A Prediction about Santa Monica from Ari
Sunday morning, my husband and I decided to venture out to West L.A. to see a movie at The Landmark, on Pico Boulevard (“Tell No One” — a French-language thriller/love story). We left early to find a nearby cafe to read the paper and eat breakfast.
We stumbled upon the Colony Cafe on Pico, a cute little place with a neat, clean patio with ceiling fans. While my husband ate his peanut butter, jelly and banana panini and I ate my steelcut oats, a nearby customer asked to look at our real estate classifieds. I asked him what he was in the market for.
He said he was looking for a house in Santa Monica, where he says he has been watching prices come down since 2006, when he sold the condo he’d owned for five years for “more money than he’d ever dreamed of.” He’s been renting and sitting on that pile of cash, waiting for prices to come down to where he thinks they should be. “I’ve been patient,” he said.
He introduced himself as Ari. His observations: Some sellers are smart and getting ahead of the market by pricing their properties at around $700 to $750 per square foot. But too many have their places listed at between $900 and $1,100 per foot. Sooner or later, he said, all the prices have to come down. He expects to eventually be able to pick something up for around $550 per square foot.
When does he think he’ll get his price? Six to nine months from now, he said. His wife, who was there with their two (very cute) preschoolers, said something like she’d believe that when she saw it; clearly she’s ready to move.
Didn’t he think there were tons of people just like him, waiting on the sidelines to pounce on a deal? “Not that many,” he said. (That pile of cash must be pretty big.)
Of course, I told Ari about Redfin and what a great resource it would be for him. “Is it better than ZipRealty?” he asked. My husband jumped in and said he thought it was. Good man! So, Ari, if you’re reading this, hello; thanks for the blog-post fodder; hope you like Redfin; and good luck with your home search.
Oh, and I decided to look up Redfin’s Santa Monica neighborhood stats to see how accurate your observations were. I’m impressed. The most recent data shows Santa Monica homes selling for a median of $779 per foot, with the median listing price at $923.
For everyone else: If you go to redfin.com, enter a ZIP or neighborhood, and click on “View [Your Neighborhood's] Inventory and Pricing Trends,” you’ll soon be as knowledgeable about your nabe as Ari is about his.
Recent Redfin posts:
LAX Neighborhood Pages are Here: Whoo Hoo!
Little League, Soccer Fields Remain Free in Glendale
Mandate for Low-Income Housing: Helpful or Hurtful?
