Palos Verdes Real Estate

September 2020 Newsletter

Dear Neighbor:

So . . . back early in the year, did anyone envision what would transpire during the past 6 months?  Between the virus, the demonstrations, the civil (and often uncivil) unrest as reported on the news, and now the election, you’d think that nothing else was going on.  Of course, we all know better, and one thing that has been going surprisingly strongly is the real estate market.  Nice transition, eh?  You can imagine what it’s like showing houses these days – masks, booties, gloves, and forms the buyer must sign for each house stating that he doesn’t have the virus, and understands that he could get it.  Sometimes a pre-qualification letter is required prior to even viewing the house, as a way to minimize the risk from those who aren’t serious buyers.  Open houses (either for brokers or the public) are verboten, only one party can be in the house at a time, and we aren’t even supposed to have brochures in the houses on the theory that it could somehow transmit the virus. 

So you would think that the real estate market is dead.  Au contraire – the good news is that if you’re a seller, you only have serious buyers coming thru the door.  It’s not an environment conducive to lookie-loos, and we don’t see them.  The buyers coming to your house are screened and serious .  And since open houses are prohibited, you can spend weekends at home if you desire.  The other thing is that many sellers, as I said in my previous letter, are waiting for all this to blow over before putting their houses on the market.  This has resulted in a shortage of houses for sale, and those that are are getting lots of attention.  Why?  One reason, apart from the shortage of homes for sale, is that interest rates on a 30 year fixed rate loan are now under 3% with zero points if you know where to find them, which I do. 

I’ve got several lovely houses the owners of which are waiting for Covid to blow over before putting them up for sale.  But I also have several others coming up the owners of which are not waiting and will be on the market about the time you receive this letter:  a lovely 4 bedroom one level house in Los Verdes, a 3 bedroom one level 1800 square foot home in Grandview Estates asking $1,150,000, a 3 bedroom 2000 square foot house on a huge lot near Golden Cove at $1,300,000, and 831 Statler in San Pedro, the fabulously remodeled Tuscan style 5 bedroom former home of a famous opera star, with a back yard to die for, asking $999,000.  These will all be hitting the market within the next couple of weeks.

I and others have recently written a series of interesting (if I do say so myself) articles about Palos Verdes for the on-line magazine:  www.Palos VerdesPulse.com.  I am also the recently elected President of the Palos Verdes Historical Society, so if you want to discuss local history, military history, real estate, or Renaissance music, give me a call at 310 613-1076.  You can also visit my website at www.DanaGraham.com.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020 at 7:50 am and is filed under Buyers, Everything I've Written, Newsletters, Palos Verdes Information, Real Estate General Info, Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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