Real Estate in the Beach Cities: February 2010

Whether you're actively looking for Manhattan Beach real estate, like to spend your weekends looking at homes, or just want to take a peek inside your neighbors home, there is a lot to choose from this weekend with over 60 homes, townhomes and condos available to see.  If you're interested in Hermosa, Redondo, Torrance and other neighboring cities click to see the weekly South Bay open house list.

Keith Kyle is a licensed Realtor, short sale specialist and Top Producer with South Bay Brokers in Manhattan Beach.  He serves his clients throughout the South Bay and his websites KeithKyleHomes.com and FindYourSouthBayHome.com offer the most comprehensive real estate websites in the South Bay with free MLS access, current home listings, open houses, recent home sales information and more.  Keith can be reached at 310-251-2344 or by email at info@KeithKyleHomes.com.  For more information on the South Bay, visit my Beach Cities Real Estate blog.

One of the more hidden neighborhoods in the South Bay is the area of Hawthorne known as Hollyglen.  With it's own award winning school system, tree lined and inviting neighborhoods with only single family home, and a great location Hollyglen is a great option for many buyers that find themselves priced out of nearby El Segundo, Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach.  As the area is fairly small and the demand is usually quite high, homes often sell quickly and prices have held firm.  The inventory of homes west of the 405 San Diego Freeway hasn't been this high in quite a while and the average days on market of 80 is very unusual.

Currently there are 6 active single family homes on the market with an additional 3 currently in escrow.  The average price of the active Hollyglen homes for sale is around $579,000, with the average of pending sales being $554,000.  Since September 2009 there have been 21 closed home sales with the average closing price being just under $524,000 and the homes can be viewed on our Hollyglen recent sales page.  View the current listings and pending sales below and click on any listing to see additional information.

Keith Kyle is a licensed Realtor, short sale specialist and Top Producer with South Bay Brokers in Manhattan Beach.  He serves his clients throughout the South Bay and his websites KeithKyleHomes.com and FindYourSouthBayHome.com offer the most comprehensive real estate websites in the South Bay with free MLS access, current home listings, open houses, recent home sales information and more.  Keith can be reached at 310-251-2344 or by email at info@KeithKyleHomes.com.  For more information on the South Bay, visit my Beach Cities Real Estate blog.

This short sale opportunity is back on the market as the buyers walked.  This is a great 2 bedroom 2 bath condo on the 3rd floor of the Commodore, which is ideally located within walking distance of downtown Hermosa Beach, the pier, restaurants, shops, parks, the greenbelt and the beach.  Contact us for the open house schedule or visit our South Bay Open House information page

Keith Kyle | www.KeithKyleHomes.com | South Bay Brokers | 310-546-7611 1600 Ardmore #313, Hermosa Beach, CA Your opportunity to own instead of rent in the heart of downtown Hermosa Beach 2BR/2BA Condo Offered at $460,000 Year Built 1970 Sq Footage 1,048 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms 2 full Floors 1 Parking 2 car gated parking lot Lot Size Unspecified HOA/Maint $320 per month DESCRIPTION Beautiful and bright, this upgraded Hermosa Beach condo is ideally located and is perfect for the first time home buyer looking for their opportunity to live in wonderful Hermosa Beach. This corner unit features oversized bedrooms, 2 full baths, a beautiful and open upgraded kitchen perfect for entertaining, dining area, very spacious and bright living room with access to a sunny balcony perfect for your morning coffee or summer barbecues. The home is located in the heart of downtown Hermosa and is a very short walk to Pier Avenue, Pier Plaza, the greenbelt, 24 hour fitness, grocery stores, the beach, shops restaurants, schools and parks. This third floor corner unit offers extra light and ocean breezes. Complex offers indoor pool and spa, weight room, and huge outdoor deck in center of the building. View 1600 Ardmore #313 Website PROPERTY FEATURES - Central heat - Living room - Dishwasher - Refrigerator - Stove/Oven - Microwave COMMUNITY FEATURES - Garage parking - Covered parking - Fitness center - Swimming pool(s) - Sauna/Spa - Gated property - Secured entry - Elevator     OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES - In the heart of Hermosa - Walking distance to the beach - Third floor corner unit   ADDITIONAL PHOTOS Spacious livingroom In the heart of Hermosa Updated kitchen Oversized master bedroom Walk to pier plaza! Guest bedroom Contact info: Keith Kyle South Bay Brokers 310-546-7611 For sale by agent/broker Equal Opportunity Housing Posted: Oct 28, 2009, 9:32am PDT

The number of short sale and foreclosure listings has increased slightly in Hermosa Beach in the past few weeks with some previously listed homes coming back onto the market and some new listings coming onto the market just this week.  There are currently 13 homes on the market at some stage of the foreclosure or short sale process with 8 single family homes, 3 townhomes, and 2 condos.  Of the 13 2 the two homes at 1235 2nd Street and 1515 Monterey are bank owned with the remaining being short sales and properties with NODs (notice of default) filed.  Click on any property to request additional information.

South Bay Brokers is a Top Producer, short sale specialist and e-Pro with South Bay Brokers in Manhattan Beach.  He serves his clients throughout the South Bay and his websites KeithKyleHomes.comand FindYourSouthBayHome.com offer the most comprehensive real estate websites in the South Bay with free MLS access, current home listings, open houses, recent home sales information and more.  Keith can be reached at 310-251-2344 or by email at info@KeithKyleHomes.com.  For more information on the South Bay, visit my Beach Cities Real Estate blog.

Although I keep telling myself, and my clients, to not be surprised by anything the banks do in a short sale, it's sometimes hard to heed my own advice.  Last night I got the dreaded call from the buyers agent "my clients have found something else and can no longer wait for the banks to approve their offer".  This is just so frustrating and despite all of my efforts to keep the first time buyer and the buyers agent involved (weekly updates even though there's generally nothing to report, a slow and steady stream of disclosures, etc) it's just so hard for buyers, especially first time home buyers, to wait out the process.  This one was with Wells Fargo and they are generally pretty good with their time frames but now 10 weeks into the 6 to 8 week process I find myself without a buyer.  The new MLS rules which everyone seems to think is a great thing (although I disagree), requires the status of the property be put into pending, backup, or contingent, basically meaning that nobody has been looking at this listing for the past 10 weeks.  

I'm sure this is happening hundreds, if not thousands of times a day around the country but each time this happens, and banks take even longer than their normally long time to respond, they ultimately end up losing even more money.  I realize that there is quite a bit to consider for the banks and their decision, but it seems pretty clear that the normal 6-8 week period once they have and offer really is about 7 weeks of nothing happening and one week of the file actually being looked at.  I'm certainly looking forward to the process becoming more efficient and hopefully uniform in the coming months.