Lansner on Real Estate

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Tell us ‘Is SoCal luxury home market slipping?’
2008-05-20 21:15:00
Two views of high-end SoCal real estate in today’s newspapers … • L.A. Times … Median sale prices fell by 13% in Beverly Hills in April, compared with the same month last year. Rancho Palos Verdes dropped 18% over the same period, while Newport Beach’s 92660 ZIP Code took a 34% hit, according to DataQuick Information Systems. Experts say these areas and others are catching up with price declines that struck first in outlying suburbs such as the Antelope Valley and the Inland Empire, where many first-time home buyers purchased their properties with sub-prime loans. “You can’t have one market hugely cheaper than another forever,” said UC Berkeley professor Thomas Davidoff, who specializes in real estate. Davidoff and others say the time lag stems from the fact that affluent homeowners generally don’t have to sell under duress, unlike struggling borrowers facing escalating mortgage payments. But wealthy homeowners are increasingly fin...
More About: Luxury , Market , Home

L.A.-area million-buck home prices off 3.7%
2008-05-20 21:04:00
Prices for luxury homes in Orange County and elsewhere in California continue to hold up better than the broader market, according to a new study and anecdotal evidence from real estate brokers. The First Republic Prestige Home Index showed prices for homes valued at $1 million or more fell 3.7 percent in the Los Angeles area in the first quarter of 2008, compared to a year earlier. That compares with a 20.5 percent drop for the median home price in Orange County in April compared with a year earlier, according to DataQuick. In Orange County, prices for inland luxury properties have fallen, while homes in beach communities have retained their value, said First Republic Bank, which publishes the Prestige Home Index. While the luxury market isn’t immune to the fluctuations that beset lower-priced homes, it hasn’t been affected to the same degree by the downturn of the past year, said broker Victoria Lee of HOM Group in Newport Beach. People who own homes in the coastal luxury mark...
More About: Area , Million , Buck , Prices

Mid-county’s homebuying slump over?
2008-05-20 12:00:00
Analysis of DataQuick’s April O.C. homebuying report shows the county’s midsection — where the pain of credit crunch struck first — is showing some of the earliest signs of a market bottom. Mid-county ZIP codes — Santa Ana, Anaheim, etc. — had 534 sales last month, a drop of just 1% from a year ago. What likely got shoppers buying was bargain hunting. In these mid-county 24 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was off 25.0% vs. a year ago. (Do you see a bottom? VOTE HERE!) Compare that to countywide trends where sales were off 19% while the median selling price fell in the past year by 21%. Last month, 20 of 83 O.C. ZIPs enjoyed sales gainers year over year vs. just 2 in March. Of April’s 20 gainers, 12 were from the mid-county zone. (ZIP-by-ZIP chart IS HERE!) The buying slump has landed ashore in the county’s beach-close communities. DataQuick identified 388 homes selling in beach cities’ ZIP codes last month, an 18...
More About: County , Slump

Foreclosures 4 in 10 SoCal home sales
2008-05-20 03:00:00
DataQuick reports today that nearly four out of every 10 homes sold in Southern California last month was formerly a home foreclosed upon by a lender. That binge of bargain hunting boosted sales to their highest level since the credit crunch hit in August and cut the median price of a Southern California home by nearly 24% from the peak price reached several times last spring and summer. It also pushed home sales in Riverside County – which DataQuick called “the epicenter of Southland foreclosure activity” – above year-ago levels for the first time in two years. Meanwhile sales continued to fall below the pace of activity from the year before in all other counties. It was the 15th consecutive month of falling sales in the region as a whole. DataQuick quoted its president, Marshall Prentice, as saying: “We continue to look for evidence of a sales bounce in the mid-priced and higher-end markets along the coast. If the higher conforming loan limits are making a difference...
More About: Foreclosures , Sales , Home

Homebuying surge reaches 20 O.C. ZIPs
2008-05-19 21:00:00
One sign of an improving O.C. housing market is that DataQuick’s homebuying math shows in April 20 of 83 ZIP codes enjoying more sales this year vs. a year ago. While that is still a slim slice, ponder March when just two ZIPs had sales gains on a year-over-year basis. (See the entire ZIP chart for April HERE!) Here’s what you need to know about the latest home sales data … • DataQuick says shoppers completed home deals at the fastest pace since July. CLICK HERE! • And it could continue: Steve Thomas of Re/Max’s data on home deals in escrow suggests the homebuying surge will continues. CLICK HERE! … so what’s up? • Not prices! By DataQuick’s math, home prices are at lows last seen since March ‘04. CLICK HERE! • And last month, cheaper homes were the hot sellers. CLICK HERE! … but it’s not all rosy! • DataQuick says foreclosures continue to surge. CLICK HERE! • As Thomas’ data shows distressed properties...
More About: Surge

Where did April’s surge in home sales come from?
2008-05-19 20:20:00
A DataQuick breakdown of April single-family house sales by price shows that low-priced houses outsold those at the high end of the price spectrum. There were 973 houses that sold for $500,000 or less last month, compared to 712 that sold above $600,000. The number of houses that sold for $500,000 or less increased 55% last month, up from 629, DataQuick figures show. And the number selling below $400,000 doubled to 549, up from 263 in April 2007. At the same time, there were 47% fewer houses selling last month above $600,000, down from 1,341 in April 2007. The DataQuick figures confirm an earlier report by Aliso Viejo Realtor Steve Thomas showing that cheaper homes are selling quicker. The middle? The number of houses selling for $501,000 to $600,000 decreased 32% in April. Here’s a breakdown of house sales activity by price: Slice Apr-07 Apr-08 08 Vs. ‘07 <$400,000 263 549 108.7% $400,001-$500,000 366 424 15.8% $500,001-$600,000 422 286 -32.2% $600,001-$700...
More About: Sales , Home , Surge

O.C.’s home values dip to lowest price in four years
2008-05-19 17:47:00
DataQuick’s final stats from April show a $500,000 median selling price that is -20.5% vs. a year ago and -22% below June 2007’s peak of $642,500. Last time lower? March ‘04. Shoppers bought 2,166 O.C. homes last month, -19.2% below April 2007’s buying activity. Since ‘88, monthly sales averaged 3,793 per month. Here’s how the market looked, by key slice … Slice Price Vs. ‘07 Sales Vs. ‘07 House $555,000 -22.9% 1,461 -11.9% Condo $390,000 -16.1% 520 -28.6% New $457,500 -24.2% 185 -37.3% All $500,000 -20.5% 2,166 -19.2% • COMPARE: CLICK HERE to see how other home-price indexes see O.C.
More About: Home , Years , Values

O.C. monthly home sales crack 2,000 for 1st time since credit crunch
2008-05-19 17:47:00
The spring surge in sales continued to erase the impact of the last summer’s credit crunch in the Orange County housing market, DataQuick Information Systems reported today. Sales totaled 2,166 in April, the first time sales were above 2,000 homes a month since the market-thrashing liquidity crisis — caused by investors shunning mortgage securities sold on Wall Street, thus drying up home-loan funding. Home buying in April, by DataQuick’s math, hit its 31st consecutive month where sales failed to beat the year-ago level. History shows us that last month’s buying was 19% below a year ago and 46% below the average April since 1988. Year-to-date, O.C. homebuying is -57% vs. the 20-year average actvity. Here’s a look at O.C. homebuying, since ‘88, showing monthly sales totals for 2007 and 2008 so far and how they compare to the 20-year monthly average for that month … Month ‘88-’07 avg. 2007 2008 ‘08 vs. avg. January 2,737 2,40...
More About: Credit , Time , Crack

Cheap-home rush cuts O.C. supply under 6 months.
2008-05-19 09:01:00
Market watcher Steve Thomas at Re/Max Real Estate Services in Aliso Viejo every two weeks calculates “market time,” a benchmark of how many months it theoretically takes to sell all the inventory in the local MLS for-sale listings at the current pace of pending deals being made. By this Thomas logic, it would take 5.82 months for buyers to gobble up all homes listed for sale last Thursday at the current pace of deals vs. 6.08 months two weeks earlier and vs. 8.0 months a year ago. Last Thursday’s “market time” is the lowest in 14 months. A key reason: the latest count deals in escrow of 2,658 is up 166% vs. Jan. 19’s wintertime low. Market time is also shrinking because cheaper houses are in vogue, with market time for homes under a half million down 41% vs. a year ago; and for homes between a half-mil and three-quarters of mil down 38% vs. a year ago. The overall market time is down 27% vs. a year ago. Says Thomas: “it is a matter of ti...
More About: Home , Cheap , Rush , Cuts , Months

Shaky credit no big problem for SoCal rental applicants
2008-05-19 00:05:00
First Advantage SafeRent’s latest rental-applicant study suggests that SoCal homeowners may be hurting financially, but would-be tenants seem to be doing fine. LA-OC-Riverside ranked fourth in the U.S. during the first quarter for the high credit quality of its rental applicants, by First Advantage SafeRent’s math. SoCal came in at 112 on the company’s first quarter Multifamily Applicant Rent Index. That was unchanged from the fourth quarter ‘07. (Anything above 100 means tenants are less likely to stiff their landlord.) New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island had the best tenant applicant pool with an index score of 118. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose placed second at 117 followed by Gainesville, Fla. at 113. Nationwide the index was 100. The West, with a score of 105, was second only to the Northeast at 110. SoCal SafeRent Index 2007 2008 1Q 112 112 2Q 116   3Q 115   4Q 112   For other recent rent news: House/condo renters la...
More About: Credit , Rental , Problem

Insider Q&A hears next home-price peak 5 years off
2008-05-17 09:46:00
Cameron Merage is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Costa Mesa-based First Team Real Estate. The chain grew from one office in Huntington Beach in 1976 to 33 offices and more than 1,800 agents in Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties as well as the desert area. First Team executives say the housing slump helped their firm increase its size and market share. We recently asked Merage how he sees the housing market’s future. Us: How do you see what’s happening in the O.C. housing market and when do you think the market will hit bottom? Merage: For the first time since the down cycle started, the market is now “in alignment” in terms of prices, with sellers & lenders (loss mitigators) on one hand and home buyers on the other. This is evidenced by the fact that in the month of April, more home buyers and sellers came together and not only had more transactions and achieved more sales than any of the previous months in 2008, but for the first t...
More About: Home , Price , Years , Insider , Peak

Tenants often innocent victims of foreclosure
2008-05-17 03:00:00
A recent Register story by Mary Ann Milborn discussed how when banks foreclose on investment properties, tenants often end up on the street and lose prepaid rent and deposits. The story says …. Brenda Magana, a housing specialist at the Fair Housing Council of Orange County, says the problem is snowballing. “Last year we were seeing three or four tenants (facing foreclosure) a month,” she says. “Now we’re seeing three or four a day.” Dianna Baumann, a Tarbell Realtors leasing agent in Mission Viejo who represents tenants, recounts horror stories of renters caught up in the mess. In most cases, she says, the first time the tenant knows there’s a problem is when the notice to vacate is tacked on their door. Increasingly she is seeing situations in which a landlord leases the property after already getting behind on the mortgage. Some have even received a notice of default, the first step in foreclosure. In many of these cases she says the own...
More About: Foreclosure , Innocent , Victims , Tenants

Homebody’s garden fix for your weekend
2008-05-17 02:59:00
The Register’s ace home design and gardening guru Cindy McNatt, author of the ‘Homebody’ blog (CLICK HERE), joins us with must-read ideas for those destined for a weekend in the garden. • Going ga-ga over green • Copper gates and other fauxs • A pillowy approach to color • Hold them hills • Old plant gets interesting again
More About: Garden , Weekend

O.C. homebuying near 8-month high in late April
2008-05-16 19:04:00
DataQuick’s freshest Orange County homebuying stats from late April hint the month could mark the first month with more than 2,000 homes sales since August. For the 22 business days ended April 28, 2,117 residences were sold, down 29.4% vs. a year ago. Pricing was soft, too, off 20.6% vs. a year ago. Before the credit crunch zapped easy mortgage money beginning last summer, only two months since 1988 saw less than 2,000 O.C. homes changing hands. O.C.’s suffered seven straight through March. To be sure, 2,000 sales ain’t huge. Since ‘88, DataQuick reports show sales averaging 3,793 per month. DataQuick’s latest report shows that 15 of 83 O.C. ZIPs had year-over-year sales gains; 13 ZIPS had year-over-year prices gains. See the ZIP-by-ZIP data HERE! Perhaps you can ponder why it takes a $191,106 income to buy an O.C. house. Here’s how the O.C. market performed in this most recent period by the slice: By the slice … Slice Price Vs. ‘07 ...
More About: High , Late , Month

Help us decipher U.S. homebuilding stats
2008-05-16 16:58:00
The U.S. Commerce Department’s April construction report said … Builders started construction at an annual pace that’s the slowest since January 1991. Construction of multifamily units rose 36%, March to April, following a 35% February-to-March drop. From March to April, total overall building starts up 8.2%. Permitting for future residential construction rose 4.9%. Some conflicting signals, no? April's firmest trend? 17-year low for houses Multifamily reversal Total improving Future permits up View Results
More About: Stats

SoCal architecture hits the Middle East
2008-05-16 07:46:00
Emaar, the Dubai real estate giant that gobbled up O.C. builder John Laing Homes near the market peak in ‘06, says it’s bringing some SoCal style to … Egypt? Yes, a $1 billion mixed use project (see accompanying rendering) with a look you’ve seen before. As the press release describing the work says … Shopping centers are modeled on the open-air lifestyle concept popular in California, featuring beautifully landscaped terraces and dancing fountains, spacious eateries under the sun and stars, and relaxing coffee shops to meet friends or do business. The town center is a lively palm tree-lined retail promenade blending the best of European city lifestyle and Santa Barbara architecture, and with leading retail brands and restaurants. Just what the world needs, more faux Spanish-Moorish architecture! To read more, CLICK HERE!
More About: Middle East , Architecture , The Middle East , East , Middle

Brokers’ O.C. home sales off $234 million in April
2008-05-15 22:14:00
SoCal Multiple Listing Service stats shows that in April there were $1.21 billion worth of O.C. residences sold through the local brokers’ network, down $234 million or 16% in a year. Much of that decline in home purchases closed last month stems from severe weakness in the attached-home market. Brokers sold 19% less attached homes this April vs. ‘07 and the median price received was off 18%. All told, $270 million of O.C. attached homes were sold, a 32% drop in a year. As for detached homes, 1,021 houses were sold by brokers in this count for April, a 9.5% increase. It took a 23.6% drop in prices for those homes to draw out more buyers in this category. All told, $937 million worth of O.C. detached homes were sold, a 10% drop in a year. It’s worth noting that April’s O.C. sales-dollar total is half April 2005’s O.C. housing bounty. Or $1.2 billion less.
More About: Sales , Home , Million

O.C. home prices remain triple U.S.
2008-05-15 15:22:00
Fresh Realtors statistics from 2008’s first quarter tell us this about a home-value benchmark I like to watch … In the last quarter, O.C. single-family homes sold at a median price of $597,900. That’s off 14% vs. the year-ago period. Meanwhile, U.S. single-family homes sold at a median price of $196,300, down 8% vs. the year-ago period. Thus, my “Orange County premium” — how many typical U.S. homes you can buy for the cost of one mid-priced O.C. residence — was 3.05 vs. 3.2 U.S. homes to O.C. homes in the previous quarter and 3.28 in the year-ago period. If you look back over time, you see this premium parallels broad movements in the local real estate market. In the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, a bottom in the premium it seemed to hint that price rallies were possible. And twice in recent memory — 1989 and 2004 — the premium peaked just as those rallies were running out of steam. (Read read how this premium got me “in troub...
More About: Home , Triple , Prices

May 15 : Avg. US mortgage rates
2008-05-15 06:00:00
Freddie Mac
More About: Mortgage , Rates

Housing ills add to fast food’s woes
2008-05-15 04:30:00
Jack-In-The-Box CEO Linda Lang had this to say during a conference call with Wall Street analysts. Thank you, Seeking Alpha … Brian Moore, Wedbush Morgan Securities: Linda, you certainly have been in the industry a long time. Can you give any kind of macro view on, I guess what we’ve seen has been a trade down or deceleration of sales within fast food or (quick-serve restaurants)? It seems casual diners have suffered for so long and (quick-serve restaurants) has held up well. Now we just get negative retail sales numbers yesterday for (quick-serve restaurants.) Sales appear to be softening. Any thoughts on your experience during previous kind of downturns? Linda Lang: If you go back to 2000-2001, where some of it was self inflicted because we were doing aggressive discounting at that time, and there is a little fear of that. If you have read about Taco Bell, they are rolling out a very aggressive value menu. I think it is all related to the economic conditions; and you hav...
More About: Food , Fast Food , Housing , Fast

OC/LA rent increases near 8-year low
2008-05-14 22:41:00
April’s Consumer Price Index showed a continued slide in the SoCal rental market, with rents rising 4.2% from April 2007, the lowest annual increase since September 2000, according to the numbers crunchers at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A year ago, rents were going up at a 6.4% pace. Landlords in the Los Angeles-Orange County-Riverside area, however, still were raising rents. In 1995, at the height of the last big recession, rents declined at a 0.4% annual rate. Annual rent increases for homeowners renting out their house were 3.6% higher in April than in April 2007. Last year, the so-called owners’ equivalent rent of a primary residence grew at a 6% pace in April. The price overall to keep a roof over your head (minus purchase costs) rose 2.5% over the last year, the slowest rate since March 2004 when it was 2%. Other local consumer housing price news: Fuels and utilities overall jumped 7.2% in the last 12 months Residents using natural gas saw prices surge ...
More About: Rent , Year

O.C. aids builders. Why not small fry?
2008-05-14 09:21:00
Joining the growing roster of government agencies helping housing-ravaged fat cats (say, perhaps, Bear Stearns?) … O.C.’s Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved deferring certain development fees for builders in what the board is calling — now get this — “an economic stimulus package.” For the next year, the county will now charge developers when they actually build a home, not when they file building plans. (Fees waived include some road, library, park and other development taxes.) To read more, CLICK HERE! Your blogger dialed up John Moorlach, chair of the Board of Supervisors who dreamed up the builder break. Not that we begrudged builders any help, I was asking when the county’s small fry might see county financial aid. Moorlach did note that builders employ people who’d be considered small fry, and what’s good for the building companies might be good for their worker bees. And Moorlach was fairly cool to my consu...
More About: Builders , Small , Aids

Newport Beach bayfront mansion listed for $38.5 million
2008-05-14 09:21:00
It’s palatial and French neoclassic. Big dock on the water. You can find it in Newport Beach now up for sale for $38.5 million. And if that price target is hit, this sale could break the record $35 million price paid for actor Nicolas Cage’s Newport Bay home nearby in January. Agents with HÔM Real Estate Group said their brokerage just got the listing along with Willis Allen Real Estate of La Jolla. This big-ticket listing follows news that an O.C. price record was just set for an off-water home: a $27.1 million sale of a Corona Del Mar house. This pricey waterfront property new to the market, at the tip of Harbor Island whose residents include Irvine Co. boss Don Bren, is described by HÔM’s listing on the Catalist Web site as a 23,000 square-foot lot hosting a house having 10 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms within 18,000 square feet of living space. Willis Allen’s Web site described the Harbor Island home, completed in 1990, this way: “Spectacular and eleg...
More About: Mansion , Million , Listed

Tell us ‘Is $27 million sale sign of housing bottom?’
2008-05-14 03:19:00
No press release will officially decree when the O.C. housing market’s revival begins. As a public service, we’ve dug up certain bits of fresh evidence (click the links for more details on each trend) that hints that a bottom might be close. That’s “bottom,” as in end of the relentless downturn, not a return to the go-go days. So let’s go bottom fishin’ by grading the chances that the market’s tumble is over. Review our recent catch of trend-hinting news … O.C. price record set for off-water home: $27 million Late April’s homebuying dip smallest since July Demand for O.C. homes nears ‘06 levels Industrial property still hot in O.C. O.C. home market at ‘absolute worst’ What do you think? O.C. near turnaround? It's here Vey near Kinda close Far off Not on radar screen View Results
More About: Sale , Housing , Sign , Million , Bottom

Drop in Calif. real estate licenses continues
2008-05-13 22:27:00
California Department of Real Estate statistics show that the number of real estate licenses has plateaued. But even though the number of licensees has decreased for a fourth consecutive month, the total remains close to record levels. Real estate licenses peaked in November at 549,244. That’s 1.5 licenses for each house sold in the state in all of 2007 by the California Association of Realtors’ count. Licensee numbers have decreased steadily since then, falling to 546,247 in March, the latest DRE number out. California real estate licenses soared during the housing boom, and people continued taking the state license exam in near-record numbers for a year after sales began to slump. Professionals say that their colleagues have now been forced to leave the business in droves, taking full-time jobs elsewhere. But many are keeping their licenses active and staying in local Realtor associations, either working part-time as agents or hoping to return to the business when the ...
More About: Real Estate , Licenses , Drop

O.C. toll roads traffic falls
2008-05-13 22:26:00
Want to bet the weak O.C. real estate market has something to do with this? To the north, on the 91 Express Lanes, traffic’s off 6 percent in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year through April vs. the previous year. Assuming the trends hold, this will mark the first drop in use since the Orange County Transportation Authority took control in 2003 Head south, and on the Foothill/Eastern tollway, and you find traffic down 3 percent in the same time frame. Previously, the road enjoyed traffic growth ever since it opened in 1993. And near the sea, traffic on the San Joaquin tollway is down 2%, heading toward its second yearly drop in usage since the debut in 1996. The last drop came in 2001 as drivers shunned the road during the dot-com technology bust and ensuing economic turmoil. Today, with gasoline pushing four bucks a gallon, local folks are clearly looking for ways to cut their transportation budgets. Why else would Metrolink train ridership be up 5 percent in the...
More About: Traffic , Toll , Roads , Falls

Newer O.C. apartments suffer more vacancies
2008-05-13 15:23:00
REIS Inc. reports that during the first quarter, O.C. apartments built after 1999 had 2.5 times the vacancy rate of the county as a whole. Countywide vacancies were 4% in the 784 O.C. complexes that REIS studied. Units constructed after 1999, however, had a 10% vacancy rate. The oldest apartments — built before 1970 — had the fewest vacancies at 2.8%. Rents made the difference. Apartments built before 1970 rented for $1,359 while those constructed after 1999 went for $2,055. The average county rent was $1,550. Year Built Vacancy Rate Before 1970 2.8% 1970-1979 3.2% 1980-1989 4.2% 1990-1999 3.6% After 1999 10.0% All 4.0% Related items: Investor/attorney sees tough times for landlords Bad O.C. economy hits 1-bedroom apartments Foreclosure refugees head for O.C. apartments O.C.’s high-rent districts suffer higher apartment vacancies

Historic home becomes O.C.’s 4th priciest sale
2008-05-13 03:14:00
A group of investors with “an international perspective” bought the house built by a former Irvine Co. boss on the promontory overlooking the entrance to Newport Bay, listing agent Rob Giem said. Quatre Saisons Real Estate LLC, which lists its address in a Pasadena office building, sees the Corona del Mar home it bought near its $28 million asking price as a bargain investment that will appreciate over time. “They’re very bullish on property in this area,” said Giem, a high-end agent with HÔM Real Estate Group. “They think demand for the best-of-the-best will increase.” Myford Irvine built the 15,000-square-foot “Hale O Pau Hana” house in 1958, intending to use it as his personal estate. Irvine, who ran the Irvine Co. from 1947 to 1959, died shortly before the triangle-shaped residence with a huge great room, 19-foot-high ceiling and spectacular bay views was completed. It has been home to technology executives Wendy and Rick Av...
More About: Home , Sale , Historic

Is O.C. builder Standard Pacific up for sale?
2008-05-13 03:01:00
Standard Pacific Chief Financial Officer Andrew Parnes said during this morning’s first-quarter earnings conference call that the beleaguered Irvine-based homebuilder is exploring several “alternative financial and strategic opportunities.” Among them: “… a merger, business combination or sale of the company.” Parnes and other top Standard Pacific execs immediately moved on to other financial matters without elaborating. Nor did the matter come up during the more than 30-minute question-and-answer period afterward. The company’s 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission contained this comment on Page 47: “As a result of these uncertainties, and to help position the Company to weather the current market downturn and to be prepared to take advantage of market opportunities when the market strengthens, our Board of Directors has initiated a process to examine alternative financial and strategic opportunities available to us...
More About: For Sale , Sale , Standard , Builder

O.C. price record set for near-ocean home
2008-05-12 19:06:00
A Corona del Mar home has been sold for what’s reportedly the highest price for “an off water property in Orange County,” according to Rob Giem of HÔM Real Estate Group. The home, known as “Hale O Pau Hana,” is located at 411 Avocado Avenue in Corona del Mar. Giem would only say that it had an asking price of $28 million. Giem’s people would not give a firm sales price, though the Wall Street Journal quoted “local brokers” (and Giem represented both sides of the deal) saying “about $28 million.” Giem described the house as … A long private drive serves as the entrance to the 1.4-acre landmark estate that extends to a bluff overlooking Newport Harbor. The main living areas comprise 15,000 square feet on one level and are designed around the estate’s centerpiece–an open-air palm-lined pool court with a free-form infinity-edge pool and spa surrounded by palms. Vast banks of glass doors surround the entire p...
More About: Home , Ocean , Price , Record