Socal Home Blog

More on Terranea

Elaine Carlson — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:20:24 +0000

On Thursday evening, I drove down Palos Verdes Drive South and noticed lights on at our new Terranea Resort. A call to Ara Mihranian, Project Planner at the City of Rancho Palos Verdes, confirmed that the contractors are working extended hours in the enclosed interiors of the site. It is the developers intent to have the project finished by June 2009. Photo above is of the entry court of the main hotel.

Recently I enjoyed an extensive tour of the furnished casitas, the hotel lobby, ballroom, suites and an overall view of the grounds. What a treat! There are several outdoor wedding venues with fabulous ocean views. The lobby will have original artwork from local artists at the Portuguese Bend Artist Colony. The photo below is of the view from the south-facing hotel rooms and is my favorite view. You can see Abalone Cove, Smuggler’s Cove/Sacred Cove and Portuguese Bend Cove.

There are Casitas and Villas available for sale. Click here to view my prior post with additional information on Terranea.

Relocation buyers & sellers

Laura Medina — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:26:25 +0000

Do you know what it is like moving to a completely new area and not knowing which area you want to live? Where the good schools are? Where to get your hair cut? Best restaurants, movie theatres etc..? I do, when I moved to Connecticut in 1995, I still remember walking in to what I thought was a clothing store, only to find out it was a grocery store. I was so frustrated I broke into tears, OK it was a bad day! We love this area and are so proud to help new people who want to move to the area find the perfect home and start to integrate themselves into the community!

Kelly & I have a lot of experience working with the big three corporate relocation companies in working with both buyers and sellers. It isn’t too different than a standard sale, but there are very specific forms to use and market analysis forms the companies want filled out just so. In this blog, I want to focus on what it is like to work with a relocation buyer.

First off it is usually under a tight time constraint. Buyers will be flying in and have maybe a few days to look at and possibly to purchase a houses. I like to find out as much about the people as possible such as, first-time buyer or not, do they have children, what are their hobbies, do they want to be near the beach or more of a rambling lot such as in PV or Seaside Ranchos… etc.. Then I find out if their children will be coming along to go house hunting so I can plan more breaks, provide appropriate snacks and entertainment for the car ride. Then there can be upwards of 10 homes to look at in the different areas of the South Bay. It can be hard to determine a couple’s tastes until you start looking at a few homes, so you can quickly cross some off the list (as well as add homes to see) after the first few showings. I always have a digital camera in hand so I can email them photos later that day. During their area tour, I drive them by the area schools if they have children and give them the most recent API scores. Once they have found their dream home and move in, I give them all kinds of information about the community so they can hopefully not walk into Ralphs thinking they sell clothes!

Where is bottom in the South Bay?

popelynne — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:24:38 +0000

Activity in our area is still bumpy. A little up and then a little quiet. People waited for after the election, we thought.

REO’s are selling. One lady at our Church just bought one and has a LOT of fixing up to do. We know about special financing to help that.

I have two short sales for this year one a list and one a buy. There is just a lot of waiting on those.

Progress for me -last month sold one and this month leased one selling 1 and countering one. Thats’ progress.

This is good news! I just had to share it….

News of the day! They said it…..This is what they said….

“Daily Real Estate News | November 12, 2008

These Cities Are In Line for a Rebound
Have we reached bottom? In many cities, knowledgeable observers say yes.

In October 2005 at the peak of the boom, the median sales price for a U.S. home reached 7.3 times per capita income. By this May it was 5.7 times, just about the historical norm. Home inventories have flattened. The decline in sales has ended – and in some places sales have expedited.

“The indicators are starting to look better,” says Adam York, an economic analyst with Wachovia.

Here are seven markets that SmartMoney magazine says are in line for a rebound:

Seattle
Raleigh
Des Moines
Philadelphia
Denver
Birmingham, Ala.
Salt Lake City

Source: SmartMoney (11/01/

Where is bottom in the South Bay?

popelynne — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:23:38 +0000

Activity in our area is still bumpy. A little up and then a little quiet. People waited for after the election, we thought.

REO’s are selling. One lady at our Church just bought one and has a LOT of fixing up to do. We know about special financing to help that.

I have two short sales for this year one a list and one a buy. There is just a lot of waiting on those.

Progress for me -last month sold one and this month leased one selling 1 and countering one. Thats’ progress.

This is good news! I just had to share it….

News of the day! They said it…..This is what they said….

“Daily Real Estate News | November 12, 2008

These Cities Are In Line for a Rebound
Have we reached bottom? In many cities, knowledgeable observers say yes.

“The indicators are starting to look better,” says Adam York, an economic analyst with Wachovia.

Here are seven markets that SmartMoney magazine says are in line for a rebound:

Seattle
Raleigh
Des Moines
Philadelphia
Denver
Birmingham, Ala.
Salt Lake City

Source: SmartMoney (11/01/

Twitter Updates for 2008-11-16

popelynne — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:59:59 +0000

@googletutor wonderful to find you.everyone needs you #SMWW #
just got buyer a short sale. Sold one short sale. Found great short sale relationships + REO in RHORS #
Redondo Beach -eyes watering from fires in CA. Santa Barbara friends ok, Montecito on alert. leave or stay. if you go you dont get back! #

Redondo Beach -eyes watering f…

popelynne — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:35:42 +0000

Redondo Beach -eyes watering from fires in CA. Santa Barbara friends ok, Montecito on alert. leave or stay. if you go you dont get back!

just got buyer a short sale. S…

popelynne — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:27:11 +0000

just got buyer a short sale. Sold one short sale. Found great short sale relationships + REO in RHORS

@googletutor wonderful to find…

popelynne — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:04:33 +0000

@googletutor wonderful to find you.everyone needs you #SMWW

Holiday Stroll in the Riviera Village - Coming Soon - December 4th

kellyevans — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 01:22:11 +0000

The Riviera Village will ring in their annual Holiday Stroll on Thursday evening, December 4th, 2008. Festivities begin around 5pm and run til 9pm. Meet Santa, ride a horse-drawn carriage, watch the little dancers from Dance Forever perform as well as other street entertainment, carolers stroll along the streets, business owners graciously open their stores and often offer hot apple cider and other sweet treats. Strolling along Catalina Ave under twinkling lites is a wonderful community event not to be missed!

October Market Statistics for Palos Verdes Peninsula

Elaine Carlson — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:29:01 +0000

Statistics for single family homes for the month of October for Palos Verdes Real Estate are now available. There were 21 closed escrows (32 in September) and 16 pending sales (19 in September). Active homes for sale have been reduced a bit to 264 (276 in September) .

Average price for homes that closed escrow in October declined to $1,227,000 from $1,455,000 in October. This reflects the lower end homes that closed in October (only 1 home sold over $1,850,000 and 8 sold for less than $975,000). Average days on market in October rose to 93 (from 58 in September). Months of inventory (how many months it would take to sell existing inventory at the current rate of sale) spiked to 12.6 months; it was 8.6 months in September. Entire charts can be accessed by clicking here or on the “Statistics” tab above.

Currently, there are 260 single family homes for sale on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Additionally, 31 homes have pending sales, 20 homes are in escrow accepting backup offers and 4 homes have sold/closed escrow in the first 14 days of November. For the first time in years, as of October 31, 2008, the average sales price for the Palos Verdes Peninsula fell 2.6% to $1,647,655 compared to 2007 average sales price ($!,692,046).