In mid-March, I wrote a post about the state of home and condo sales in West Hollywood. At that time, there were 69 single-family homes for sale in WeHo, with another 65 homes sold in the last three months, so the pace of sales was pretty decent. Condos, though, were a different story: There were 230 condos on the market, but only 82 sales in the past three months.
How has the picture changed since then? Here’s how it looks today. (March figures are in parentheses.)
Single-Family Homes
For sale: 76 (69)
Average listing price: $1,399,000 ($1,395,000)
Average price/sq. foot: $861 ($739)
Average days on market: 109 ($103)
Sold since 2/25/08: 33 (65)
Average sold price: $1,100,000 ($1,130,000)
Average price/sq. foot: $584 ($722)
Notes: The number of homes for sale and average listing price have remained virtually unchanged since March. But the number of homes sold has dropped by half. And the disparity between listing price and sold price has widened: In March, the average sold price per square foot was only $17 less than the asking price per square foot. Today, those numbers are nearly $300 apart, which shows that buyers want and expect lower prices.
Condos
For sale: 282 (230)
Average listing price: $749,000 ($717,000)
Average price/sq. foot: $662 ($620)
Average days on market: 77 (70)
Sold since 2/25/08: 63 (82)
Average sold price: $555,000 ($528,000)
Average price/sq. foot: $567 ($507)
Notes: In March, there were nearly three times more condos on the market than had sold in the past three months; today, there are nearly five times more. Part of that might be due to the cluelessness of the sellers: Listing prices have actually risen in the last two months. People, if you want to get your place sold, lower the price!
So it looks like we’re seeing the housing slump start to slowly creep into the more-desirable areas. We’ll do another report in two months.