Mixed Signals: Making Sense of Real Estate News for the Westside
March 14th, 2008 Categories: For Buyers, For Sellers, Real Estate, Real Estate News
We are asked by clients every day about what we’re seeing in the market. Are prices really dropping like what we’re seeing in the news? What’s going to happen next year? When should they buy? Should they sell now or wait to get more? And so it goes. Well, no one has a crystal ball but I can tell you what I’m noticing lately…
Everywhere we look, we see stories about the real estate market. This was true before the mortgage crisis in September and will be true next year and the year after. What’s happening is newsworthy, yes, but more than that, it sells papers and the media knows that if they lead with a story about the real estate market, people are going to watch. We are all interested and bad news- not good news- is going to get viewers’ attention. To confuse everyone even more, we see a constant stream of mixed signals by the press (see the relatively positive recent UCLA Anderson School’s report and a recent negative Los Angeles Times’ article as examples).
So that being said, you’re not going to hear about how most communities in the Westside have gone UP in value, not down. You’re not going to hear about all the multiple offer situations that are happening every week. You’re not going to hear about how few foreclosures we have on the Westside and how that number really hasn’t changed. You’re not going to hear about how quickly homes are selling if they’re priced correctly (many in escrow within a week).
The local news needs to have stories that all viewers would be interested in. That’s why they won’t look at just Santa Monica real estate or the Beverly Hills market. When they cover a story on Los Angeles real estate, it means the entire area. Do you realize how much ground LA covers?? It does not take into consideration that, more than anything else, real estate is extremely local. There’s no comparison of Chatsworth to Brentwood. Or the Westside to Altadena and Upland.
We have a very atypical market in the Westside and prime Valley neighborhoods and we’re very lucky for that. While we’re reading about prices going down, our local market is going up– BUT it really is zipcode by zipcode.
We’re not seeing the foreclosures like in Riverside and the deep Valley. They are really scattered here. An agent in our office who is probably the leading source in our area working in foreclosures has tons of listings– but they’re in places that you would probably not want to move to.
I would guess that all the folks that bought in the last down cycle in the 90’s are very happy they did so. Sellers at that time couldn’t give away their properties. Buyers were very uncertain buying, not knowing about prices and values or if it was going to drop some more. The prices then seemed as expensive then as they do now. But in the end, real estate is cyclical and always has been.
If you want to buy and then sell next year, you may want to hold off on that. If you’re looking for a home that you want to live in and enjoy, then it’s another story. Do what’s best for you and realize that now may just be the perfect time to get a great deal.
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