Palos Verdes Real Estate

January 2025 Newsletter

Dear Neighbor:

Not to beat it to death, but real estate prices were flat for most of 2024.  As you know, there was a big run-up in prices during Covid, the reasons for which I have discussed previously.  By all odds, there should have been a post-Covid price correction; but if there was, it was barely measurable.  One reason was the number of people who re-financed when interest rates were under 3% and don’t want to sell their house and give that up for the current 5%+, which contributed to the shortage of homes for sale, which supported prices.

In my January 2024 newsletter there were just 75 homes (including condos, townhouses, single family homes etc) for sale on the entire Peninsula, which was historically low.  There are currently only 124 for sale by the same criteria, with 562 sales in 2024 versus 566 in 2023.  Just for comparison, in 2019 (the last full year before Covid disrupted everything) there were 755 sales.  As you may recall, Covid created an almost immediate shortage of homes for sale in the Spring of 2020 due to fear of it and consequent difficulty in showing the homes that were for sale.  With Covid hopefully permanently in the rearview mirror, there are now other, primarily interest rate, factors creating a shortage, and thereby keeping prices at or near their all-time highs.

The landslide in Portuguese Bend continues to dominate priorities at the City of RPV, as it should.  As of this writing, the slide has slowed drastically.  I’m no geologist, but I’m sure the dewatering wells have helped, along with the lack of rain.  Any significant rains this winter will be the acid test, as my dad used to say.  I remember when that slide “started” in 1956 (it was an ancient landslide that shows up on maps from the early 20^th century).  Many homes were destroyed seemingly out of the blue, with the grading of the planned Crenshaw extension to PV Drive South getting the blame.  Knowing what we know now, I’m not so sure that was the primary cause, but Crenshaw was blamed and those who lost their homes received a monetary settlement from the County.  This, of course, resulted in immediate stoppage of work on Crenshaw and the closure of the prison roughly where CVS Drugs is today – the prisoners were working on Crenshaw.

And now, for something out of left field:  January 8, 2025 is the 210^th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans.  Even if you memorized Johnny Horton’s famous ballad “In 1814 we took a little trip . . .”, there was a lot more to it.  The odds were heavily against the Americans but, to the astonishment of the world, the Americans won (I love it when the underdogs win).  So in my capacity as a military historian, on January 10^th I am commemorating that battle by giving the true story of how that victory came about.  I have included a flyer with time and location.  I hope to see you there.

OK, back to real estate:  I’ve got a very nice 4 bedroom 3 bath, 2862 square foot home in upper Lunada Bay coming up about the time you receive this.  On a quiet street, remodeled, with a sweeping view, we will be asking $2,595,000.  Give me a call at 310 613-1076, email me at [email protected] if you’re interested or just want to talk, or check out my website www.DanaGraham.com,  and have a great 2025.                                                                                                                                                                                              

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 7th, 2025 at 7:36 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. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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