Palos Verdes Real Estate

March 2025 Newsletter

Dear Neighbor:

As we say in the business “inventory is up”.  I’ve always disliked the term “inventory” because it makes houses sound like just a commodity, which they never are to me.  Each house is filled with decades of precious memories.

Generally prices are at or near their all-time highs, prior predictions of doom notwithstanding.  As I discussed at the time, when Covid hit, pretty much everyone predicted that the market would tank.  What actually happened was that Covid restrictions and anxiety immediately created a severe shortage of homes for sale.  No one thought of this beforehand, but when all the retirement homes shut the door on new residents, all those incipient retirees (a fair chunk of the PV market) waited to sell.  That, combined with those who simply didn’t want strangers potentially with cooties in their house, plus persistently low interest rates, resulted in an almost immediate, and precipitous increase in prices of somewhere between 20 and 25% from 2021 to 2023.  The shortage of homes for sale still persists, and prices are still at or slightly above those levels.  In fact, the National Association of Realtors reports that the number of homes in escrow is at an all -time low.  Nationally winter is a slow time for sales, so that contributes . . . but winter occurs every year.

I have seen lately credible discussions of a housing bubble disturbingly reminiscent of that of 2008.  Under the previous administration income qualifications for FHA mortgages were relaxed, with the FHA making payments for homeowners who were late enough on them to risk foreclosure (known as “mortgage relief”), etc.  These payments are then added to the loan balance creating a kind of negative amortization. This has become a snowball which, if the current administration ends the policy, will likely cause a wave of foreclosures at the lower end of the price spectrum.  

The high density home builder who is trying to put 482 (!) units basically adjacent to Silver Spur School, has been denied again by the City of RPV, this time by the City Council.  I don’t know anyone in PV generally who favors this, except possibly the applicant himself, who lives in RPV.  As you probably know, cities across the State have been forced into a difficult position by Sacramento, the argument being that we have a “housing crisis” (ie, not enough houses) and more “affordable” ones need to be built; so the State is trying to force cities to allow it.  I won’t get any further into the weeds here except to say that I do not understand the logic that says that those who can’t afford it should be allowed to live where they want, essentially at the expense of those of us who have worked a lifetime to afford to live in a lovely place like Palos Verdes.

I do have several listings in Palos Verdes priced between $1.5 and $2.5 million coming up in the next few months, so give me a call at 310 613-1076 or email me at [email protected] if you’re interested.  You can also visit my website:  www.DanaGraham.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2025 at 8:18 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.

Leave a Reply