Recapping our Week and Feelings of Loss from the LA Fires
The week of January 6th began as the first full work week of the new year. It was sunny, and I was somewhat well-rested after enjoying our holiday travels and optimistic about a solid year to come with a few deals in the pipeline. My meteorologist father, who occasionally sends …
What to Expect in the Playa Vista First Quarter 2025 Housing Market
In the fast-paced Los Angeles housing market, spring typically comes early. With the help of milder weather than in most of the country, within a few weeks after the start of the year, buyers who are looking to get an early start on the spring housing market begin shopping. For …
25 Things that Make Me Feel Old in 2025
We’re days away from the 25th anniversary of Y2K. Remember back when computer programmers were scrambling to modify a glitch in operating systems that only allowed for a 2-digit year before December 31st, 1999 at midnight to ensure computers wouldn’t think it was 1900 again? For you younger folks, this …
My Family’s Thanksgiving Traditions
Ever since I was a kid, other than my birthday, Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday. My Grandmother, Terry (my mom’s mother), was one of four sisters, each born four years apart, who were very close to one another. When they married and had children, they started a tradition of …
Navigating the Fall 2024 Housing Market in Playa Vista
It has been a unique several years in the Playa Vista housing market featuring wild interest rate swings and pandemic-related housing preference shifts that have resulted in abnormal fluctuations in supply and demand. In order to better explain where we are going, it is helpful to take a look back. …
FED Rate Cuts Are Coming, but Lower Interest Rates Have Already Arrived
In the worlds of real estate and finance, things can change very rapidly. A positive or negative economic report, data point, or headline can move markets and strongly impact consumer sentiment. In the quest to allocate huge sums of money based on future predictions, expectations can quickly become reality. Earlier …
How an Election Year Impacts the Real Estate Market
If you follow the real estate market, you might notice a slight cooling or slow down in activity in the months leading up to November during election years. The fact that this process repeats itself one out of every four years makes this a noticeable trend. While there is no …
Making LA’s Mansion Tax Work Better
April 2024 marked the one-year anniversary of the implementation of Measure ULA in the City of Los Angeles, also known as the “Mansion Tax”, which levies an additional 4% transfer tax on all real estate sales above $5 million and a 5.5% tax on all sales above $10 million. This …
The Beginner’s Guide to Purchasing an Investment Property
Many of my clients and friends have asked me how to get started in real estate investing and also how to decide what type of real estate investment they should pursue. Since I have invested in a handful of buy and hold multi-family properties, been a partner on some rehab …