Palos Verdes Real Estate

March 2024 Newsletter

Dear Neighbor:

I don’t usually cover this sort of thing, but as I’m sure most of you know Wayfarer’s Chapel has been in the news lately, and in my capacity as President of the Palos Verdes Historical Society, I figured I’d include a brief mention.  Next to La Venta Inn, which recently had its share of excitement, Wayfarer’s is probably the most iconic building on the Peninsula.  Higher than normal rainfall has caused the landslide not only to accelerate, but also to expand to the east and west.  Homes at the western end of the Seaview tract (east end of the slide) have now been affected, as has Wayfarer’s Chapel on the west end.  Of course the media will lead you to believe that the entire Peninsula is sliding into the ocean, so it is important to bear in mind that the aggregate total area of land movement on the Peninsula comprises about 1.5% of the original 16,000 acres purchased by Frank Vanderlip.

Wayfarer’s has now closed to visitors and there are guards on the property enforcing that.  When this first hit the news, I sweet-talked my way past them and took pictures of the current state of damage, which are on the front page of my website – www.DanaGraham.com.  The sidewalks are lifting, the glass is cracking, and the roof on the covered walkway on the east end is now noticeably uneven.  But the steeple is plumb and it was, on balance, not as bad as the reports made it appear.  While the prognosis is uncertain, they are looking at all viable solutions.

Back to real estate:  recent statistics for the cities on the Hill show the median sale price to be down about 25% in January from January a year ago.  That’s the median, not the average, and probably means that more less expensive houses have been selling than those on the higher end.  It’s also a small sample, so it is gratifying that the media hasn’t picked up this statistic to generate dire reports and ratings.  Prices continue to be supported by the lack of homes for sale – now at 107 on the entire Peninsula (single family, townhouses, condos) versus 75 last January, which was insanely low.  These are still historically low numbers.  In this market, if you have had your house for sale for over 90 days and it isn’t sold, and assuming no impediments to buyers seeing it, it’s the price.

But occasionally there are impediments which the sellers may not realize.  There are currently two glaring examples on the Hill:  one is a house in Lunada Bay that has been for sale for nearly 3 months, and the other is a lease in Valmonte.  What do these two properties have in common?  They are listed by out of area agents who, the evidence suggests, don’t know the first thing about Palos Verdes.  The Lunada Bay house isn’t even listed as being in Palos Verdes, and the agent for the Valmonte lease apparently thinks it’s in Lunada Bay.  This results in the actual Palos Verdes agents not even knowing these properties are available, which results in them not being shown/sold.  If you are thinking of selling (or leasing) your Palos Verdes house, please use a Palos Verdes agent, versus someone from out of the area.  You are needlessly shooting yourself in the foot to do otherwise.

I have a really nice family home for sale on Rue Le Charlene, on which we just reduced the price by $100K, as well as one coming up in Grandview that, as the name suggests, has an unbelievable, unobstructable 180 degree view.  Give me a call (310 613-1076) or email ([email protected]) if you want to talk.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 7th, 2024 at 8:05 am and is filed under Buyers, Everything I've Written, History & Current Events, Newsletters, Palos Verdes Information, Real Estate General Info, Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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