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.

What a pleasant surprise to see a new feature on my searches.  The system now adds a line that indicates the percentage of the last price reduction, if there was one.  What this does is quickly give the consumer a little more information.  Here’s a quick example of two from my email alert a minute ago.

Notice Coronado had a 6% price reduction on 11/5 and Touraine had a 2% price reduction on 10/28.  It seems like they’re rounding up.  Coronado by my calculation was 5.7% and Touraine was 1.96%.  This data should not be taken out of context.  It will be most meaningful if you are tracking a property or neighborhood to watch for hyper-local trends.

This is not the same as searching by price reduction.  I asked our Multiple Listing Service about that recently.  They replied to my email that, no, price change percentage is not a value that they have at this time.

Is this of value?  If not, how could the search be improved?  I’ll pass your feedback on to our MLS and my IDX search vendor.

This home was on Tuesday Tour last week for the first time - as were several new listings.  I usually try to see all of them, but that day I selected 2 or 3 that I really wanted to see in the Half Moon Bay area, and then focused the rest of my touring on Pacifica and Daly City for clients.

24 Ventura St., Half Moon Bay, CA was one of the ones I previewed. 

This new construction home definitely has curb appeal - to me it looks like a combination craftsman/California ranch, fitting in perfectly with the beach community feel.  There are other homes on this street in west-side Miramar that have a different look and are obviously older.  That is a very common finding here on the Coastside and contributes to the uniqueness and “non-cookie-cutter ambiance” (made that up) of several local neighborhoods.  To check out what the street looks like, you can go to “Home Search“, select the property, and go to the Maps tab.  There you will see the Google Hybrid View..

and the Google Street View…

What I most remember when I walked in was the very open and welcoming feeling and the very special master suite.  The 4 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms, large open living area and island kitchen flow nicely over approximately 2700 square feet on a level lot.  The builder put in beautiful finishes and materials including walnut hardwood floors that bring a stunning richness and warmth to someone’s future home.  The main living area has a beautiful tile (easy maintenance) flooring.  No stairs wanted?…no problem…and there’s very easy access from the garage to the kitchen.  Oh, it’s also got a built-in vacuum and radiant heat.  Picture this home with the landscaping a bit more mature and this home will be a true oasis, yet only a short distance to the Coastal Trail, the Bach, Ebb Tide Cafe on the beach, and much more - not to mention it’s overall great location.

If you’re in the area, stop by this Sunday 9/14 or next Sunday 9/21 from 1-4 and we can chat in this beautiful setting.  Or we don’t have to chat, you could just walk through.  I promise I won’t make you chat.  Bring a friend or neighbor who may be contemplating a move-up to a larger home but with the ease of a single level.  Special thanks to Listing Agent, Deborah Cozzolino, for offering me the opportunity to hold open this beautiful home and showcase it for you here.

Miramar Market Snapshot

There are currently 9 active homes in the Miramar/City of Naples neighborhood of Half Moon Bay ranging in asking price from $750,000 to $1,849,000.  Of the 9 homes, 3 are new construction.  One Miramar home has sold in the past 3 months - in 5 days.  There are no pending home sales in Miramar as of this post writing.  Average Continuous Days on Market is 29; at least one is a re-list from a prior listing.  At an asking price of $1,350,000, this home is is in the 2nd quartile (the second highest range of list prices for Half Moon Bay) making it an ideal move-up consideration for a 3rd (median of approx. $1M) or possibly 4th quartile (median of approx. $750K) homeowner. 

To get email alerts of homes that you’re looking for, simply go to “Home Search” and set up a Log-In and password.  This is a new search system and it’s very interactive.  To be notified when I write a new post, you can subscribe to Coastside Real Estate and Lifestyles.

The Half Moon Bay Coastside is brimming with inventory!… so it may be a little too easy to miss the perfect home.  We skim over homes on the web (there’s hundreds of sites), or on a list (have some more paper), or driving by (gas & time, although it is fun), or looking at a house-hunting mobile application - hoping that something is going to jump out at us, shake us, and say, this is the ONE.  So allow me to focus your attention on one home for just a minute…

Open today, Sunday, Aug. 24th.  Stop by to preview and chat, I’ll be there 1-3 p.m.

Here’s my opinion on the ideal buyer for this home.  As a top quartile* property on the Coastside, this home will be attractive to a buyer looking for…

• beautiful finishes
• architectural details
• An open and accessible kitchen for the chef-enthusiast, or wants to look like one
• Kitchen and family room toward the back of the house which is not visible to the formal entertaining areas
• The formal dining room and living room at the front part of the home ideal for business/formal entertaining
• a unique combination of tradition and the “coastal living factor”**

* top quartile’s median stats: list price is $1,799K; 3820 sq; 4br, 3ba, age 19 yrs., DOM 112. (note:  this home is $1,699K; 4br, 3.5ba, 3 yrs., CDOM 343).

** “coastal factor”explained (my definition):  home also offers features to maximize coastal living, such as open floor plan, lots of windows, sun exposure, mud/laundry room off the garage — for the sandy feet, of course.

And a couple other features it’s got going for it…

• Location! on the street, within the neighborhood, and in the area - it’s got it all.

• It has a ground level bedroom!  This is huge,  some of the new construction homes don’t have the ground level bedroom, or it’s set up as a guest room/office with no adjoining bathroom.  This one is a suite.

Thanks to Bill Mahar, Listing Agent for this home, for inviting me to showcase this one for you and hold it Open today.  As you can imagine, I’d love to find the perfect buyer for it.  Aside from the fact that this is my chosen career (i.e. livelihood), I simply love helping people find the perfect home to suit their goals.  Do you know someone who’s been waiting for a great price for a stunning home in the Miramar area of Half Moon Bay?

To read about more showcased homes, subscribe to Coastal Real Estate and Lifestyles.

A few days ago Pam Buda announced in our Homescopes meeting that her Healdsburg listing will be featured LIVE on Trulia’s Blog via webcam.  When our Sonoma County colleague and owner of wine country real estate blog, WineCountryandHorses.com, invited me to join her at her Open House this Sunday, July 20th, I jumped at the opportunity to witness this cutting edge listing tool in action.  As with any listing, most agents will plan a marketing strategy to maximize exposure to the most likely potential buyers.  When an opportunity like this . . . Trulia offering to do a live webcam of your open house . . . is added to the marketing of the home, it opens up even more possibilities to powerful online exposure.  WOW.

Pam has taken another terrific step by involving her Homescopes associates.  When I write a blog post about an Associate’s listing, my readers are exposed to new information they may not know about otherwise.  For example, my readers span San Mateo County, all of California, and beyond.  My Google Analytics report shows the top worldwide visitors to my site:  United States, United Kingdom, Norway, India and Canada.  Pam’s Analytics report may show her readers come from other places.  In any case, it’s additional exposure for her listing - more exposure means greater chances of the right buyer.

The perfect buyer for this adorable vintage craftsman bungalow in the heart of the wine country may come from anywhere.  If you have ever thought of exploring Sonoma County, or Healdsburg in particular, for either a second home, a vacation rental property, a legacy home, or a ’downsize’ home, what better way to attend an open house if you can’t physically be in Healdsburg?!  Check out this online open house tomorrow, Sunday, July 20 between 1-3;30 on Trulia’s Blog.  The home is located at 414 Piper Street, Healdsburg, CA and will be physically open from1-4 p.m.

The use of these 2.0 real estate technology and social media tools are at the heart of an exciting and transparent trend for our industry that will benefit buyers and sellers.

And my camera was the conductor while holding 620 Ruisseau Francais, Half Moon Bay open last weekend.  This is a 5 bedroom home in the quaint neighborhood of Frenchman’s Creek.  Offered for sale for $899,000 by the CBHMB Bell-Fisher-Fowler team.