The Manhattan Beach real estate market has been slow the last few months when compared to the first part of the year. The national credit crunch along with continued high prices and fears of a recession have created a lot of questions about the direction of housing in most of California, Los Angeles County and locally in the Beach Cities.
While working on Part I and Part II of this report one of the things I noted is that trends in the Manhattan Beach market seem to be far more stable then many realize. The market started going up in 2002 and while price levels have bounced around they have not showed any major declines. Sales volume is off but not drastically when compared to the last three years. The DOM(Days on Market) for December 2006, January 2007 and December 2007 are almost identical. The fact is the market will probably see more changes next year but the magnitude of those changes is the question no one can answer at this point. No one is even sure if we are or are not in a recession.
Manhattan Beach: DOM and Median Price January-June 2000-2007
Manhattan Beach: DOM and Median Price July-December 2000-2007
Currently there are 87 homes for sale in Manhattan Beach, 20 homes in escrow( 2 since January 1, 2008) and 3 closed sales since January 1, 2008. I held Open Houses on Saturday and Sunday in the rain.. one in the tree section and one in the sand section. On Saturday I had 10 couples come through and Sunday saw about 15 people. Not earth shaking by any means but rather interesting considering the weather conditions.
If the R Word rears it's ugly head in the South Bay we could see some trouble. However as we are more economically diversified then in the 90's it may not have as large an effect as the loss of aerospace jobs did at that time. It looks as if pressure is coming to bear on those involved in the Writers' Strike and we may see some resolution in that field before too long. Those in the financial markets must be feeling a pinch but again there is no data on how many or who will be affected.
There are Manhattan Beach homes that have received NOD's ( notice of default) and some even appear headed toward foreclosure. What is surprising is the few (3) I have seen in the paper as headed toward auction are not on the market... so I'm guessing the owners may be securing financing as the homes are worth a lot more then the amount of the mortgages recorded against them. But people are funny so you never know. In the 90's I met a number of homeowners who did not deal with the reality of their financial situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment