March 31, 2008
Too Much House for the Neighborhood?
This new listing at 501 N. Curson Ave., Los Angeles, is a big, beautiful, remodeled home. It has five bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, a cook’s kitchen, and more. But, with an asking price of $1,495,000, will it sell?
Similarly, up the street at 546 N. Curson is a huge, brand-new five-bedroom, 5.5-bath home that’s still under construction — has been for more than a year.
Single-family home sales in this neighborhood — bounded by Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax , Melrose and La Brea avenues — have been soft for several months. Condos and multifamily units are selling, but single-family home sales have been virtually nonexistent.
Other than multifamily units, sales in the area have been almost exclusively under a million dollars. One lucky buyer snapped up a bank-owned duplex, with two 1,100-foot 2+1 units, at 622 N. Vista Street for $873,325. The property had sold for $1,010,000 in October 2006. By comparison, a 2+1 house at 507 N. Martel sold in January for $899,500.
Maybe the buying public is trying to send this neighborhood a message that prices need to come down. After all, this is the same neighborhood that brought you the two-bedroom, one-bath home for $1.2 million.
RE_Investor said:
The duplex for $873,325, assuming the buyer put down 20% (about $175k cash) and financed at 6% 30-year fixed, would put the monthly carrying cost at about $5400 PITI. I don’t think you can rent each of those units at $2700 a month. And that’s not counting repairs and maintenance. He can probably break even with an exotic mortgage. In that case he’s betting the market will recover before his costs go up. Whether he’s lucky or not remains to be seen.
Has Redfin started to list multifamily units?
March 31, 2008 9:44 AM
Cindy Allen said:
Hi, RE_Investor: I live in the neighborhood, and two-bedrooms run between $2,300 and $3,200 per month, depending on how fixed up it is. I don’t think that duplex was a stupendous deal, but it was an OK deal. I think there will be better deals in the next year or so.
Redfin doesn’t list big apartment buildings, but it does list multiunit buildings of up to eight units or so, at least in the areas I cover (BevHills, Westwood and Hollywood).
Thanks for commenting!
March 31, 2008 11:34 AM