Friday, October 10, 2008

Manhattan Beach Open House: 511 Dianthus Open Sunday 1-4

What a week....

The stock market roller coaster may just make housing look good again as a long term investment. At least if the price drops on a home in Manhattan Beach you can be fairly confident it will go up again in the future. However if you had a lot of WAMU or Bear Sterns stock you lost everything as those stocks and others like them are gone.

A lot of people like to make fun of the South Bay-Beach Cities real estate market but over the long haul homeowners who have made a long term investment in real estate have done well. We have our ups and downs but long term is the key to making money on real estate.

511 Dianthus in the Manhattan Beach Hill Section offers a good choice for buyers who are deciding to follow a more conservative path. This lovely home has over 1900 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, large dining area, delightful family area and a great entertainment room with space to spare for the big TV and a view that doesn't stop. The serene rear garden and soothing sounds of the waterfall bring a sense of calm after a busy day. A new price makes this home worthy of consideration.... $1.269,000.


If you are not quite ready to make a formal appointment but would like to see this house why not visit me Sunday 1-4 p.m. to view this Manhattan Beach Hill section home.

Remember....Great views....nice home... good price! See you Sunday!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol, you will truly find any excuse to buy a house in the South Bay. Buy a house still near it's peak after the implosion of the mortgage business rather than stocks in a market that just fell 30-40%? Wow, there's thinking outside the box!

There are places where buying a house as an investment right now may make sense. You just don't work in one. At this point, you truly sound desperate, and flogging the same house on your blog week after week sure doesn't help that impression. It's time for everyone to get real. That includes you.

Kaye said...

anonymous 1:23,
I've been through this before.. have you? If not then you might be surprised to find that people often turn to real estate when the market tanks... even in this lousy market.

Anonymous said...

Don't listen to anon 1:23, Kaye. She clearly doesn't know what she's talking about. This house is a gem. I'm shocked it didn't sell when it was $200,000 higher. Truly a steal at this price. It is a great investment as well.

Kaye said...

Anonymous 2:32,
Now be nice... this is a decent house in a good neighborhood. You want something more upscale just pay a little pay more money.

Anonymous said...

I recommend that 3:42 purchase said property as an investment.

Kaye said...

anonymous 8:55,
Ya think?

Anonymous said...

what are you doing with your own money, Kaye?

Anonymous said...

Kaye - you wrote, "The stock market roller coaster may just make housing look good again as a long term investment. At least if the price drops on a home in Manhattan Beach you can be fairly confident it will go up again in the future." While I don't disagree at all that RE is a good long term investment and often during stock downturns people turn to more tangible investments, you imply that one should be more confident in RE than in stocks. In actuality, a broad stock index like the S&P has a better long term track record than RE. Are you implying that if I was to put money into the S&P 500, when it is down north of 40% in the last 12 months, I should be less confident than if I put money into MB RE? If you are, I belive that is a very naiive statement.

You may know that I am a stockbroker so of course, I'm a little biased. But that being said, I don't think it is a reasonable comment to make that one should be more confident that RE poses a better investment opportunity over the long haul, especially when I can buy something 40% below where it once was. EVERY investment is cyclical. Oil at 150 wouldn't last just like oil at $12 fifteen years ago wouldn't last. NASDAQ at 5000 back in 2000 couldn't last, just like NASDAQ at 1100 in 2002 couldn't last. MB RE at ungodly levels in 1993-4 couldn't last, just like MB RE in 2007 euphoric levels couldn't last. It simply just works that way. For every boom there is a bust. Look at China, Russia, Brazil equity markets and how they are going through their bust. Look how the dollar is starting to rise vs. 5+ years as the Clippers of currency. Everything is cyclical and a 10% decline in MB is not enough of a correction to bring it back to the boom/bust theory.

Kaye said...

anonymous 10:41.
Real estate and stock just like everyone else

Kaye said...

Mookie,
Guess we are both biased in the direction of our expertise... What I can tell you from my personal experience is that stock I bought in '98 and '99 had about recovered this August to slightly more then I had invested. In the last 6 weeks the price has once again dropped back well below what I paid almost 10 years ago.

On the other hand my real estate even in this market is worth well over what I paid. So yes in my view real estate seems to be a better long term investment then the market.

I realize that you need to be diversified and have your money in a number of places. Perhaps if I knew as much about the market as you do I would view things differently. I grew up with a real estate background so I'm sticking with what I know and that's real estate.

Anonymous said...

Again, don't necessarily disagree with your logic, but you are basically saying that if one invests in a diversified stock portfolio today that one shouldn't be confident that it will go higher in the future, where as you are saying that if one buys MB RE one should be confident that it will go higher in the future.

Not disagreeing that if I bought MB RE in late 90s it has had a better return than the S&P. That just tells me that stocks are likely the better play right now due once again, to cyclicality. Forgetting what is better, you should check your market facts when you talk about confidence of a basket of stocks moving higher. So are you saying that if I bought an S&P 500 index today that I shouldn't be confident that it will ever go higher? We will agree to disagree on what the better investment will be, but to say that buying stocks at today's levels should give one a lack of confidence that they will move higher over time is outright misleading and shows investment inexperience.

Anonymous said...

Is mookie saying that my pets.com stocks are not coming back?

Kaye said...

Mookie,
I guess I wasn't clear. What I'm saying is that everyone comes from a differrent point of view. You believe that the stock market offers you the best investment opportunity... I think real estate is a better investment.

The truth is that the best investment is the one that works for you. It's not that one is better or worse then the other. For me it's real estate... for you it is the stock market.

Kaye said...

anonymous 7:04,
Beats me... guess you will have to ask Mookie..

Anonymous said...

Kaye, I'm sure you're always looking for good real estate deals. But when exactly did you last sink money into beach city real estate? And when did last try to sell it?

This is a wonderful opportunity to prove your sincerity and convince people it's a good idea to invest in beach real estate. The more detail, the better. Give us some hint of evidence that you put your money where your mouth is and I'll be the first to tip my hat in respect and think it over.

Anonymous said...

Kaye, we can debate which investment is better all day long and neither of us will agree, so we respectfully agree to disagree. However, what you wrote was that one can have confidence that MB RE will go higher over time and your clear implication was that one shouldn't be confident that stocks will move higher over time. Your quote, "The stock market roller coaster may just make housing look good again as a long term investment. At least if the price drops on a home in Manhattan Beach you can be fairly confident it will go up again in the future."

This is a quote that says MB RE is better than stocks, but it is also a statement that implies stocks may not go up in the future. Go look at a long term chart of the S&P 500, you'll see prices have risen since it was established. If you believe RE is a better long term investment that stocks, fine. But don't say one shouldn't be confident investing in a diversified basket of stocks if they are willing to tuck away for a long term investment, like you believe RE should be. By the way, take a look at the Forbes 400. It is littered with stock investors or people who achieved liquidity in a single stock going public, including many people in RE. Carlos Slim, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, even RE investor Sam Zell through his sale of public company EOP... It is doninated by stock investors, not RE investors.

Kaye said...

Anonymous 8:48,
Interesting request from someone who chooses to be anonymous

Anonymous said...

So Kaye, if someone dropped say $500k on you today--your first instinct would be to put it in a house in the beach cities over stock?

Mookie, I see no reason to believe you and Kaye really disagree at all. Forget giving some bit of evidence that she's investing in MB RE, she can't even say that she is investing in it at all.

I give you credit for not going so far as to make something up, Kaye, but your non-answer is an answer.

Kaye said...

Mookie,
What I said was that the current woes in the market may make real estate look good again as an ivestment after the downturn of the last two years. My reference wasn't about a diversified fund but rather about stocks/companies that are no more.. Lehman, Bear Sterns, WAMU and others that don't exist. If I had 1000 shares of WAMU and 1000 of Lehman on September 1, 2008... I have nothing today and no chance to ever have that stock go up again because it's gone.

My point was that if prices drop on South Bay property.. the chances are good they will go up again in the future. Heck, even if a home burns to the ground the chances are 98% that you still have the land and it will retain value. That's not always the case in the market as we have seen in the last few weeks.


That doesn't mean that I think a diversified portfolio isn't a good investment... I do. It's just good sense not to have all your eggs in one basket and be diversified in a number of different areas. As to the Fortune group.. most are there because they own a business or inherited money... not just because they invested in the stock market.

I sincerely hope when the market opens on Tuesday the DOW roars back. The last week has been bad for everyone and it will take years to recover. When you have housing and the market in trouble that spells bad news for the whole economy. The only people cheering are those who have never lived through a period of economic chaos. It won't make any difference how low IBM or GM or the price of a home in MB drops if you don't have a job or money to take advantage of it.

Kaye said...

anonymous 2:34,
Oh...Come on... this is a "do you still beat your wife" question as you are well aware. You never expected an answer.

And yes if I won $500K in the lottery you can bet I would buy a piece of real estate in the Beach Cities.