq ft.

Price – $775,000

Newest Wilshire Corridor Listing – Unit 1602

Amazing opportunity to purchase a 2 bed + 2.5 bath in Wilshire Corridor’s desirable Blair House. Ocean and Sunset views by day, sparkling city lights at night! Get a peek at the Getty and UCLA as well. This traditional home, in pristine condition, features stunning hardwood floors throughout, crown moldings, surround sound, recessed lights, gourmet kitchen, huge balcony and separate laundry room. Lovely master suite with ample closets and master bath with spa tub. Full service bldg. 24 hour valet and security. Saline pool and spa, tennis court, gym, library, recreation room, this unit comes w/wine storage too! It’s like living in a luxurious 5 star hotel!

March Newsletter

Within twelve short months the real estate market has done a complete turn around.
Without question this is the best time to sell a home in the last 5 years!
Here’s a couple things to think about. You might be very surprised at what a buyer will pay in today’s market.
If you are interested in moving up this is the perfect time. This could also be the ideal time to make a real estate investment!
Whether you are thinking about buying or selling, Real Estate is very exciting again!
Contact us today to discuss the market in more detail.

Listed: 920 Westholme, Little Holnmby, CA 90024
5 Bedroom, 3.5 Bath
Listed for $2,495,000
Totally unique Little Holmby Architectural, featuring maple hardwood floors, floor to ceiling glass looking out at the sparking pool, fireplace, dining area, and a kitchen where no expense was spared. Custom made Cottonwood cabinets, Caesarstone counters, Thermador & Miele appliances, “eat around” island, vegetable sink, & many other custom unique features. Zebrawood bar, electric shades, recessed remote controlled lighting, surround sound & speakers throughout. Powder room sink is “pebbles in resin” imported from Italy. Master bedroom with terrace, walk-in closet, bath with steam shower & limestone floors. Direct access, extra-wide, finished 2-car garage with built-in cabinets. Laundry room, alarm system. Outdoor built in BBQ. visit www.920WestholmeAvenue.com

Southern California once again saw strong home price increases last month
as the percentage of absentee buyers hit a record high and cash buyers
remained a dominant force.

A total of 15,945 new and resale homes and condos sold in February — the hig hest volume for a February in six years.
Buyers in Southern California paid a median of $320,000 last month as fewer homes sold in lower-cost Riverside and San

Bernardino counties that have become a haven for investors looking to flip or rent out houses.

“Most every gauge shows prices are up significantly over the past year, even after adjusting for changes in the types of homes selling,” DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement.

Still, last month’s median price was still well off the 2007 peak of $505,000, Walsh noted.
The median sales price is the point at which half of homes sold for more and half sold for less; it is influenced by the types of homes selling as well as a general rise or fall in values.
Home prices have been on the rise as inventory has tightened significantly and interest rates have remained low. Investors have scooped up many low-priced and bank-owned properties to rent or flip and foreclosures have made up a declining share of homes sold.

Foreclosed homes were 15.8% of the resale market last month, down from 32.6% a year earlier.

Absentee buyers — chiefly investors, along with some second-home buyers — accounted for 31.4% of home sales in February, the highest figure since DataQuick began tracking the figure in 2000. Buyers paying with cash purchased a near-record 35.6% of homes.

Data from the previous two months shows investors playing a major role, Walsh said. But that may be influenced some by the holiday house-hunting season, which tends to skew the buyer pool more toward investors.

“March and April will offer a better view of how broader market trends are shaping up this year,” Walsh said. ”One of the real wild cards will be how many more homes go up for sale. More people who’ve long been thinking of selling will be tempted to list their homes at today’s higher prices.”

As prices rise, more homeowners will escape their negative equity positions, allowing them to sell their homes and potentially loosening supply. “A meaningful rise in the supply of homes on the market should at least tame price appreciation,” Walsh said.

Developers Investors Boomerang Back into Condos

For six long years following the burst housing bubble and subsequent recession, residential condominium sales remained in a deep freeze. However, late last year, condo investment sales quietly began to recover in gateway markets such as Boston, San Francisco and New York.

More recently, analysts and major investors are starting to take serious notice of the emerging condo market after several large residential and commercial developers announced new condo development projects in previously overbuilt markets such as South Florida, and bulk condo portfolios begin trading in Las Vegas and other metros where the housing market cratered so deeply in 2007.

In a sign that demand is picking up, overall U.S. condominium investment sales volume and the average price paid per unit for condo projects reached their highest levels in seven years during the fourth quarter, according to an analysis of preliminary CoStar transaction data.

The small thaw in the condo market has even reached Las Vegas, where investors have been buying up a portion of the plentiful distressed properties. Late last month, Ladder Capital Finance Holdings LLLP acquired 427 luxury condo units at Veer Towers in the CityCenter project from MGM Resorts International for $119 million.

Tony Dennis, executive vice president of CityCenter Residential, said the sale “comes at a time when the Las Vegas housing market is seeing sustained improvement.”

Another sign that condo markets are seeing recovery is the interest of large homebuilders such as Lennar and Toll Brothers, Inc., which are looking to diversify their portfolios by getting into other types of residential construction such as rental apartments and for-sale condos.

Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE:TOL) a leading builder of luxury homes, this week announced a major push into the condo market beyond its New York City market with the acquisition of a development site in downtown Bethesda, MD.

In Bethesda, Toll plans to begin construction next fall on a seven-story building with 60 luxury condominiums and underground parking at 4915 Hampden Lane. In New York, Toll acquired 953-961 First Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets in the Midtown East area, and 82 King Street, between Hudson and Varick Streets, in SoHo, where it will build luxury condos and retail space.

Meanwhile, other major players, such as The Related Group, which bet big and lost big in hard-hit areas like South Florida three to five years ago, are cautiously returning to the market. Privately held Related Group has seen a few boom and bust cycles, having built and managed more than 80,000 condominium and apartment residences in major markets throughout Florida since 1979.

Condo investment has always been vulnerable to cyclical booms and busts, most famously in markets like Miami, Orlando and Las Vegas, where thousands of new units and converted apartment units languished on the market beginning in 2006 and 2007.

As the housing bubble burst, many under-construction condo developments froze virtually overnight, their towering ironwork and foundations haunting the urban landscape for years as ghostly monuments to the Great Recession and the tendency of developers to overbuild during the good times.

However, rock-bottom prices have allowed strongly capitalized firms to buy well-located projects at fire sale prices — which is exactly what Related did last month in Miami, purchasing a 1.3-acre high-rise mixed-use development site at 1300 South Miami Ave. in the Brickell financial district for $18.5 million.

The site is approved for development of a 556-unit residential tower plus 15,049 square feet of retail space and 38,357 square feet of office space.

The gates are beginning to open to new development in supply constrained markets as San Francisco, where Trumark Companies this week announced the acquisition of six sites planned for mid- and high-rise condo projects, with plans in the works for more than 500 units representing an investment of north of $300 million.

Trumark principal and co-founder Gregg Nelson said demand for urban housing has rebounded along with the strengthening economy, particularly in top tier markets like San Francisco. But almost all the new development to date has been rental housing.

“We see an exploding opportunity, and an exploding demand, for for-sale housing in core urban areas because there’s almost a complete lack of supply,” Nelson said.

A November report on San Francisco housing inventory by the Polaris Group illustrates the dearth of condos in the supply pipeline, with new condominium inventory forecasted to be less than 200 units per year through 2015, which is “fairly remarkable” for a city of over 800,000 residents.

Constrained supply isn’t the only reason why the company is debuting its new multifamily division, Trumark Urban, in San Francisco. People are once again recognizing the value of buying versus renting in many urban markets.

“We are several years post the housing bust, and potential buyers have short memories of all things past,” noted Michael B. Cohen, director of advisory services and multifamily specialist with Property and Portfolio Research (PPR), CoStar’s analytics and economic forecasting company.

Trumark plans to capitalize on the younger tech company workers and retiring baby boomers who want to scale down from larger residences to own property in the City by the Bay, said Michael Maples, who co-founded Trumark with Nelson in 1988.

As attractive as demographics were in the mid-2000s boom years for residential condo investors, they’re even better now as a wave of convenience-minded baby boomers begin to retire. Their echo boomer children — those with jobs, anyway — are also opting for ultra-hip, low-maintenance and compact high-rise condos over large single-family dwellings in far-flung suburbs.

The strengthening housing and job market has put such projects back on stronger footing, at least in coveted urban metros like San Francisco and Boston. In the past two years, housing prices have increased more than 10% in San Francisco, where higher-end Trumark condos are expected to fetch over $2 million for dwellings that max out at 1,500 square feet.

Three years of improving apartment occupancies and strong rent gains in some markets, combined with low mortgage rates, are again prompting financially stable renters to do the math and weigh buying versus renting, Cohen noted. At the same time, existing home sales and prices are improving. As inventory shrinks, developers are again circling a growing number of markets in hopes of building new product.

Freddie Mac Chief Economist on Threats to Housing

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — While the housing market is showing signs of life, the looming fiscal cliff remains a threat, as does global instability, the chief economist at mortgage-buying giant Freddie Mac told MarketWatch.

For 2013 Frank Nothaft expects mortgage rates to stay low as home values and household formation rise. However, as Nothaft recently wrote in a Freddie Mac blog post, his crystal ball predictions will “shatter” if U.S. lawmakers allow the country to go over the fiscal cliff. Even if a compromise is reached in Washington, global instability could still cut growth in a U.S. housing market that analysts say has recently bottomed out.

Here’s an edited transcript of what the chief economist at Freddie Mac said:

MarketWatch: What do you see as the biggest threat to a recovering housing market in 2013?

Nothaft: The most immediate thing is the one that’s in the press every single day, namely the fiscal cliff. If for some reason they can’t work out a compromise to avoid the fiscal cliff, then that’s going to have a serious impact, not just on the housing-market recovery, but for the overall recovery in the macroeconomy.

If it should come to pass that the unemployment rate starts going up and goes up to 9%, as the Congressional Budget Office has projected, then we are going to see a decline in home sales, we are going to see a decline in household formations, and that then has a broader impact on new construction of housing units. So, sales will be weaker, starts will be weaker, and, of course, that means that house prices in national indices will be weaker as well. See MarketWatch’s fiscal-cliff page.

If they can work it out, the main threat longer term is that there are other factors that could slow or derail the macroeconomic recovery. There could be unforeseen events in the euro zone that then impact and retard the recovery in the U.S. There could be unforeseen events in the Middle East or elsewhere in the globe that disrupt energy supplies. If there is a big spike in energy costs, that has broad impacts throughout the economy and weakens economic activity.

What’s so important right now in supporting housing demand is, of course, low mortgage rates and we have that. But what we need now is the growth in jobs and the growth in incomes. That will help support housing demand overall because more families will have the resources in order to form households, either renting apartment or buying homes.

Q: What is the biggest misperception in the public about the housing market?

A: A big misperception is that you can’t get mortgage financing, or that it’s really hard to get mortgage financing. That’s something that I hear quite often.

While there’s no question that underwriting has tightened compared to the underwriting that was occurring in 2005, 2006 and even in the beginning of 2007, still there are many applicants who are getting mortgages. What’s important in applying for a mortgage today is just to make sure that you have an adequate down payment, that you have stable income and you have good credit history. If you have those three components, then that takes you a long way toward being successful applicant for a mortgage.

Q: Before the bubble burst, fixed residential investment accounted for about 6% of GDP. Now that percentage is down to about 2.5%. Going forward, what will be the new normal for housing’s share of the economy?

Enlarge Image

Fixed residential investment has seen its share of GDP decline to about 2.5% from a bubble peak of more than 6%.

A: Residential fixed investment was unusually high in the period leading up to the boom because of the very large amount of construction and home sales. If you look over a longer period of time residential fixed investment typically averages more like 4% or 5% of GDP.

There’s been a pick up in residential fixed investment. Maybe in 2015, 2016 we’ll see residential fixed investment up around 4% to 5% of overall GDP.

Q: Certain regions have seen large price gains for housing, while others remain below levels from more than a decade ago. How long will areas like Phoenix dominate price gains?

Enlarge Image

House prices in Phoenix saw a 20% year-over-year gain in September.

A: One thing that’s really important to keep in mind when looking at the large percentage increases in some markets like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami and so on, is that they are from very, very low levels. The prices are at such incredibly low levels that this leads to what appears to be a very high or fast percentage gain. Even with these price gains, say, in the Phoenix market, prices are still way, way below where they were back in 2006. I suspect we will continue to see gains in value in markets like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Miami over the course of 2013 that are faster than the national increase, but not quite at the same pace.

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Q: What kind of a threat does shadow inventory pose to the housing market’s recovery?

A: As we’ve seen over the past year the housing market is recovering even though there is this large shadow inventory. In most markets around the country, the housing market will continue to recover. There is a flow into REO [real-estate-owned properties are foreclosed homes held by lenders], but that flow is relatively steady over time. The market has been able to account for that and absorb that flow into the marketplace and begin to turn around and recover. Going forward we’ll see the same pattern. It will still be an important component of the market, but it already has been for several years, and yet we’ve begun to see the recovery really take hold.

Q: Interest rates have been hovering near record lows for some time. Refinancing, rather than home buying, has seen the bulk of the activity taking advantage of these low rates. How long will there trends continue?

A: We will continue to see very low mortgage rates throughout most of 2013. We’re going to start the year with mortgage rates continuing at or about record low levels and it will be that way for much of the year. The 30-year-fixed-rate mortgages will stay well below 4% throughout 2013, likewise 15-year-fixed-rate mortgages will stay well below 3%. You have the Fed standing behind the market, promising to be very proactive in purchasing Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities.

In some sense there’s refi burnout. We’ve had many, many homeowners who have refinanced over the last several months. We have a dwindling pool of borrowers who really have a big financial incentive to refinance.

Home Sales Jump in November

The housing market continued to show signs of improvement in November, with existing home sales at their highest level in three years, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

The inventory of homes for sale also shrank further, to a 4.8-month supply in November. That’s the lowest level in more than seven years. Realtors consider a 6-month supply to be a balanced market between buyers and sellers.

Total existing home sales, which include single-family homes and condominiums, rose 5.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million from a downwrdly revised 4.76 million in October , NAR says .

Existing home sales were 14.5% higher than in November 2011

Home Values Rose in 2012 for the First Gain In 6 Years

Home values gained an estimated 6 percent in the U.S. this year, the first increase since 2006, as the housing market began to recover from its worst slump since the 1930s, Zillow Inc. (Z) said today.

Values have climbed more than $1.3 trillion to $23.7 trillion since the end of last year and probably will continue to rise in 2013, the Seattle-based home-listing service said in a statement. Residential values had declined each year since 2007, with the biggest drop in 2008, when homes lost more than $3.2 trillion in value, Zillow said.

Low interest rates, improving employment and prices that remain almost 30 percent below their July 2006 peak have drawn buyers back into the market. A limited inventory of homes for sale has helped push up prices.

“The housing market really turned a corner in 2012, as historic affordability and sustained investor interest helped keep demand at a boil,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said in the statement. “As home values rise, and more homeowners are freed from negative equity, we can expect a continued slow transition to a more normal housing environment.”

Sales of previously owned homes jumped 5.9 percent in November from the previous month to reach an annual pace of 5.04 million, the most in three years, the National Association of Realtors reported today from Washington. The median resale price was $180,600, up 10 percent from November 2011.

Permits to build new homes, a proxy for future construction, rose to a four-year high last month, the Commerce Department said yesterday.

‘Virtuous Cycle’

Rising demand is expected to fuel a “virtuous circle” that will drive economic growth, housing construction and price increases, Michael Widner, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co., wrote in a note to investors yesterday.

Los Angeles added $122 billion in home value this year, the most of any metropolitan area, bringing the value of residences in the region to $1.8 trillion, Zillow said. New York-area values rose $11.1 billion, also to $1.8 trillion, after losing $66.3 billion last year.

Philadelphia was the only metro area of the U.S.’s 30 largest with a loss in value, declining $1.6 billion to $513.4 billion, the firm said.

Nationwide, home values remain down about $5.8 trillion from their peak of $29.5 trillion in the third quarter of 2006, according to Zillow.

After the Great Recession

For five years I have predicted a severe housing shortage at the end of the Great Recession, and now it’s beginning to come true.  Buyers are experiencing tremendous frustration over the limited inventory currently on the market, thus forcing prices higher. Americans are feeling better about their jobs and the economy, further pushing prices up.  Lawrence Yun, chief economist of The National Association of Realtors said in the November issue of The Realtor Magazine, ”The inventory of existing homes is at its lowest level in seven years, while newly constructed home inventory has hit a 50-year low mark.  Falling inventory is causing home prices to shoot up higher and faster than most analysts anticipated. The national median price of transited homes was up 9.5 percent in August.

Available for Lease Call For Details

Available for lease call us for details.  213.280.6415
• 10560 Wilshire Blvd, Unit 601, $5,700/month, 2 Bedrooms + 2.5 Bathrooms, two balconies, stunning evening views and in move-in condition.

• 1142 San Ysidro Drive, $12,500/month, 3 bedrooms + 2.5 bathrooms, city of Beverly Hills, pool, outdoor sauna, ready to move in.
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