There are good real estate years and there are bad ones. And there has never been a year like 2000.
It doesn’t matter when you bought, the notion that demand for Malibu living may some day propel prices to the highest limits was manifested this year. By every statistical measure, Malibu has moved to levels comparable to any place in the world of similar population.
This year concludes with the total volume of home sales in Malibu approaching the unheard-of-sum of $600 million. The median average sale price has leaped 58 percent this year from 1997, when the market began its meteoric climb locally.
Malibu has had the most home sales of any year, far surpassing 1998 when more than 300 homes sold for the first time.
With three weeks left in the year, the total volume stood at about $560 million for homes only, excluding condos and land sales. It took until 1997 for volume to reach $300 million. Last year, it set a record at $430 million.
This year, it may be 40 percent higher yet.
Homeowners have become awash in equity and those who sold this year did so with a smile. The local brokerage community and adjunct services, such as escrow companies and lenders, have never been so successful. And who paid for this prosperity?
More buyers than ever, willing and more able than ever to grab a toehold in the Malibu community that grows more alluring and elusive.
The average sale price of a beach home is nearly $3.5 million. The median price is at $2.5 million. Beach volume is more than double what it was just three years ago, based on 77 sales so far this year — also a record.
Half the home sales in Malibu 90265 are for more than $1.2 million — the new median average. Throughout 1998, the median was at about $800,000.
In 2000, there is less than an average of one home every square mile of Malibu for sale at that price or less.
The median average of a home off the beach, on the land side, is nearly $1 million. It has increased 42 percent in three years. Homes on the “land side” are called so because they do not adjoin the beach. In Malibu’s earliest days, most homes were on the sand. Now, only about one-quarter are beach homes.
The accompanying chart shows sales trends comparing 1997 to the current year.
Information is extracted from the local Multiple Listing Service and other sources, and likely represents 99 percent of all actual sales, including quiet, non-public transactions. Only single-family homes in the Malibu 90265 postal zone are included.
The lower portion of the chart shows how the percentage of sales in the lowest ranges has decreased dramatically in the last three years. For example, in 1997, 44 percent of all home sales in Malibu were at $700K or less. Now, it is only 19 percent. The point where the percentage crosses 50 percent is the median price so often described in real estate statistics.
In 1997, about half the land side homes sold for $700,000 or less. Now only about one-quarter of the sales are in that lowest range. Indeed, when we talk about affordable homes in Malibu now, it is in the $500,000 – $800,000 range.
Startling, isn’t it?
Throughout the Southern Californian region, there is a growing shortage of housing, which provides the foundation for Malibu prices. While affordability indexes warn of less enthusiasm in the future, Malibu real estate has partially taken on the characteristic of a form of art. The movement upward in surrounding communities have made Malibu property more than just a place to live — it is also an asset for rare quantity and quality that commands attention from the strongest bidders. So it has been for four breathtaking years, following six years of slumps.
It is worth noting that total volume in 1992 was about $150 million. In 1994 it topped $200 million, much of that from foreclosure and short sales in a depressed market.
The number of overall home sales in Malibu in the last 10 years, approximately, has been: 1991: 141, 1992: 131, 1993: 153, 1994: 207, 1995:186, 1996: 233, 1997: 265, 1998: 307, 1999: 285. This year, it will end up at more than 330, despite hints that the market is catching its breath in recent weeks.
The average sale price, weighted by sales of the big estates and beach homes, is now more than $1.7 million. That level compares favorably with those of any investigation of the most expensive locations in the nation.
Rick Wallace of the Coldwell Banker Fred Sands office has been a Realtor in Malibu for 13 years. He can be reached at RICKMALIBUrealestate.com.