Flip Fantasy

Here is some local flavor of note. 1035 Coast View Drive just came on the market, almost exactly a year after it was purchased for $1.6M.

The new price?? A whopping $2.35M. I'll try to look at the house in person soon, but from the looks of the MLS pictures, little more was done than some fresh paint, new wood floors, bathroom redos and a new kitchen. Given that prices have gone DOWN in Laguna Beach since 2006, me thinks this asking price is pie in the sky, but we'll follow this one and report back in the future.

Being generous and assuming that the remodel added $300K in value, then at most it would be worth $1.9M, but......some would say that the $1.9M should be discounted because the market has fallen. How much of a discount? 20% would result in a $1.52M selling price. Stay tuned.

Flip Flop

Another data point on OC home prices. I hit a few open houses last weekend up in the area of Terry Road, the neighborhood by Nyes & PCH. I went into an open house and asked "What ever happened to the house for sale over at 2800 Terry?"

The agent at the open house said that the house had been taken off the market. Must be waiting for the spring selling season in hopes of getting an offer.

I looked at the house from the outside and it certainly looked empty. The last asking price on the MLS was about $2.5M, which is very high for the neighborhood. The entire neighborhood has inconvenient beach access and suffers from PCH traffic noise. The next time you get OC quotes on comps from an agent, take them with a grain of salt if they are before October!

The house is new, but it is pretty vanilla inside - scattered on three floors and really lacking in design energy or excitement. Methinks it won't be going anywhere fast in 2008.

Canary in a Coal Mine

In the old days, coal miners would take a canary into the mine as an early warning system - the bird would pass out if the air couldn't sustain life, giving the miners an early warning to get out of the mine. Laguna Beach real estate is no different.

Witness our own Laguna Beach Canary, 2616 Victoria Drive. Bought in March 04 for about $1.5M, it now sports an astounding $4.3M price tag after an extensive renovation. I doubt this flipper spent more than $1m on it, but in any event, it has been listed 51 days already. It is in an awesome location quite close to the beach, but it lacks the common area amenities found in local gated neighborhoods. Given prices in LB have slid back to 2005 or so, I'm wondering if this one will sell at something like $2.2M-$2.5M.

Stay tuned for our canary watch! In the meantime, keep an eye on Laguna Beach homes for sale!