Pasadena CA Real Estate

The inventory of South Pasadena homes for sale has increased in Septtember mostly because of homes falling out of escrow last month.  The number of newly listed homes has remained consistently at around 10 a month.  Even though the average # of days of sold South Pasadena homes is running a bit over 2 months, the homes that are currently available for sale have been on the market for over 3 months, an average of 107 days.

Most South Pasadena homes sold last month were closed at 8% below asking price.  Only one home sold over asking price at 822 Arroyo Drive.  It was originally priced at $699,000 and closed escrow at $715,000.

It will take over 28 weeks to sell the South Pasadena home inventory given no additional listings and the same rate of sale as in September.

The lowest priced home in South Pasadena is at 1800 Meridian Avenue – $474,900. 

The highest priced home in South Pasadena is at 851 Lyndon Street – $3,450,000.

Condos and townhouse sales in South Pasadena have remained pretty flat with no major changes from last month.

The lowest priced condo for sale in South Pasadena is at 116 marmion Way #10 – $339,000

The highest priced townhome for sale in South Pasadena is at 1907 Leman Street – $829,000

South Pasadena Real Estate Market Statistics for June through September 2008:

Real estate data based on information from ITEC (Pasadena Foothills Association MLS service)

South Pasadena real estate market activity with real time updated data can be found on Pasadena California Real Estate Blog’s How is the Real estate Market tab.  These South Pasadena real estate housing reports are gathered and updated by Altos Research and will be emailed to you with my compliments.

Posted by Irina Netchaev, Pasadena Real Estate Agent.

Inventory for Alhambra single family homes for sale was lower from August to September for both new home listings (18 new Alhambra listings to 14) and overall homes on the market (67 active listings in August to 54 active Alhambra listings in September.)  Closed Alhambra sales unfortunately were down drastically in September from the summer high of 21 homes sold in August to only 13 Alhambra homes closing contract in September.

If homes don’t sell as quickly, but the inventory is still pretty much the same, we’re looking at higher absorption rates and lower prices down the road, especiallly moving into the slower fall and winter months.  This will create excellent opportunity for cash rich and credit strong buyers and lower profits for sellers. 

If you have an Alhambra home for sale or are considering selling your Alhambra home, t is more critical now than ever to track the real estate market trends and not overprice your house.  There’s no point in putting your home on the market and listing it in the MLS if you are not serious about selling or if you do not have to sell right now.

The market’s downward trends are shared across both price and value.  Consumers are recently placing less value on homes (you can see the recent declines in price per square foot for SFR – single family homes – as evidence.) <a title=”Market Action Indicator changes” href=”http://www.pasadenacarealestatehomes.com/buyera-039-s-or-a-sellera-039-s-market-m

By: Brian Brady

America’s #1 Mortgage Broker

The bailout bill passed the House after a decisive victory in the Senate; it is certain to be signed into law by President Bush.  From Bloomberg.com:

These steps represent decisive action to ease the credit crunch that is now threatening our economy,” President George W. Bush said at the White House after the vote. He said he will sign the bill into law when he receives it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure has been sent to him.

The House approved the measure in a 263-171 vote, four days after rejecting an earlier version. The bill’s defeat on Sept. 29 caused a 778-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, prompting dozens of lawmakers to reverse their vote on the legislation, the government’s largest intervention in the markets since Franklin Roosevelt‘s New Deal.

I expect the mortgage-backed securities market to gradually improve.  The euphoric response that followed the Nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was a result of pent-up anxiety about the explicit government guarantee of their debt.  This “bailout” is different than the Fannie/Freddie bailout.  While this bailout will provide support for battered mortgages, which should result in lower mortgage rates, it is clearly a signal that the Federal government will assume a lot of losses.

What worries me (and mortgage-backed securities traders) is the propensity for other governments to stick their hand out and ask for help:

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today warned that his and other states may need emergency loans if a $700 billion financial-rescue package isn’t passed by Congress soon.

If this bailout restores order to the credit markets, California should be able to raise money through tax-advantaged municipal bond offerings.  If this bailout is insufficient to cure the credit crunch and states need to turn to the US Treasury to solve their cash flow problems, credit markets have seized to the point of financial Armageddon.

You can safely delay your mortgage locks if you are closing on your Pasadena home sale after October 17th.  Delaying your lock is a bit different from a “float” recommendation.  It means that you should expect lower rates and jump on one when you feel it’s “good enough”. The market should remain volatile.  The par rate (with no yield spread premium to the originator) should drift as low as 5.625% in the next 60 days but it may have to go through 6.125% to get there.  If you’re planning on refinancing your home loan, get your documentation in line, watch the Pasadena mortgage rates reports carefully, and jump on the opportunity when it presents itself.

MBS traders know in their heart that the bailout package and weakened employment data will lead to lower mortgage rates but every bump in the road (like the California request) will give them reasons to sell.

Delay your lock if you have time; lock those rates if you’re closing in 14 days.

Originally posted on Millionaire Real Estate Lender

Even though, the inventory of homes in San Marino is fairly stable and is not increasing the number of San Marino homes sold is almost 50% less in September compared to August.  October will not look much better since only six San Marino homes are in escrow right now, but new home listings are holding steady at about 11 to 13 homes a month – double the buyers’ demand.  This can potentially lead to an overabundance of homes on the market and reduction of prices especially going into the slowest season of the real estate cycle – winter.

San Marino listings are also being priced higher than the average selling price over the last several months.  The average price per sq. ft. for active San Marino homes in the MLS is $653.  The sold price per sq. ft. is listed below – September closed at $625.  It’s also interesting to note that the 6 San Marino homes currently under contract average out at $598 a sq. ft.

Of the eight San Marino home sales last month, three of these homes sold over asking price, with the highest priced sale for the month at $2,580,000 for 20 Mill Canyon Road.  This home was originally listed for sale at $2,888,888.

The lowest priced San Marino home on the market is $875,000 at 1913 S Los Robles.

The highest prices San Marino home on the market is $8,900,000 at 1385 Old Mill Road.

Read More:  San Marino Real Estate Market Report for August 2008

San Marino Real Estate Statistics for June 2008 to September 2008:

To give you a better understanding of what is happening in the San Marino real estate market, the graph below shows how the homes are selling in each quartile.  A quartile is 25% of the total San Marino homes listed.  The quartiles have been broken out as follows:

Quartile #1 – 25% of most expensive San Marino homes

Quartile #2 – 25% of upper middle priced San Marino homes 

Quartile #3 – 25% of lower middle priced San Marino homes

Quartile #4 – 25% of least expensive San Marino homes

In reviewing the above graph, we can see that home prices in most of San Marino quartiles have been trending higher in recent weeks except for the high-end of the real estate market, which has been essentially flat.

Data of San Marino homes for sale and San Marino solds was taken directly from ITEC (Pasadena Foothill MLS)

SUBSCRIBE TO WEEKLY SAN MARINO REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT BY THE PREMIER REAL ESTATE REPORTING ANALYSIS FIRM, ALTOS RESEARCH

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Posted by Irina Netchaev, San Marino Luxury Home Real Estate Specialist

As September rolls around, home buyers usually see a decrease in new homes on the market.  Not this September – Pasadena’s real estate inventory is as strong as it was during the summer months.  Pasadena home inventory increased for Single Family Homes (SFR), Condos and Townhomes – across the board.  Absorption rate is going up as well which means that these pasadena home listings will take longer to sell than before.

Pasadena SFR sales sold close to asking price at an average of 96.62%.  25 out of 59 home sales sold at full price or over asking.

The lowest priced closed SFR sale was for $230,000 at 816 Lincoln Avenue.

The highest priced closed SFR sale closed at $2,950,000.  This Pasadena luxury home was at 1805 Kinneloa Mesa Road.

READ MORE:  Pasadena Real Estate Market and Housing Report for October 2008

Looking at the Pasadena condominium statistics below, you will notice that the price per square foot of homes sold increased from $397 to $445.  The driving force behind this increase is the multiple sales of condos in the new condominium project at 217 S. Marengo in Pasadena.  Pasadena home shoppers want newly built homes and are willing to pay for them.

The Market Action Index indicator has remained relatively flat not providing strong indicators for real estate market conditions.

 Housing Market Statistics for Pasadena – June 2008 through September 2008:

Search all Pasadena Condos for Sale in MLS (Multiple Listing Service):

Search all homes (single family residences) for sale in Pasadena MLS (Multiple Listing Service):

Search All Pasadena Foreclosures or Bank Owned Homes for Sale (MLS – Multiple Listing Service)

SEARCH PASADENA CA HOMES FOR SALE (Single Family Residences – SFR)

SEARCH PASADENA CONDOS AND TOWNHOMES FOR SALE

Data compiled from ITEC (Pasadena Foothill Association Multiple Listing Service).

If you are interested in receiving a weekly Pasadena real estate market report with the Market Price Index, you can request the Pasadena Market Real Estate Report here and it will be emailed to you automatically each Monday.  This is a report that I order specifically for the readers of my website from Altos Research who specializes specifically in real estate housing market activity throughout the country.

Google Maps just introduced the most amazing new feature called Street View. Here’s a quick and funny video giving you a taste of what Street View is all about.

Now that you have a feel about what Street View can do, let’s take a look at some serious applications of this tool. Let’s say you wanted to get a feel for what Pasadena’s South Lake Avenue District looks like. Take a look at this street view of the South Lake Avenue District in Pasadena that I just created. Place the curser in the middle of the map and drag it to the right and to the left to move the photo around.
View Larger Map

Can you imagine, you can go to www.maps.google.com , type in any address or destination, click on the Street View link on the top of the map and actually see the location. Imagine the possibilities as you are searching for your new Pasadena home or trying to get an idea of what a Pasadena neighborhood is like. It is definitely an amazing feature. Play with it and let me know how you like it!

Posted by Irina Netchaev, Pasadena Real Estate Agent

There were three San Marino homes on the Real Estate Broker’s Open House tour today.  Two of the homes were luxury estates over $3 million and one home was a San Marino home that has been on the real estate market for awhile and just had a price reduction.

Let’s start with the home that just had a price reduction.  It’s a 4 bedroom, 3 bath home on 1635 Rubio Drive.  This home was originally listed at $1,790,000 and in my opinion was extremely overpriced.  It has a lot of deferred maintenance, doesn’t show well – was not prepared for sale nor has care been taken to prepare it for any showings including previous broker open houses.  All in all, it is not a surprise that the price was reduced to $1,499,000.  This home has been on the San Marino real estate market for 118 days as of today.  It is currently priced at $557 square feet and definitely falls into my “San Marino dusty deals“ category where the seller most likely will be willing to negotiate a bit more to move this property.  

New Home Listings this week:  Luxury San Marino estates

As discussed on this real estate blog previously, San Marino’s luxury price point starts around $3 million.  A luxury home buyer in San Marino can expect an estate with a minimum of:

• 5 or more bedrooms with more than 5,000 sq. ft.
• An estate on a large lot
• A pool and a spa
• A guest house
• Location North of Huntington Drive
• Gourmet kitchen

1.  950 Roxbury Road in San Marino  -  Asking Price $3,650,000

This is a really lovely English Tudor situated on almost 2/3 of an acre.  This home is 5 bedrooms and 5 baths with over 5,300 sq. ft.  I loved the floor plan and felt there was quite a bit of light coming into the home for a Tudor.  The grounds were absolutely beautiful with a rose garden, outdoor entertaining area, a 50 foot pool and a very charming guest house.  This estate was nicely updated and has a three car garage.  A couple of drawbacks included its location – South of Huntington Drive and close to Alhambra and this was by far the grandest home on Roxbury Road.  $677 per sq. ft. seemed a bit high for the San Marino market right now.  September San Marino home sales closed at $625/sq. ft. on average.

2.  660 Lombardy Place, San Marino – Asking Price $3,650,000

A Monterey Colonial Revival built by famed architects, Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury in 1927.  This luxury home has 6 bedrooms and 7 baths with over 5,400 sq. ft. and sits on over 25,000 sq. ft. lot.  This San Marino home has a guest house and a 4-car garage, a salt water pool and spa.  This hoem exhudes tranquility and peace.  It’s priced at $621 per sq. ft.  This San Marino home is located North of Huntington Drive, but only 1 block away from San Gabriel Blvd.

 SEARCH HOMES FOR SALE IN SAN MARINO

Posted by Irina Netchaev, Real Estate Agent

Real estate is changing.

No longer can a realtor sign a listing, update information on the Pasadena MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and sit back and wait for buyers.  When I first started selling homes, I used to go into the real estate office early each day to be the first one to look at the big (and I mean big – yellow page size) MLS book which held all the new and existing home listings.  That was the only way for a real estate agent to know what was going on in the real estate market.  Review the MLS book daily, visit broker’s open houses‘s and network with other agents.

Boy, how things changed – thank goodness!  Today, Pasadena real estate agents and their clients get automated home notices via email as soon as new properties are listed.  Of course we still visit other broker’s open houses and network with agents.  But, what is new and exciting is the advent of the internet and how the internet is changing the Pasadena real estate market place.

Most of my real estate business personally has come from referrals and repeat clients.  Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls and emails from people that have been referred to me by google, yahoo and msn.  What does this mean? 

Home buyers start their search for Pasadena homes on-line by searching the internet.  They put key terms like “Pasadena homes for sale” or “Pasadena real estate” or “Pasadena home listings” into the search engine of their search and then surf the web.  Once they see something they like, they email or call the real estate agent.

Personally, I have been preparing for this change for the last several years and have built a multitude of websites and blogs like www.pasadenacarealestatehomes.com, www.sanmarinoluxuryrealestate.com, www.montereyhillscarealestate.com, www.pasadenaviews.com , www.activerain.com/blogs/irina4realestate , www.irina4realstate.com,  providing buyers access to the information they crave like market reports and free home search tools.  I have featured homes on realtor.com for Pasadena and San Marino amongst a few others so that the buyers will see my seller’s homes immediately – exposure = more money for the seller.

I also participate extensively in social networks like twitter, facebook, plaxo, utterly, friendfeed, linkedin and many more. 

Why is internet presence important to you as a home seller?

It’s simple… this is the new face of real estate.  Real estate is not about putting your house in a local newspaper anymore!  Any real estate agent worth their salt will tell you that newspaper ads do not bring in home buyers, but they sure pacify the home sellers.  I say that home sellers are very savvy these days and understand the power of exposure via the web, of getting as many “eye balls” on their home as possible – that’s how you sell homes!

So if you are thinking of selling your home, please ask your real estate agent the following questions:

1.  Does your real estate agent have a website that provides timely buyer information and MLS home search tools?

2.  Does your real estate agent have a real estate blog?  A blog is simply an interactive website.  A Pasadena real estate blog like this one allows consumers to interact with a real estate agent in a non-threatening atmosphere, learn and search for homes.  Blogs are the Web 2.0 version of a website.

3.  What kind of traffic does your realtor get on their website or real estate blog?  Remember, traffic = exposure to your home for sale which in turn creates more money for the seller and a quicker home sale.  A good real estate site should drive about 100 unique visitors a day and about 500 – 800 hits.

4.  Does your Pasadena real estate agent create a personal home website for each and every home that they are listing?  Where do they market these websites?  Will they provide you with weekly statistics on how many home buyers visit these personalized home websites. 

5.  Which social networks do they belong to and how do they use them to your “seller’s” advantage to market your home for sale?  How active are they on these networks?

6.  Most importantly GOOGLE your real estate agent.  Do they have a presence on the internet.  For example – see google results for Irina Netchaev.  As you can see, there were close to 8,000 internet pages for Irina Netchaev.  That’s a lot of internet presence!  Of course, my name is pretty unique.  If your realtor’s name is John Smith, you’ll get a lot more pages!  But, for the most part you’ll get a pretty good idea of how active your real estate agent is on-line.

Another cool tool to use is www.searchme.com It is a great site that allows you to put anyone’s names and actually see some of their internet presence.  For an example see Irina Netchaev’s search me results.  Try putting your name in the search and see what comes up.

This post is not to brag about how many social networks I am on or how many websites I sponsor.  It is to bring light to the fact that real estate indeed is changing.  Demand the best of your realtor.  The real estate market is changing and the way the real estate is being marketed has already changed.  It’s just that some real estate agents haven’t figured it out yet.

Connect with Irina on the following networks:

Irina Netchaev on Twitter

Irina Netchaev on Facebook

Irina Netchaev on Flickr 

Irina Netchaev on LinkedIn

Irina Netchaev on Google

Irina Netchaev on Trulia Real Estate Voices

FriendFeed

Irina Netchaev on Utterli

Irina Netchaev on Realtor.com

Irina Netchaev on Plaxo

Irina Netchaev on Technorati

the following networks:

Irina
Netchaev on Twitter

Irina Netchaev on Facebook

Irina Netchaev on Flickr 

Irina Netchaev on LinkedIn

Irina Netchaev on Google

Irina Netchaev on Trulia
Real Estate Voices

FriendFeed

Irina
Netchaev on Utterli

Irina Netchaev on Realtor.com

Irina Netchaev on Plaxo

Irina Netchaev on Technorati

By Brian Brady

Remember I told you to sit tight on that mortgage rate lock until after the Bailout Bill was passed?

Well, the Bailout Bill failed.

Pasadena mortgage rates are a little better than they were this morning. This morning a 30-year fixed par rate was at 6.0%; this afternoon, it was at 5.875%.  If you’re closing on your Pasadena home loan in 30 days , there is more risk that you’ll get a rate over 6% than under 6%.  Lock your mortgage rate if you’re closing in October.

If you have time, wait it out.  The bailout bill failed but it isn’t dead.  If the bailout bill DOES ultimately fail, mortgage rates will skyrocket, housing prices will tank, and you’ll probably renegotiate or cancel that home purchase.

When the bailout goes through (and the whining on Wall Street will be so loud that it WILL go through), mortgage rates will come back down.

PS:  If you’re a baby boomer, this is your worst nightmare. Most of the people over 55 have most of their retirement assets in the stock market, through mutual funds in their 401-k plan.  If you’re a real estate investor or Pasadena home buyer, this might be really good news.

PPS: Did you know that Main Street already got bailed out? I’ll talk about that next time.

Brian can be reached at (858) 777-9751.

I woke up to a beautiful rainbow right over my home in San Marino.  What a way to start a Monday… Enjoy!