Palos Verdes Real Estate

July 2022 Newsletter

Dear Neighbor:

As you know, if you read these letters regularly, I have been predicting the imminent end of the crazy, partially Covid-induced real estate market of the last 2 years.  The combination of a shortage of homes for sale due partially to concern over Covid, with the persistently low interest rates and, until about a year ago, booming economy, extended the normal real estate cycle beyond the normal 9-10 years, resulting in a run-up in prices to historic highs.  This clearly could not continue and is now coughing and sputtering as such cycles have done in the past.  Just as one indicator, there are now 3 times the number of homes for sale in PV as there were 3 months ago.  The combination of rising interest rates, stock market uncertainty, and decreasing affordability is rapidly taking the steam out of the market.  If you are planning to sell in the next year or two, have no other considerations affecting the decision, maximizing the price is important, and you haven’t heeded my advice before, heed it now.  My money says that we will be well into a correction by Fall.  On the other hand, if you’re not planning to sell for 8-10 years, history shows that the market will likely be well on the way to recovery by then.

Okay, a little bit of PV history.  As most people know, the Greek freighter Dominator ran aground off Rocky Point in March of 1961.  I remember when this happened and it was a big deal – we all went over there to stare at it.  The cargo was beef and grain, which soon began to ferment, with the resulting odor wafting across Lunada Bay.  The Dominator was the former World War II Liberty ship SS Melville Jacoby, named after a Time Magazine reporter killed in the South Pacific in 1942, and built by Kaiser Steel.  They were built in sections to speed wartime production and the sections were then welded together.  There was one structural weak point that tended to crack when the ships hit the cold North Atlantic water while taking lend-lease supplies to Russia.  When the Dominator famously broke in two, this is where it broke.

The Dominator, of course, ran aground shortly before Palos Verdes High School opened the following Fall.  There was a lot of discussion about what the school name should be, and one of the leading candidates was the Dominators.  I think the image of the ship having run aground and the implications for the name of the girls’ teams did that in, and Sea Kings was settled upon. 

I don’t normally do this, but Patti Kaupp recently passed away.  She was a long-time member of Neighborhood Church and many members, and others in the community, knew her.  Her memorial service is Thursday, July 28, at 1 pm at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church at the corner of PV Drive North and Crenshaw.      

Give me a call at 310 613-1076 or visit my website:  www.DanaGraham.com.  I look forward to hearing from you.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 1st, 2022 at 9:03 am and is filed under Buyers, Everything I've Written, Newsletters, Palos Verdes Information, Real Estate General Info. 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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