Real Estate is LOCAL!

I just attended a presentation by Leslie Appleton-Young, Economist for the California Association of Realtors. She is really great at distilling market conditions into easily understandable data. Because her presentation was for the Malibu Association of Realtors, she customized the data to be applicable to our Malibu/Topanga area. I love the way she cuts to the bottom line. The most important bottom line here -- our local market is NOT EVEN CLOSE to the condition of most of the state. Take a look at her numbers on home sales drops:

Home Sales YTD
Below $500,000 Down 24%
Between $500,000 - 750,000 Down 26%
Above $750,000 Down 5%

Since the Topanga Market pretty much begins around $700,000, we are in the category that has only experienced about a 5% drop in home sales.

According to Appleton-Young, the high end home market is pretty normal. In fact, the level of activity at the high end is actually skewing the median home price higher because more homes are being sold in the high end and number of sales of homes at the low end has decreased.

I believe the most powerful effect on our market has been emotion. The press is reporting worst case scenarios as the headlines. Buyers and sellers are hesitant. My advice -- read the whole article. Somewhere down at about the second paragraph from the end will be something that relates to our Topanga market that admits it's a normal adjustment for the high end markets.