Summer Stats!

Our upgrade to the “LA Area Real Estate” iPhone application should be available in the iTunes App Store any day now. The app is free and we welcome your feedback. This new version includes links to our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We look forward to trading posts and tweets! We will also make an announcement here on our blog when it is available. If you are an iPhone or iPod Touch user and have not downloaded the application, check it out here: http://www.teamgreenrealty.com/iphone_app.htm. On to business…


The First-Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit specifies that you need to close on a property by December 1st to qualify for the $8,000 credit. If you are planning on taking advantage of this great tax break, you better get moving. The average escrow is 64 days in today’s market. This means that you need to not only find a place, but get it into escrow by October 1st to comfortably make the requirement.

Let’s talk stats:

July and August are traditionally two of our busier months and this year was no exception. Competition is still fierce for buyers, so if you are contemplating a purchase, be prepared to listen to your agent and trust their expertise. Unfortunately we have seen a trail of broken hearts this year as buyers, especially first-timers, enter the market with their own perceptions based on doom and gloom media coverage. They think that they can purchase a mansion for pennies on the dollar. Many of them do not listen to their agent’s advice about our competitive market and end up falling in love and ultimately losing several properties before they “get it.” Houses listed in our area under approximately $800,000 are moving very quickly. There are still plenty of “all cash” and “half cash” buyers in almost every corner of our local market and they have been driving up prices through bidding wars and strong offers for several months now and there is no end in sight. This is a fantastic time to buy as long as you have a great agent who can guide you through the deal and help you strategize. There are plenty of really great deals out there so let your agent and your research guide you.

For our sellers you can expect reasonably fast sales as long as your agent does their homework and helps you price your home competitively. There is plenty of competition so pricing is everything. You should expect a fair amount of activity and you will need an experienced agent to help you determine which offer is the strongest. Remember that the strongest offer is not always the one with the highest price. There are many other factors at play as well. Find a great agent and trust their advice. If you don’t already have one, give us a call. We’ll be happy to serve you.

Overall houses in the Los Angeles area sold faster in August than any other month this year except for June. Our average days on market (how long it took to sell) was 64! That’s a great number. In the Northeast San Fernando Valley the average DOM was only 50 days…wow! That’s some of the best news we’ve had all year.

On the flip side of that, our numbers for August show a general slowing after steady improvement all year. The decrease in overall prices in our area, combined with the increasing accessibility of credit has kept the market very active all year. It is difficult to say exactly how much of the increase in sales during the summer months was just seasonal activity or if we can expect a steady volume of sales into next year. Hopefully the soon-to-expire first time buyer tax credit will keep the summer momentum up.

Totals-Greater Los Angeles Area

Individual Locales

As you can see, this is a great time to buy or sell real estate. Let us know if we can be of service to you.

If you are considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home. Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move call us at 818.LVTMGRN (818.588.6476) or click here to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

State of the Union

As many of you know, the members of Team Green are huge iPhone fans. In fact, we are so impressed with this technology that we have decided to publish our very own iPhone application. It will be available in Apple’s iTunes App Store shortly. Check back here to find out when it is available for download. This application will allow you to quickly communicate with our team, including using the built-in GPS to share the location of a property you like, as well as find properties for sale in the LA area. We are very excited about it. Keeping up with five children, business contacts, and friends is a tall order in today’s information age. We enjoy leveraging a device that can do just about anything you ask of it. We like to think of it as simplifying our lives, although, I will admit that we are borderline technophiles…on to business…

Positive signs that our local real estate market is improving have been around for months. Now that the media is finally picking up on these facts, word is finally getting out that prices have stabilized, and even increased in some areas. Things are finally improving. Our team has been busier in the last two months than I can remember in a quite a while and we are very happy about it. Since our phones have been ringing off the hook and our email inboxes have been filling up, we thought that this blog entry would focus on the most common information that everyone seems to want to know these days.

The current market has shown us that prices in most areas have either stabilized or started to climb. This is fantastic for property owners and sellers because it means that overall values, and thus equity, continue to improve. Helping this trend is that the current number of sold homes in Los Angeles County contains fewer foreclosures and short sales so they are having less of an impact on current sale prices. Also supporting is the fact that the overall number of sales is up, yet there are fewer overall properties on the market. In other words, the current inventory is declining. To boot, houses sold faster last month than previous months. The average “days on market” was 52 for the Glendale area during the month of April.

The good news does not stop there. Did you know that most first-time home buyer programs define a first-time buyer as simply someone who has not owned a house in the last three years…even if they have owned property before? This is opens the door (pun intended) for many potential buyers to take advantage of several programs including tax breaks and down payment assistance. Add to this the fact that the credit market has generally loosened and financing is available, plus loans are readily available with as little as 3.5% down (VA loans can still be had for no money down) and we have a great recipe for both buyers and sellers. As you can see, we are happy that the media has finally helped us by spreading the word that it is a great time to buy, sell or refinance a home. It is also a great time to buy investment properties, including second, or vacation homes.

Totals-Greater Los Angeles Area

Here is how 2009 is Faring

Individual Locales

As you can see, this is a great time to buy or sell real estate. Let us know if we can be of service to you. If you are considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home. Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us.

We look forward to hearing from you. Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

February Market Statistics

March madness is upon us and so is spring. It is time for spring-cleaning and revitalization of many areas of our lives. The economy is still a bit sluggish, but there are a few positive signs around, despite what the media has to say. Sometimes I think that if it were left to them, things would never get better. Regardless of what happens, we are thankful to be in a position to help our friends and clients with their real estate needs. We have good news with this month’s statistics that might cheer you up, so without further adieu…on to business…

February came and went quickly and we have some compelling new statistics to show for it. Overall, the greater Los Angeles area did pretty well. More new houses came on the market in February than in January and more sold! One number that I was very happy to see decrease was the number of expired listings, as well as the monthly supply. These are fabulous signs that prove things are improving in our area. I am also proud to say that the average days on market (the time it takes to sell a house) decreased by over a week.

Totals-Greater Los Angeles Area

Individual Locales

As you can see, REOs (Bank Owned Properties) and Short Sales are still accounting for more than half of all sales. This is a great time to buy real estate and if you have a need to sell, it takes a great agent to get the job done because it requires more work than in previous years. Our team is up for the challenge, so let us know if we can assist you.

For our Sellers: Determining the value of a home continues to be an art form that takes a true professional to master. Many factors affect your home’s value, including your motivation. REOs and Short Sales in your immediate area can affect your market value. For those of you considering selling, visit our free offers page by clicking here to get a free evaluation of your home.

For our Buyers: Now is an outstanding time to purchase real estate. Interest rates are still incredibly low and prices are fantastic. Make sure to pre-qualify for a loan BEFORE house shopping. This will save you headache and heartache. We are happy to help you with this process.

Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move, call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.

January Market Stats and More!

What a year 2009 is shaping up to be!

Collette and I are very excited about 2009 and have been extremely busy the last few weeks fulfilling our ongoing education requirements in an effort to serve you better. We have made a firm commitment to keeping our skills as sharp as possible so that we can provide the best possible service to all of our clients.

We toured Glendale Water and Power’s reservoir construction project at the Chevy Chase Country Club last night with several other residents, including Larry Varnes from the Chevy Chase Estate Association. Larry is the Co-President of the organization, which is the oldest homeowner’s association in California. It was nice to see a large turnout of residents in our own backyard in a community forum. We wish that all communities were as involved and active in their own fates. For those of you that are interested in the association, here is the link to their website: http://www.chevychaseestates.us/. For those of you interested in reading more about the reservoir projects, including links to online construction cameras: http://www.glendalereservoir.com/.

On to business…

You will recall that our last post indicated that December was the best month of 2008 for our local real estate market. As a reminder, here is last month’s graphic:

We have more good news to report - January was also a great month! Here are the details:

All of the numbers are climbing except for one important number: the “average days on market.” This number represents the average number of days that a house sits on the market before being sold. The fact that this number dropped represents that houses sold faster in January than the previous month.

Overall, these are good numbers, but we do have one concern and that is the large spike in new listings for January. Typically, we would see an increase in new listings in January as many homeowners delay putting their home on the market over the holidays. With that said, the increase was more than 100%, making January (going into February) a great time to buy. For sellers, the good news is that the average days on market fell by nearly two weeks!

Several of you called or emailed us and asked if we would break down our statistics by area, so here are those numbers. Note that they will be included in all future stats. We will be reintroducing the line graphs at the end of February when we have like data to compare to January.

If you have any questions, or would like to see specific statistics for your area, please let us know. We are also happy to provide you with a free evaluation of your home. To take advantage of this, as well as other freebies, click here.

Buying or selling, if you are ready to make a move, call us at 818.568.8402, or click here to contact us.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Still not sold on us? See what our clients are saying about us by clicking here.