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The Malibu Times
The Malibu Real Estate Report
By Rick Wallace
Published: Wednesday January 18, 2012
Malibu Realtors celebrate new leaders
The Malibu Association of Realtors
celebrated the installation of its 2012 Board of Directors and acknowledged the
accomplishments of its members during 2011 at Duke's Malibu recently.
2011 Association president Dan Ross was awarded “Realtor of the Year” for his
dedication and accomplishments during the past year. Ross then passed the gavel
to incoming leader Bobby Lehmkuhl, who currently serves on the Board of
Directors of the California Association of Realtors and the Combined L.A.
Westside Multiple Listing Service. In his acceptance speech, Lehmkuhl thanked
his mentors, friends and supporters and credited his drive and ambition to
spending his formative years in Malibu.
Also installed were president-elect Matt Ogden, vice president Mark Gruskin,
treasurer Sandro Dazzan, secretary Jennifer Chrisman, past president Dan Ross,
along with directors Bill Bowling, Meril May, Derinda Moses, Teresa Hames,
Brian Merrick, Brant Didden and The Malibu Times contributor and newest board
member Rick Wallace.
Additionally, “Affiliate of the Year” was awarded to Barbara Praino and Malibu
Escrow for decades of service to the Realtor community and profession.
Realtor Lenny
Goldsmith served as the master of ceremonies and also sang a few tunes with the
band, led by singer and Realtor Carol Casey. Event chair Derinda Moses hosted
the event.
“Our nearly 800 Realtor members comprise the largest professional association
in Malibu, but they are also very proud residents who give generously of their
time and support, to many very important local causes, including advocating for
private property rights,” executive director Susan Manners said. “It's
wonderful to gather once each year to celebrate the Realtor accomplishments of
the past year. We encourage businesses and professionals from the community to
sponsor a class or seminar for the Realtors, and to join our organization.”
The Malibu Times
The Malibu Real Estate Report
By Rick Wallace
Published: Wednesday January 11, 2012
Malibu home values drop 13% in 2011
With high inventory and a hesitant buying
public, pressure on Malibu home values pushed prices down from a median value
of $2,300,000 in 2010 to an even $2 million last year. That is a 13 percent
drop. The high median was achieved in 2008, at $3,225,000. Based on that
number, values have plummeted 38 percent during the real estate downturn.
For the sixth year in a row, home sale units failed to hit 200, falling well
short at about 156 sales in 2011. The past four years have seen a sales pace
that is the worst since the early 1990s. The average year over the past 10
years saw 212 homes sold, but that figure is something of a mirage. No year
since 2005 has come close.
The chart on page A11 tracks sales in every Malibu neighborhood, particularly
during the sluggish past four years. By comparison, a notation of the best year
during 2004-2007 is shown for each neighborhood, based on the highest number of
sales for the year.
The dollar volume of the 156 sales was $446 million, much lower than 2010 and
the second-lowest volume since 1996. The average sale price of all sales was
$2,860,000, which is 42 percent less than the 2007 average sale price.
The statistics herein are compiled via regular reviews of the local
Multiple Listing Service as well as frequent reviews of public records for
every single-family home of one to four units in the 90265 ZIP code.
Condominium and mobile homes are not included.
The lower volume and reduced sale averages are a result of the upper end
turning cold in Malibu during 2011. Only 24 beach sales transpired.
Essentially, the 2011 results were only slightly better than 2009 numbers,
across the board. For example, only 22 beach properties sold in 2009.
The chart is meant to show general trends of prices and may not be reflective
of true average neighborhood values, based on sales that were unusually high or
low. Still, several trends can be derived:
-- Particularly, almost every neighborhood shows distinctly lower prices from the high year, 2008, when the free fall began.
-- Neighborhoods that in the lower price ranges largely went flat beginning in 2008 are starting to see more activity in recent years, as prices at the lower end begin to firm.
-- Beach locales and neighborhoods with higher prices have generally slowed their sales pace, as the slowdown moved up the price ladder the past couple of years.
-- Sales are so few that many neighborhoods
go entire years now without any data to work from.
-- The inventory of homes for sale has been creeping up steadily each year. In Dec. 2007 it was 166 homes for sale. This past month saw 257 homes listed, though earlier in the year it topped 300. Supply and demand factors, as long as buyers remain relatively few, virtually assure lower prices to come.
The Malibu Times
The Malibu Real Estate Report
By Rick Wallace
Published: Wednesday December, 2011
It's a long train and a longer tunnel
For those watching local real estate values, it's a frequent question: “After we've suffered through all that we have, when will there be light visible at the end of the tunnel?” There is no better metaphor to describe the journey of ups and downs-well, downs-of the Malibu market.
Actually, there is light visible at the end of the tunnel! For a specific portion of the local market, the darkness is turning to bright light. In keeping with the metaphor, the very front of the train is just about to exit the tunnel.
The place where values have bottomed and begun to increase: low-priced Malibu condos.
The lowest bottom of a very tall real estate price ladder is also the beginning of a very long train. In 2008, when the rest of the Malibu market was thriving, it was the entry door of the market-the lowest-priced two-bedroom condos, then at about $575,000-that first felt cold darkness. Even as houses sold briskly, condo sales stalled.
The same low-end, 2-bedroom condo has been more in the range of $340,000 lately, but that price is almost impossible to find anymore. In the last two years, about 25 Malibu condos sold for less than $400,000; at this writing, only two condos in all of Malibu are listed for under $400k. (Both are in the high 300s). Meanwhile, three others have been reported in escrow. Only four other units have closed escrow below $400k in the past six months. For those anxious to read good news, here it is! The low end condo market has turned hot.
Units with an asking price of $400,000 - $500,000? Of the 15 such listings in the past six months, 14 have sold or are in escrow! Only one, at this writing, is available.
No other segment can boast such results, obviously tied to lending availability and affordability factors.
The next section of the train is also seeing light. Low-end single-family homes are feeling a better market, also. Twenty-eight homes are listed at this time in the 90265 ZIP code for under $1 million-but 11 are in escrow. Another market segment recovering! The very lowest homes for sale have essentially bottomed in value and are on the verge of inching upward.
Now back to that tunnel. It has been a lengthy one. Malibu actually had a respite from the national real estate collapse during 2008 when prices went up, locally. The train had entered the tunnel, but buyers were focusing at the light behind them rather than the darkness in front.
Obviously, since then it has been unpredictably long in length and absolutely more severe in value destruction than anyone imagined. Annual sales over the past four years have averaged about 150 home units in Malibu, not nearly enough to sustain previous values. (That is, the sales pace has been inadequate unless the inventory also stayed very low, which it has not). Whereas the joyous 2003-2005 years saw the tally of Malibu home listings below the 150 level, it bloated to more than 300 this past summer. Thus, inevitable price drops, now in the 40-45 percent range from the peak, have resulted.
Each price tier reveals, as 2011 comes to a close, more challenging selling conditions:
-- Between $1-$2 million this year, there were 60 sales; 50 are currently listed.
-- Between $2-$3 million this year, there were 25 sales; 47 are listed.
-- Between $3-$5 million, there were 20 sales; 46 are listed.
The supply/demand dynamics get worse the higher you go.
For properties listed at more than $5 million there have been 19 sales recorded, with 105 properties on the market. Talk about being in a dark, narrow place.
As seen time and again, the different price tiers follow each other's trends. As previously described, when things were getting worse, it happened first for the low-end condos (in early 2008). This year has seen the upper end suffering most. Another way to describe that upper end (properties worth more than $5 million): the end of the train. The last into the tunnel, the last out. Only when the $1 million marketplace begins thriving again will the $2 million market have hope, and so on.
How fast the train gets out of the tunnel depends greatly on the lender market, and interest rates. The system has required an overhaul to a nearly all-cash marketplace. Meanwhile, Malibu real estate remains made up of many micro-markets.
The activity in $1.3 million Malibu West has no more connection to $6 million La Costa Beach than Agoura has to Bel Air. At least this can be said about current times: It is more encouraging than 18 months ago when all of Malibu's micro-market box cars were deep in the mountain, the light faded from the rear and imperceptible ahead, scant few sales and way too many sellers at every price.
Not far down the tracks, particularly for lower-priced investment-seekers, comes the next real estate phenomenon: all those buyers who grew comfortable standing on the platform, not realizing the choo-choo left the station.
Rick Wallace has been a Realtor in Malibu for 24 years.
The Malibu Times
The Malibu Real Estate Report
By Rick Wallace
Published: Wednesday December, 7 2011
No record Malibu sale in 2011
What do the years 1997, 1999, 2001, 2006,
2007 and 2010 have in common? In each of those years, a new record home sale
price was established in Malibu real estate. During those years, as detailed
below, the new high for a home sale increased gradually from $14 million to $37
million.
2011 is not joining the list. No new records were established this year. In
fact, the high end, which took the longest to absorb the real estate downturn,
is generally in the worst throes of a market melee. For example, only one sale
topped $20 million this year, compared to five last year.
The deficiency of sales this year compared to 2010 really tells the story. It
has been a viciously rough year among elite properties (even with a few more
shopping days remaining). Last year, 36 homes sold for at least $5 million;
this year, only 20. Last year, 19 homes topped $10 million; this year, only
five.
The top one percent of
real estate customers in Malibu (where already only the top one percent
nationwide can afford to live) has turned quite stingy. Even the miserable
collapse of 2009 produced better high-end numbers than this year, with 23 sales
over $5 million, nine exceeding $10 million and one over $20 million.
In 2008, the last year that Malibu saw a rise in its overall median value, the
numbers were virtually identical to 2010 in the $5 million and $10 million
groupings. That was a time the upper end seemed immune to the real estate
failings of the real world. It has taken three years to feel the impact. The
so-called lower end in Malibu, contrarily, seems to be approaching recovery.
Malibu's lowest-priced homes and condos appear primed to have slight increases
in value during 2012.
What are the six sales that each raised the bar during the past generation?
The first home ever to top $10 million did not hold the record long. A six-acre
estate on Encinal Bluffs was not officially listed for sale when it sold for
$14 million in 1997. The full-fledged gated estate with extensive frontage on
the bluffs and private sandy beach below included a guest house and pool. Its
record lasted barely two years.
Just a couple doors away, a whole new level of opulence had been built a few
years before by the heiress of a gambling fortune: a palace of nearly 20,000
square feet on more than seven flat, manicured acres, with tennis court,
garages, putting green, guest houses and virtually every amenity possible in
today's world. Most stunning was the 300 feet of private Encinal Bluffs ocean
view. In 1999, the property sold for $27 million, establishing the most
noteworthy leap of record value since the 1980s.
The same estate sold again two years later in 2001, and set another record.
Having been bought by a health supplement magnate who then died, the second
estate sale brought $31 million, according to information provided to the
multiple listings. However, it was rumored that a number of personal property
and art items were included in the sale, and the net real estate transaction
was more in the $27.5 million range.
Whatever the actual figure was, that record lasted five years until it was
topped by the dramatic sale of a property not even on the water! On a flat
knoll directly above the Malibu Pier and lagoon sits a mansion behind gates,
heavily fortified with two gate houses and elaborate security systems, that
reckons in the 15,000 square foot range in size. According to public records,
the property sold for $30,300,000 in 2006. There are 16 acres on the knoll,
even room for a mini golf course, which it includes. The pool is an infinity
model, there is a large media room in the main house and the master bedroom
suite alone is 5,000 square feet. The sale was shrouded in secrecy. It has been
widely reported that the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea is the
owner, and the subject of United States government investigations for suspicion
of plundering the African nation and bringing the riches to the U.S.
One year later, the sleek, contemporary estate of the late Johnny Carson sold
on the bluffs of Point Dume. The same home had practically doubled the Malibu
record when Carson bought it in 1984 for nearly $9 million. This time it went
for about $35 million, according to public records. The estate was never listed
in the MLS, but was widely known to be on the market and then sold. Carson was perhaps
the first to bring attention and value to the Point Dume Riviera bluffs where
now many celebrities own homes, or at least reside in locations with access
very close to the beach.
Finally, last year the estate of the deceased Nancy Daly sold on Carbon Beach
for $37 million, the current record. Perhaps the most spectacular of the large
mansions that now front PCH along what is now regarded as “Billionaire's
Beach,” the home has eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. It also has a sports
court and pool on the sand. Even though it is the only genuine beach house on
this list, it has about three-fourths of an acre and a whopping 180 feet of
beach front. (That breaks down to a value of about $100,000 for every half-foot
of beach frontage.) There are also nine wood-burning fireplaces.
Based on the frequent change of the records, it may not be long before the next
mammoth sale hits Malibu. Where next?
Rick Wallace has been a Realtor in Malibu for 24 years.
The Malibu Times
The Malibu Real Estate Report
By Rick Wallace
Published: Wednesday November, 16 2011
Along the PCH
A vastly new Malibu is fast approaching.
Malibu will look and feel drastically different within the next five
years. Already completed are a new theater, Cross Creek Road, Malibu
Beach Inn, and Point Dume Plaza.
Under major reconstruction are the Malibu Lagoon Park, Las Flores Park,
Solstice Park, the Point Dume Pavilion market, and the lumberyard site.
Before long, much more: Legacy Park, the Windsail/Pierview sites, Whole
Foods Market at Cross Creek, the Trancas Park, the new hotel across from Bluffs
Park, beautified medians and eateries at both ends of the pier. Malibu in 2012
will be awesome, better than ever!
We are almost there. The two restaurants are nearing completion, the new library plan was added and nearly completed, and the new shopping center at Trancas is in the works.
(Lets hope the real estate market picks up, also.)
There are more than 200 officially recognized National Historic Sites in Los
Angeles County, four of which are located in Malibu:
- Adamson House: This site is located at the Malibu Lagoon State Park. It was
once the home of Rhoda Rindge Adamson, daughter of Frederick and May. K.
Rindge. It is the best surviving work and only intact example of architecture
from Stiles O. Clements and represents the Moorish-Spanish Colonial Revival
Style popular in the late 1920s.
- Historic Village of Humaliwo: Once in the Malibu Creek/Lagoon area.
- Saddle Rock Ranch Pictograph site: Also known as the “Cave of the
Four Horsemen,” has nearly 100 pictographs that could date as far back as 500
A.D., near Kanan/Mulholland.
- The Stevens House: In Malibu Colony, also known as No. 78, designed by
John Lautner in 1968, has a roof design that looks like a wave.
Many streets in Malibu have terrific views, but these streets have it in
the name: Coast View, Colony View, Skyline View, Ocean View,
Hillview, Latigo Bay View, Birdview, Morning View, Sea View Lane,
Anacapa View, Beach View Estates, Fox View, Pacific View.
View ordinance: good. Long period necessary to install it: bad.
The original publisher of The Malibu Times was Reeves Templeman, a graduate of
USC, who was in the publishing and film business. He was also a
co-founder of the Malibu Township Council and a charter member of the Malibu
Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club and Optimists Club. Before running his
regular column, “Along the Malibu,” for decades in The Malibu Times, he ran the
same column in the Topanga Journal for two years. He and his first wife,
Eileen, then started up their own paper in 1946, which never missed an issue,
despite numerous challenges such as frequent malfunctions in their one
typesetting machine. Eileen died in 1965 and Reeves later married Reta.
The Point Dume school was opened in 1968 and only lasted 12
years. It was closed in 1980. It re-opened in 1996, and will soon
celebrate its longest period either closed or open.
At one time, Malibu Realty Company alone had seven offices in
Malibu, during the early sixties. Its successor, Prudential Malibu
Realty, is in the PCH/Cross Creek office that Malibu Realty was best known for.
According to public records, the first house ever in Malibu was just east
of Duke's, on the beach, built in 1913, but is no longer standing.
The mobile home park on Point Dume was originally designed to have an
adjacent nine-hole golf course in the nearby ravines.
Pepperdine University sports teams have won nine national championships
in Division I sports.
The Malibu Times, the Malibu Association of Realtors, the Malibu Township
Council and the Malibu Chamber of Commerce were all established in 1947.
If you think PCH and our local roads are dangerous now, you should look
back on the old days of Malibu when the newspaper almost weekly described a
death on PCH, or in the canyons, or a home burning down, or a boating accident.
Budget Rent-a-Car was not always at its current location along the
PCH, in a little building that once housed a restaurant. It originated in
August, 1981 in the Colony Market parking lot, back when the lot had only the
market, the Colony coffee shop and the Bank of America building, which was then
Security Pacific National Bank.
Remember when Malibu Nite ‘N Day was Malibu's answering service to the
wealthy, in the days before answering machines?
SuperCare drugs has filled a great deal of prescriptions in its
building. And there have also been many real estate deals that have run
through the place (when Coldwell Banker was housed there for years). But
the building was built to house money. It was originally Union
Federal Bank. Doesn't it just look like a bank?
I've always thought one of the most underrated views in Malibu is on
Heathercliff, at the intersection of Dume Drive, looking over the Point Dume
Plaza, at the fabulous mountains and Zuma Canyon.
I see Malibu Presbyterian Church is about to start construction to
rebuild from the 2007 fire. The church first opened in October 1986
with its large Tudor-style facility.
The Malibu City Council has moved around a bit since its inception 20
years ago, but the first meetings took place in the large meeting chamber at
HRL, which stands for Hughes Research Laboratories. The large white
expansion building of 90,000 square feet was completed in 1988 after the
original building stood for 28 years alone.
At about the same time that the Hughes extension was breaking ground, so were
the two large white buildings of the originally-named Malibu Medical Park on
Stuart Road, where the city council meetings occur now. They were the
brainchild of Dr. Tom Hodges who had his office in that location, in a
trailer. Hodges had greater fame as the builder and original owner of the
Malibu Castle.
