Coastal Real Estate and Lifestyles

This is a beautiful neighborhood of spacious homes, many of them with ocean views.  However, buyers haven’t been making their move on this neighborhood for several months.  The last single family home sale in Miramar was in January 2009 - 4 months ago!  That sale was a small 3 bedroom, 2 bath home on a approx. 5,000 square foot lot on the west side, within an easy walk to the coastal trail and beach.  As a bank-owned property, it sold for over-asking price at $432,000.  It’s highest sale price in 2006 was $685,000.  That’s a 36% drop - significant for the Coastside, Half Moon Bay, and the Miramar neighborhood.

I’ve been holding open 365 Coronado, eastside Miramar, for the last several months for the Listing Agent, Margot Lockwood, Coldwell Banker Woodside.  This is a lovely approx. 2600 square foot, 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with tons of light and a great cook’s kitchen with plenty of room for entertaining and work-from-home options.  You can note this home and other homes and property types in this Miramar search link HERE.

This week’s social networking led me to share this stunning photo of Pillar Point Harbor with you.  If you want to read the story, it’s below the photo.  Otherwise, enjoy this local image in honor of Earth Day (Wednesday)…it just took me a couple more days to get this to you.  Photo taken by Treve Johnson.  Use this link to Treve’s PhotoShelter to purchase photos and gift items from his collection.

It started by my asking a question on LinkedIn to offer my niece some good contacts to assist in her job search following graduation from UCLA this June.  I sent the question to my network, which, by the way, generated several great responses. . .plus I enjoyed hearing from some people I hadn’t chatted with in a few months.  One of those people was Treve Johnson, who I met while working on a high-end property listing a few years ago.  He provided a thoughtful answer to my question, which I provided, along with the others, to my niece.  I clicked on his site and saw a great photo “In Praise of Earth Day” and quickly sent him an email asking if he’d send one of his Half Moon Bay Coastside shots so that I could also honor our little corner of the earth and showcase his talent at the same time.  This waterfront photo is what he sent.  Enjoy.

Thanks Treve!

Pacifica sellers were rewarded with lots of buyer activity last month.  Do we call it the spring bump?  pent up demand? first time home buyer tax credits?  feeling that we’ve hit a bottom here? or all of the above…

Accepted offers jumped 41% in March from the prior month.

Of ALL pending listings, not just new March pendings:

• 6 are Pending Release - average list price $417,000 - 83% are short sale or REO

• 14 are Pending Show - average list price $615,000 - 28% are short sale or REO

• 20 are Pending - average list price $497,000 - 70% are short sale or REO

I’ve noticed that short sale listings will change status immediately to any of the 3 statuses.  Therefore, I wouldn’t call this a turn-around in the market, even a short term one, with over 50% (23 out of 40) pendings identified here as either short sale or bank-owned (REO).

Market activity does appear to be increasing in Pacifica, even if it is too soon to call it a “trend” this spring season.  However…we are quite pleased to notice that March 2009 had the most accepted offers within in the last year.  March had 29 accepted offers with an inventory of 73 single family homes.  A year ago in March 2008, there were 20 accepted offers with an inventory of 97 single family homes.

One reason for continued uncertainty is the short sale process.  An accepted offer (accepted by the homeowner/seller) is usually needed to open a file at the bank in the loss mitigation department.  The listing agent may list the property for a low price in order to generate an offer; then while it sits in one of the pending statuses in the MLS, the listing agent is working to keep that offer viable.

We’ll be watching to see if most of these accepted offers close escrow during their scheduled dates of mostly April and May.

Some day, most listings will have the home’s green point rating number displayed along with the other features on its property brochure.  For now, I’m finally beginning to hear open home visitors mention the word “green” when referring to listings they’re visiting.

However, there’s a new phrase in town, and it’s called “green point rating”.  A California-based professional non-profit organization, named Built It Green started with a GreenPoint rating for new homes first.  They then added GreenPoint rating for remodels and multi-family homes.  It’s called “GreenPoint” because each system in the home is graded on a point system (between 1-4) on the level of energy savings, environmental friendliness, water conservation, and indoor air quality.  Check out their site at builtingreen.org for the checklists, what they’re working on now, local green raters, government ordinances and incentives by city/county in California, and much more.

San Mateo County Green Building Ordinance

In my opinion, listings that have green features, such as solar panels, FSC-certified wood, dual pane windows, low-flow toilets and shower heads, need to include a Features/Benefits sheet in their disclosure packages.  In other words, if the seller has already invested thousands of dollars in the property by installing solar panels to save electricity, show the buyer the savings!  In our information overload society, we need to point out the most advantageous features and how they will benefit the buyer if we want to get their attention.  Knowing your green point rating, or having a good rating is a feature that can easily be translated into cost saving and added comfort benefits to your buyer.

I’ll follow this up with a post about the most notable Coastside listings with green features.  Also, I made some great contacts at the Coastside Green Energy Fair a couple weeks ago.  All that’s to come also, when time allows!