Bringing reality to the minds of 300 home sellers is essential to reviving the local market, as Realtors know.
By Rick Wallace / Special to The Malibu Times
Many people in Malibu like to keep up with the local real estate market to some degree. They read about it, or look at the local print advertisements. Some rely on the real estate listings on their street as their primary source of information. For them, just knowing the price of the house nearby is all that counts. Usually that price is revealed soon after the sign goes up and the listing is new and fresh. It is the last number that lingers in the neighbor’s mind.
Thus is established one of the largest hurdles real estate agents must leap in the constant tug-of-war to bring asking prices in line to what buyers are willing to pay. Initial asking prices often have little relation to actual fair market value. The dream value of a homeowner yet untested on the market is often equally dreamed by the neighbors. Bringing reality to the minds of 300 home sellers is essential to reviving the local market, as Realtors know. Sales in Malibu during 2011, for the fifth year in a row, will again fail to reach 200 units of single-family homes in the 90265 ZIP code (out of more than 4,000 that exist). The tug-of-war continues.
What neighbors often don’t realize is that the original asking price sometimes gets lowered, unannounced on the street, several times. From the original asking price there may be a 40 percent to 50 percent reduction to the final sale price (and, these days, possibly an additional 15 percent discount from the most recent price). The neighbor is frequently convinced their home is superior to the $1,950,000 listing down the street, but may be oblivious when it closes escrow two years later at $1,200,000.
It is the final sale price that matters. In that light, a review of actual, final sale prices may be helpful. The following sales have all occurred in Malibu during 2011, in some of the most-populated neighborhoods.
* In Malibu Country Estates, four sales have ranged from $1,625,000 to $2.4 million. The high sale involved a 5,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home with pool and ocean view.
* Eight homes have sold in the Big Rock neighborhood, with six of them selling in the standard range of $1.3 million to $2 million. Another, in the lower mesa with an ocean view, sold for nearly $2.2 million. The actual average, however, is skewed by one sale for about $5.6 million that took place recently at the top of the hill. The estate, owned by multiple celebrities throughout the years, was one of the biggest sales off the beach this year. The three-acre, fenced, private compound includes multiple homes, a large pool, and a sports court and horse paddock.
* La Costa Hills has been struggling in the marketplace. Only three homes have sold, but two of them have been below the benchmark of $2 million.
* The adjacent neighborhoods of Sea Vista and Sycamore Meadows in mid-Malibu have combined for six sales. Two of the sales have been at the inviting tier of about $1.2 million. Another, on a flat acre with an ocean view, traded at about $1.6 million. One other, with two acres and ocean view, just closed for $1.7 million. Skewing the averages once again, one other estate brought more than $7 million. The stunning six-bedroom home with large media room, has two flat acres, with a tennis court and pool. The same property sold for $3 million more in 2006.
* Malibu Park proper, in the main part of non-gated, public streets, has had eight sales that all but one, surprisingly, have been for $2 million or less. A four-bedroom home sold in August for $1,125,000. The most recent sale in Malibu Park, for $2.5 million, was last listed at about $3.8 million, but sold at 30 percent off the asking price. A nod goes to the newer gated neighborhoods of specialized estates in the west part of Malibu Park, however. There have been four sales of those custom, large homes ranging from $3.1 million to about $5.3 million.
* Sea View Estates, with about 100 homes on upper Rambla Pacifico, has had only three sales to date. One of them was for $785,000. Though sub-million seemed impossible at one time, the two sales from 2010 barely topped that mark. Meanwhile, the two other sales this year, both fairly recent, were in the $1.4 million ballpark. Both included ocean view and a pool.
* Properties from Winding Way to Cavalleri, on the land side of the highway, have seen very few sales. A small home in the back of Ramirez Canyon barely got more than $1 million. A huge home off Winding way fetched $3.5 million. A stunning contemporary home on upper Zumirez, a foreclosure, sold for $4.25 million (it last sold in 2009 for about $7.5 million). A Mediterranean home on Cavalleri just closed escrow for $2,825,000. That is all, among dozens of homes listed in those areas this year.
* The trickle of sales in the large canyon section of Malibu West this year has amounted to on-just one solitary sale, through September, for $1.1 million. Additionally, one more sale “outside the gate,” entering the upper mesa, brought nearly $2.2 million.
* Point Dume, Malibu’s largest distinct neighborhood, has produced a thin tally of just 11 sales so far this year. That excludes bluff and beach-accessible estates. Two involved unlisted properties, going for about $1.8 million and $2.6 million. Five other very impressive estates, generally including tennis courts and pools and gated entries, have scored about $4 million each. The remaining four deals ranged from $1,650,000 to $2.4 million.