Higher asking prices are the new reality
By Rick Wallace/ Special to The Malibu Times
If you have been away from Malibu for a few years, the new level of property values must be a shock. Condos listed for more than $3 million? Homes listed above $20 million?
Indeed that is the case. With Realtors barely able to keep up with the fast-paced change in prices, it’s no wonder locals-new and old-cringe when asking prices are revealed.
Without exception, certainly, every neighborhood and condominium complex in town is displaying bewildering asking prices. That is, if a willing seller can be found. In a time when only about 100 homes are ever on the market stretching over 100 square miles of beachfront and hillside acreage, it’s no wonder the carrot keeps dangling higher.
The highest priced home on the market currently, as it has been for some years, is the large estate on the bluff overlooking Surfrider Beach and the Malibu Lagoon. List price: $35 million. Indeed, it is one of the most awesome estates in California, with 16 acres of prime land and views in every direction. The master bedroom is 5,000 square feet. Within the compound, fronted by a “gate house” that is an average-sized home in itself overlooking the tennis court, is a long driveway leading to a motor court full of fountains and a horseshoe-shaped home of six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. The home still has its original owner, who built it in 1991.
At least two homes have sold already this year for $20 million or more, or at least close. Both sales, and possibly others, have been kept secret. Both were bluff top locations over the beach.
The other house for sale at the highest level is a renowned home in the Malibu Colony, currently listed at $28 million. It is on 65 feet of beach, so if it gets full price that would mean more than $35,000 per inch of beach (an amusing, whimsical way to chart local values). Then again, since the property also has a pool, how can you go wrong? The home is very contemporary/modern, owned by celebrities in the past, and boasts that every bedroom has an ocean view. All five. Since it sits on a larger lot, a motor court makes for an extra special initial impression of the home.
All around Malibu, prices never seen before give a new character to neighborhoods:
Malibu West, once the last hope for affordable housing, is now four times higher than the median price in Los Angeles County. Two listings are both above $1.5 million.
The only listing in Sea View Estates right now is over $2 million. In Malibu Country Estates, over $2 million. Serra Retreat has four estates topping $6 million.
Malibu Park still has one offering under $2 million, but four of the remaining five listings in the area exceed $3.5 million.
Point Dume has possibly eclipsed the $2 million threshold for good; 12 homes are listed currently, relatively plentiful in current times. But only two are below the $3.5 million price point. One bluff estate is at $15 million.
Canyon locations are feeling the new times. A listing in Encinal Canyon is at $10 million. In the lower part of Latigo Canyon, a property with 90 acres and a small home is active at $15 million.
Malibu Cove Colony isn’t seeing anything less than $7 million. On Malibu Road, you have two choices; the $15 million place or the 1,600-square-foot house for about $5.7 million.
You can still get into Malibu Colony for under $7 million-on the landside. The one listing in the Colony across the lane from the beach houses has four bedrooms and a $6,950,000 asking price.
The crush into Malibu starts at every lower price range and neighborhood in the Los Angeles metropolis. Thousands of equity-rich Southern Californians wanting to step up to a higher-priced neighborhood keep the price movement heading upward. Every tier can feel the bump of arriving new families affording higher prices, enticed by low interest rates. Once they get to Malibu, however, there are no more levels above. Malibu is the ceiling. And thus, despite such breathtaking prices, demand remains rich while supply is minimal.
The highest-priced listing of a mobile home is $1,750,000. Two others are in the $1.5 million ballpark, all in the Point Dume Club.
Only one house in Malibu at this writing was under the $1 million threshold, only seven under $1.5 million. The beach remains with scant inventory. Twenty-nine homes are listed on the beach, but only nine of them are for less than $5 million.
Five million dollars is the new benchmark for Malibu. With all of Malibu tallied at just 105 homes for sale (in 90265 ZIP code)-far below all previous June amounts-40 percent of them are listed at $5 million or more. The median price of a listing is nearly $4.4 million over all of Malibu, and $7 million on the beach.
All of this adds pressure to the condo market. As a result, listings for sale in the Multiple Listing Service for Malibu revealed no condo listed for less than $675,000 recently. That changed after a few days and many condos are actually worth less than $600,000, though just one is on the market.
A developer-owned unit in the new townhouse complex on Deville near Webster Elementary School is listed for about $3.4 million. It has four bedrooms and about 4,400 square feet with an ocean view. A listing in Zuma Bay Villas is more than $2 million. The highest price in the Malibu Bay Club is well over $2 million. The Malibu Villas recently had its first $800,000-plus listing. It went into escrow right away. The Malibu Gardens and Malibu Canyon Village, the two lowest-priced complexes in Malibu, both have listings over $700,000. It was just a few years ago that $300,000 was pushing it.
Rick Wallace of the Coldwell Banker company has been a Realtor in Malibu for 17 years. He can be reached at his web site, www.RICKMALIBUrealestate.com.