Interest Rates Resume Rapid Rise

After a steep decline in mortgage interest rates from November through the end of January, rates have quickly returned to the up-side in February with the 10-year treasury yield rising over 50 basis points during that time. Following this rise in treasury yields, the average 30-year fixed conforming loan rate …

Why New LA Area Transfer Taxes are Dangerous and Will Not Last

Recently, voters passed two new measures in the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica to establish additional transfer taxes on the sale of real estate. These taxes kick in for sales over a certain price with the additional revenue going to curb homelessness. In Los Angeles, this measure is …

Drop in Interest Rates Spurs Market Enthusiasm

The Playa Vista real estate market has rebounded from a dreadful second half of 2018 and a lukewarm first couple of months of 2019 to become red hot in late March and early April. While some of this may be attributable to the finally dry weather conditions, this seems mainly …

Stock Market Implosion Threatens Real Estate Values

In recent weeks, major U.S. stock markets have lost between 16-26% of their value. A 20% loss in value is considered a bear market, so we have now entered that territory in the NASDAQ and are close with the Dow Jones and S&P 500. After nearly 10 years of a …

How Will The SoCal Fires Affect the Playa Vista Real Estate Market?

For the past week, Ventura County and Malibu have been suffering from one of the worst fires these locations have ever seen. While the Camp Fire in Northern California is the most destructive ever in terms of loss of life and property damage, the Woolsey Fire located in Malibu, and …

Is it a Good Time to Buy in Playa Vista? The Objective Case that it is.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you might have noticed that I sometimes take contrarian positions, which in a hot real estate market, might appear negative. Being negative is not the point. The point is to challenge group think that often occurs in real estate markets and to introduce new …

This is Not Your Mother’s Real Estate Market

I admit it. It has been pretty easy to sell real estate in Playa Vista from 2011 to 2017. There are things I would do to prepare properties to show better, create the best leverage, negotiate the best deal, and create the best experience for my clients, but honestly, some sales that were layups …

Words of Wisdom From a Real Estate Legend

Last week I learned of the death of Stan Ross, the former chairman of the USC real estate program whom I looked up to. We were not close and did not even know each other well, but we met briefly a few times during my year getting my masters degree in real estate development and I listened …

Buyers Becoming More Selective in Playa Vista Market

After the dearth of inventory in the 4th quarter and the trickle of listings that got quickly gobbled up in the early months of 2018, supply has begun to normalize. Inventory for condos and single family homes stands at 19, which includes one listing currently under construction at Seabluff. These …

How Did We Get Here? DocuSign Theory Revisited

While pondering life and best strategies to get an offer accepted in 2018 when there are often between 10-15 offers on every property my clients want to buy, I began to wonder “how did we get here”? Things didn’t used to be like this. The market has been gradually getting more competitive for …

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