Calabasas Mulwood children walk to school

Walkable neighborhoods offer incredible benefits to the environment, our health, and our communities.  Cars are a leading cause of climate change according to walkscore.com, but your feet are zero pollution transportation machines.  Calabasas is not exactly the city that pops to mind when you think of a walkable community.  With its sprawling neighborhoods and gated communities, it seems that more people get around by car than on foot.

Fortunately there is an area of Calabasas that is wonderfully walkable.  Mulwood is located in eastern Calabasas near the Woodland Hills border.  Mulwood includes two areas; Greater Mulwood and Mulholland Heights.  Greater Mulwood includes the area bounded by Old Topanga Canyon Road on the East, extending to Gelson’s on the West, then continuing across Mulholland Highway up the hill almost to Topanga Canyon.

Encompassing about 1,500 homes, this is the largest non-gated community in Calabasas.  This neighborhood is ideal for children because Chaparral Elementary School, Alice C Stelle Middle School and Calabasas High School are walkable from every Mulwood home in fifteen minutes or less.  Before school starts middle school students can be seen riding their bikes and skateboards down Dardenne Street to Dagueere Avenue, and then racing the rest of the way down Mulholland Highway to school. A quick cruise around the parking lot and the bike racks fill up quickly.

Just a few more blocks from the middle school is Gelson’s grocery store, which includes an indoor and outdoor dining area, a bakery and deli.  This is a favorite after school gathering place for students to grab a slice of pizza or some ice cream.  The virtually zero pollution Calabasas Trolley, runs on natural gas, and has four stops in Mulwood while making its loop through Calabasas.  From Mulwood, the trolley continues to the Calabasas Tennis and Swim Center, then to The Commons at Calabasas and stops at the Library before it continues to Las Virgenes Road.

Home prices in this kid friendly neighborhood range from $600,000 to $1,400,000.  For more information about homes for sale in the Mulwood neighborhood of Calabasas or to find the value of your Mulwood home please call Tracey Thomas at 818-652-2937.

Calabasas Good News

You know the old adage, “if it bleeds it leads”…this article isn’t about the lurid details of the housing downturn or more foreclosure news.  Today’s blog is actually a positive look at the facts.  Of the 8,615 housing units in Calabasas, only 2.2% are in some stage of foreclosure according to Dataquick.  This is well below the national average of 7%.

That’s right.  The overwhelming majority of homeowners in Calabasas are not losing their homes.  They either own their properties free and clear or are making their payments on time.

Unfortunately this doesn’t mean that Calabasas homeowners are not upside down on their mortgages.  Quite the contrary, people who purchased Calabasas homes in 2005, 2006 and 2007 with 10% or less down are upside down.  Plus homeowners that used their homes as an ATM machine and refinanced to take out cash are also underwater.  But luckily, a house is home and upside down or not, families will do whatever is necessary to keep their homes.

If you would like more information about buying or selling a Calabasas home, please call Tracey Thomas at 818-652-2937.

Gulping for Air

Calabasas Homeowners will be holding their breath until 2015 according to First American CoreLogic as positive Equity Won’t Return For Most Underwater Borrowers for about five years.

First American CoreLogic estimates that the typical US homeowner who has negative equity in their property will not experience positive equity until late 2015 to early 2016. CoreLogic projects more than 11.3m, or 24% of all residential properties with mortgages had negative equity at the end of the fourth quarter 2009. While the largest decreases in home prices appear to have already happened, it remains to be seen when borrowers will return to positive equity.

To predict how long borrowers will remain in a negative equity position, CoreLogic projected future home values and unpaid principal balances to gauge how long it will take for the average underwater borrower to return to positive equity.

According to the projections, it will take the typical borrower until late 2015 or early 2016 for negative equity to disappear.  Negative equity is widely considered a trigger to strategic default, and a Treasury Department program announced Friday attempts to address the problem by pushing lenders and servicers to offer borrowers principal reductions on their mortgages.

Although house price appreciation will, over time, offset negative equity, amortization, the paying down of loan balances, will in most cases be a more significant remedy to negative equity, a research note from CoreLogic economists states. Over the next 10 years, the average loan balance will decrease by an annual rate of 3.3%; meanwhile home price are expected to increase at a 3% annual rate over the next decade.

If five years seems like a long time to be holding your breath, call or email Tracey Thomas to find out your options.  There are programs available to help underwater homeowners such as loan modifications, short sales and owner financing.  Our team specializes in solutions for distressed and underwater homeowners.  Please call 818-652-2937 now for more information.

Affluence and luxury surround Calabasas with the median home price close to $1,000,000. This means that most Calabasas homebuyers end up shopping for a jumbo mortgage. Since the mortgage meltdown of 2007, it has been difficult for a buyer to get a conventional mortgage, let alone a jumbo loan. In 2004, all a home buyer had to do was fog a mirror and he could get a mortgage, no income check, no asset check. But this hasn’t been the case since 2007 when banks became extra cautious. it’s been so bad lately, the famous Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov had to pull out of a real estate deal and lose his 53 million dollar deposit on a property due to financing woes.

Luckily the jumbo mortgage market has finally started to open up. This is great news for Calabasas home sellers and would be buyers. We’re finally seeing hordes of Calabasas buyers pre approved for a mortgage and ready to buy. I’ve hosted several several open houses in the past two months. Can you say “jam packed”? Home buyers are out there in droves and the inventory is low. There is less than 4.5 months of inventory for sale right now, down from 34 months of inventory in February 2009. Normally we say that six months of inventory is a balanced market. Anything more than six months of inventory is considered to be a buyers market and less than six, a seller’s market.

Home prices in Calabasas have started to creep up. During January 2009 there were 24 closings in Calabasas. Homes sold at approximately 93.67% of their list price for an average of $306 per square foot. The least expensive per square foot, a three bedroom, two bath, bank owned property with a damaged foundation sold for $231 a square foot. On the other end of the spectrum, true luxury sold for $420 per square foot. The exquisite Calabasas Oaks, celebrity style, five bedroom, six bath home included a home theater, recording studio and resort like backyard with jetliner views sold and for $2,700,000. In February there were 16 escrow closings in Calabasas. Homes sold at approximately 95.74% of their list price at an average of $337 per square foot. February sales ranged between a three bedroom, two bath condo on Las Virgenes Road for $410,000 to a Spanish Colonial estate in The Oaks with Brazilian Oak floors, cabana and dramatic views. This mini mansion sold for $2,800,000 or $413 per square foot.

Spring is prime home buying time. As buyers scramble to buy a home before school starts in September, expect to see Calabasas home prices continue to inch up.

To find out what your Calabasas home is worth or to buy a home in Calabasas please call Tracey Thomas at 818-652-2937.

Calabasas Homes in Escrow February 2010

Calabasas Mulwood Real Estate Sales as of Feb 21, 2010

Looking back ninety days there have only been four sales in Mulwood.  Two of them regular sales, one short sale and one bank owned property.  As of today, February 22, 2010 there are fourteen homes in escrow within the Greater Mulwood area of Calabasas.  Of these fourteen homes, seven (50%) are short sales, six are standard sales and one a relocation company sale.

Because Mulwood is in the lower price range for Calabasas, the area is very desirable, especially for families with children.  Most homes in Mulwood are within walking distance of the elementary, middle and high school.

Homes in a pre-foreclosure status have continued to decline in this area and indicates that we are getting closer to the bottom for troubled homeowners.  The prediction is for housing prices to stay flat in Mulwood for the next ninety days.

For more information regarding home prices and short sales in Calabasas, CA please call me at 818-652-2937 email me at tracey@traceyrealtor.com

Calabasas Mulwood pre foreclosure

In The Oaks at Calabasas there are only 17 homes for sale. You can get a four bedroom, five bath, 4479 square foot mini mansion for $1,599,000 or scoop up a luxurious seven bedroom, nine bath estate with a pool, water slide, guest house, security cameras and more for a cool $12,500,000. In Mountain View Estates off of Mureau Road there are nine houses for sale, all of them over 6,000 square feet, ranging from $1,999,999 to $4,500,000. In Mont Calabasas there are only three homes for sale and 26 in Calabasas Park and Calabasas Hills combined.

If the demand for homes continues to outweigh the supply, prices will certainly start inching up. The graph below shows the housing inventory decreasing almost 40% since the fourth quarter of 2006. The mortgage meltdown occurred in July of 2007 and you’ll notice this is when houses under contract (in escrow) fell sharply.

For more information on Calabasas home sales and prices, please call me at 818-652-2937 or email me at tracey@tracey@traceyrealtor.com.

Supply and Demand Calabasas Number of Units

More than 10% of the distressed properties in Calabasas are located in the The Oaks. According to Dataquick there are 205 properties in Calabasas, CA that have a Notice of Default filed, Notice of Trustee Sale, or are Bank Owned as of today. Of these properties, a whopping 28 (13%) are located in The Oaks. Not surprisingly most of these homes were built in 2006 and 2007. Chase seems to be the big loser here holding 10 (36%) of these super jumbo mortgages.

In reviewing the histories of these homes it  doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that there was trouble in paradise long before real estate prices started to decline.   All of these homes but two have a first and second mortgage and some even a third. Most of them have been refinanced several times in their three short years increasing the balance each time. Some of them have mortgages totaling 178% of their estimated current value according to Dataquick.

Not all of these distressed properties are listed for sale…yet. In fact of these 28 in The Oaks of Calabasas, only 8 are are currently listed on MLS. Many of these homeowners manage to refinance yet again or liquidate other assets to hang on yet another few months. But deals exist for savvy buyers if you’re willing to wait long enough for a short sale to be approved or be aggressive enough to have your REO offer accepted.

If you’d like more information on Short Sale and Bank Owned properties in The Oaks of Calabasas call of email me for a list that is updated daily.

The excellent Las Virgenes School district plus the low percentage of foreclosures in Calabasas has helped Calabasas homeowners to hold on to their equity.

To get monthly Calabasas Real Estate reports sent to you please call me at (818) 652-2937 or email me at tracey@traceyrealtor.com.

Calabasas Real Estate Median Price

Calabasas Real Estate Median Home Price List

So yes, there is a bank owned property on the market in The Oaks (REO’s we lovingly call them). The house was built in 2006 and has five bedrooms and six baths. The lot is 12,050 square feet and the house itself is 5,353 square feet. Since there are no pictures on the Multiple Listing Service I grabbed my camera and took photos when I was there.

Public records show this home was purchased in March of 2006. The buyers originally borrowed $1,461,292, four months later they refinanced their first mortgage and took out a second mortgage for a total of $2,210,000 (an additional $750k). A year later the house was listed for $2,900,000 (6/15/07) just a few weeks before the July mortgage meltdown. Still not landscaped this house just sat on the market. Even a price reduction to $2,500,000 in August didn’t help.

Unfortunately the house was foreclosed on just six months later. One wonders if there ever was a payment made on those new mortgages since the process of foreclosure takes just about six months. The house is now on the market again for $2,100,000. This is the lowest price per square foot in The Calabasas Oaks at only $392.30. But is it worth it? Now that’s another question entirely. Following are my viewing notes (kind of like wine tasting notes). I don’t usually publish my viewing notes publicly (I send them to my clients only) because as a Realtor we’re not supposed to advertise another Realtors listing. But I’m making an exception in this case since they’re so juicy.

The Oaks REO Viewing Notes

The house has absolutely no landscaping and is need of final grading, top soil and full landscaping, plus some privacy features since the neighbors are so close. The back yard is relatively small but there is room for a pool if you don’t need a large grassy area. The nice thing about this house is that it’s located only a block from the park which includes a great swing set and lots of grass for the kids to play. There is a view, but its of the roof tops of other houses. This house is on a hill so if you walk about half way in the back yard you can look down to the backyards of the street below, nothing a privacy fence or some interesting landscaping couldn’t cure.

The floor plan of the house is OK. The living room and dining room are one big room which I found a little strange since there is no formal dining room in this luxury home. There are French Doors that let in lots of light which is a plus. The kitchen has warmly stained cherry cabinets and stainless steel appliances with granite counter tops. There is a huge pantry with lots of great shelving. Kitchen storage would surely not be an issue. There is one bedroom with a full bathroom downstairs plus a powder room. Another feature that makes the house slightly mazy is a very long Butlers pantry that doesn’t really lead to the dining room. The area seemed a little dark and not such a great use of space. The house has two staircases. In my opinion an additional staircase just takes up lots of room and isn’t much use on a house that’s only 5,300 square feet. Both staircases lead to an open area that could be used for a kids den, play area or an office. The master suite is large with a huge closet with some great storage shelving. Here again, storage is plentiful. The master bathroom is nice with his and her sinks, a separate room for the toilet and bidet and big shower. The other upstairs bedrooms are large with their own bathrooms.

Overall the house needs some work. In my opinion the carpet needs to be replaced as it is stained and dirty. Possibly it could be cleaned? The house is painted all one color, and has crown mouldings but needs freshening up and some color. There are no window treatments on any of the many windows. The light fixture in the foyer and dining room are gone (clipped at the chain). And the house needs mega landscaping, plus whatever lurking problems that can’t be seen by the naked eye.

But the big question is, “is the house worth $2,100,000?” Here is the short answer, it depends on how much it would cost a particular buyer to do the work necessary to bring this house in line with the neighborhood and where you think the market is going. The average selling price in The Oaks is approximately $550 a square foot, this house is 5,353 which would make the cost $2,994,000 if it was totally done. I’d say for the $800k difference you could make the house quite nice. Financing is another concern on a project house like this. Not every buyer has the resources necessary to purchase this home and then do major landscaping.

Please call if you would like more detailed information, I would be more than happy to share it privately. I can also arrange for a showing and would be happy to show you comparable homes so that you can make an educated decision on this property. I also have pictures of the house when it was listed last year and a property profile. If you are interested in making an offer on this home, my suggestion would be do your homework and get your offer in quickly. There has been a tremendous amount of interest in this house and its possible there may be a bidding war. In my opinion, don’t go over the $2,100,000 asking price, there is plenty of inventory in The Oaks right now.

Click on the pictures to see full size.