Buyers have found that 2012 has ended the sweet five-year period of the “buyer’s market” in Malibu. No longer is there the joy of picking any property they want to buy, having little fear of competition and holding fast in negotiations. But it is not a “seller’s market” either. Plenty of sellers, knowing activity has picked up, still find their price not good enough to warrant attention and offers.
With prices stable, here is a sampling of sales throughout Malibu since the beginning of September:
Two homes have sold in Sea View Estates, up Las Flores Canyon, and both for under $900,000. Those are low prices for the neighborhood, considering that three other homes in the tract have scored $1.2 million or better this year. One of the deals involved a bankruptcy and short sale, but the home is the largest model and has a pool.
Two transactions on Malibu Road have brought in about $5.5 million and $6.5 million. The former was a celebrity sale of a home originally listed in 2009 above $12 million. Malibu Road has had a terrific year with seven sales so far.
A Point Dume bluff property with about an acre of land and a pool sold for $6 million. The deal closed in early September after more than a year of total market time. The house is a two-story craftsman style home. Another property on the bluff sold for over $8 million, including 110 of bluff frontage (which extends down to the sand below) and an impressive large Mexican villa.
$2 million was all it took to obtain a duplex on the beach. Located at Las Flores, there are about 1700 square feet for the 3+2 and 1+1. The property was only on the market a couple months before closing escrow.
Two recent deals in the La Costa Hills had very different properties and sale prices. One, a mid-sized chic older contemporary sold very quickly for under $1.3 million. Another, a super-modern, like-new contemporary with unobstructed 180 degree views, sold for just less than $2.5 million.
A full-fledged celebrity compound in Serra Retreat has sold for more than $9 million. With more than three acres behind walls, entirely landscaped and including a two-story entertainment pavilion, lighted tennis court, pool, the hacienda includes six bedrooms as well as three guest houses and fountains and patios throughout the property. Far more modestly, three other homes have sold in Serra Retreat also. The prices were less than $2 million and two others north of $3 million. Thus, a demonstration on how 2012 has gone throughout Malibu: prices at every level getting attention, none overwhelming so, but no price range lacking to any great degree, either.
Such as the over-$30 million market. A second home has sold on Carbon Beach (aka Billionaire’s Beach) above that tier. The latest blockbuster, at just under $37 million, featured 151 feet of precious beach frontage and a home of 13 bedrooms. No home has sold on Carbon Beach for under $9 million since 2005 (the only other deal during 2012 was at $10 million).
Back to reality, and the pleasant appeal of Malibu Park, the only place where horses, the beach and lighted high school football games can fit into one area, four homes have sold recently, all in the characteristic range of roughly $2 – 3.5 million. One of them, at $3 million, was very fast on the market before sold, and had a large Southern Colonial home with ocean view on one and a half acres, highlighted by five bedrooms, six baths and six fireplaces. A separate deal of a newer 1993 home behind enclave gates featured a Mediterranean home over 4000 square feet with ocean view and limestone floors on about an acre that traded at just below $2.3 million.
A stunning architectural home in the mid-Rambla Pacifico area, constructed only in 2008, sold for just over $3 million. The very modern home has high walls of glass to take in the views from the LA basin to Point Dume and all the ocean in between. The floors are mostly ash wood and basalt stone with the highest quality finishes throughout. Other homes earlier in the year have sold at similar prices in the lower Rambla area, which now has its new road for those qualified residents, straight to PCH.
A three-bedroom home with ocean view in the upper mesa of Malibu West needed 15 months to sell. Final price: $1,125,000. Nine other houses in the canyon have sold in Malibu West but fetching over $1.2 million has been a challenge. Only one house has done so all year.
Rick Wallace has been a Realtor in Malibu for 25 years.