Venice Market: June - Sept 2009

While there seems to be heavy erosion in the Hollywood Hills home market, what's the drift at the beach?

All things considered, Venice seems to be the paragon of stability. In the past four months there were fifty home sales, including one for over $5 million, four for $2 - 3 million, and seventeen for $1 - 2 million. During the June - September period, the median sale price was $900,000. Currently, there is a scant seven months of inventory.

Venice is a hot market. Walk down the blocks north of Abbott Kinney and see the construction, with some owners rehabbing properties and others building new. The hip, laid-back life west of the 405 freeway never loses its appeal. C'mon, it's the beach!

Here are some sales from June - September 2009:

An eye-popping sale closed at 1311 Abbott Kinney. This 5 bedroom, 5 bath pad on a postage stamp-sized 3,397 sq ft lot sold for $5.6 million. That's well below its January 2008 $9.9 million asking price, but $5.6 million is a princely sum in the Los Angeles real estate market today.
The canals had some high-priced sales. 242 Sherman Canal, 2008 construction with 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths and 3,580 sq ft of living area, sold for $2.9 million. Two houses on Linnie Canal sold for $2.38 million and $1.89 million.

The pedigreed architectural project -- even with land purchased at 2006 prices -- is still alive and well in Venice. 743 Palms Boulevard, purchased in 2006 for $1.25 million, was formerly the site of a shambling bungalow. The site was redeveloped with a Marmol-Radziner 2,878 sq ft beach shack with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, and for $2.1 million three years later.

2009 is by no means 2006 and we estimate that values for properties priced $1.5 million and under have fallen 10 - 15% since the peak of the market. (And more for higher-priced properties.) 29 29th Avenue, a 3 bedroom house about 50 yards from the beach, sold for $1.67 million in October 2006. It was resold in July 2009 for $1.51 million, a 9.3% reduction in price.

887 Commonwealth Avenue was also sold in 2006 and again in 2009, except in this case the second sale was a foreclosure. This 2 bedroom, 1 bath home sold for $690,000 in November 2006 and was resold for $575,000 two and one-half years later. This is a 16.7% reduction in price, but some of this loss can be attributed to its sale as a distressed property.