Priciest U.S. Listing Reportedly in Escrow

Candy Spelling, the widow of famous TV producer Aaron Spelling, refused to budge on the $150 million asking price of her 4.7-acre estate in Holmby Hills that lingered on the market for two years. The asking price made it the most expensive residential listing in the U.S. when it went on the market in 2009.

Spelling’s wait may have finally paid off, according to media reports.

Petra Ecclestone, the daughter of British billionaire and Formula One Chief Executive Bernie Ecclestone, is in escrow to purchase the property, The Wall Street Journal reports. However, sources have been mum on further details about the transaction and the final sales price.

The highest known price ever paid for a single-family home in the U.S. is $100 million--a transaction that happened earlier this year when Russian investor Yuri Milner purchased a Silicon Valley home for that price.

The Spelling estate, known as “The Manor,” is the largest in Los Angeles County at 56,500 square feet--bigger than the White House. The home features a bowling alley, flower-cutting room, wine cellar/tasting room, a barbershop and a silver storage room with humidity control, a citrus orchard, and Spelling once described the estate as the "greatest entertainment house ever" with a "kitchen where you can cook for two or 800." The home is said to have more than 100 rooms.

Source: “L.A. Mansion for U.K. Heiress,” The Wall Street Journal (June 14, 2011)

Sales Rise 41% in Laguna Beach for the 1st Quarter

The Orange County Register (OCR) reported there was a 41% rise in sales for the first quarter of 2011 in Laguna Beach. Orange County had more than 6000 homes sold and the inventory for distressed sales is declining.
Source: OCR, Sunday, 4/24/2011

Survey: Americans Still Optimistic About Housing Market

A sluggish real estate market hasn’t shaken the confidence of the public in how it views home ownership, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. Eight in 10 adults (or 81 percent) say owning a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, according to the Pew study of about 2,000 adults conducted in March.
“Home owners are not blind to what has happened to home prices, nor are they expecting a speedy recovery,” according to the Pew study. In fact, of the home owners surveyed, about half said their home is worth less now than before the recession, while 31 percent said their home’s value has stayed the same.


Nevertheless, 82 percent of home owners who say their home is worth less now than before the recession either strongly or somewhat agree that home ownership is the best long-term investment a person can make, according to the survey.

Source: Pew Research Center, "Home Sweet Home. Still," April 12, 2011

Very Good News About Laguna Beach and Coastal Properties

I am very happy to report that home sales in Laguna Beach are very good...for the first quarter.

Home sales for January 2011 are twice as much as January 2009 and sales for February and March are five times higher than in 2009. Moreover, active listings are down from the same years which indicate that the supply of homes for sale are down. Pending sales, sales which have not closed escrow yet, are double as compared to January, February and March of 2009.

If you would like detailed information about your neighborhood,, please contact me.

California Home Prices to Rise 23% in Next 5 Years

Beacon Economics has an updated housing forecast out for California – and it’s pretty optimistic: The real estate forecast calls for average home gains of 0.6% this year; 3.2% next year; 5.4% in 2013; 6.7% in 2014; and 7.8% in 2015.
All told, Beacon is basically projecting that California home prices will jump 23% in five years ($57,800) – from a typical selling price of $256,136 in 2010 to $323,368 in 2015. Depending on one’s view, that projected 2015 pricing would be equal to the highest since 2008, back at early 2004 levels – or still 38% off the 2007 peak.

Jordan Levine, research manager at Beacon Economics, says the optimism is driven by “rising employment and incomes, which we project to grow by between 4% and 6% on the income side and 2% to 3% on the employment side.”

He adds: “We also have some pent-up demand for homes due to such slow household formation during the downturn. Our calculations show that we are currently only building 1 home for every 9-plus new residents over the past year, so that will begin to put upward pressure on the market as the economy begins to heal. Additionally, many of the homes currently being sold are distressed properties, so as the mix changes to slightly better and non-distressed properties, the median sale price will also increase. So, the short answer is that this is being driven in part by a healing economy and partly a shifting mix away from as many distressed homes as we move out into the future.”


Source: OCRegister, Johnthan Lasner, 3-24-2011

Laguna Beach Home Prices

Homebuying +13% vs. a year ago.

Sales counts in all Orange County beach towns ran +5% vs a year ago. Countywide, it was -1% vs. a year earlier.

Laguna Beach’s median selling price was $1,150,000 – that’s +164% vs. countywide pricing.

A year ago, that Laguna Beach home-price “premium” was 177% vs. the countywide median selling price.

Source: OC Register, February 3, 2011

New Home Sales Surge

New single-family home sales in December rose to their highest level in eight months and prices were the highest since April 2008, raising cautious optimism for a housing market recovery.

The Commerce Department said sales jumped 17.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted 329,000 unit annual rate after a downwardly revised 280,000-unit pace in November. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales rising to a 300,000-unit pace in December from a previously reported 290,000 unit rate. Compared to December a year earlier, sales were down 7.6 percent. Overall 2010 sales dropped 14.4 percent to a 321,000-unit rate.

Economists saw the gains as significant.

"Clearly we are seeing stabilization in new home sales and this data suggests some upward momentum that we have seen in existing home sales. What is important to realize is even in a period of softer new home sales, inventory continues to decline, said Dean Maki, chief U.S.. economist with Barclays Capital in New York.

“The level of inventory is at its lowest since the 1960s," Maki said. This suggests the big declines in housing starts are now behind us and housing starts should be on a gradual trend in 2011.”

Brian Bethune, an economist with HIS Global Insight in Lexington, Mass added: "It's meaningful to the extent that there is a pattern of numbers showing increases. It's a sign that there is a turnaround. Things are definitely perking up, but there is a question whether it's sustainable.

Read the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS®: December Existing-Home Sales Jump

Source: "New Home Sales Surge in December," Reuters(Jan. 26, 2011)





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