SOHO House to Open Another Members-Only Club in Century-Old Building in Downtown Los Angeles

According to Downtown News:

After more than a year of speculation and rumors, the confirmation is in: Soho House is coming to the ever-expanding Arts District. The locale? A six-story, 100-year-old warehouse on South Santa Fe Avenue.

The actual address is 1000 S. Santa Fe Ave, according to several sources familiar with the project. It's a 1917 brick building that had been used as rehearsal space for

IF YOU HAVE A NEST THERMOSTAT IN YOUR HOME, GOOGLE IS SPYING ON YOU

There is nothing more annoying than being bombarded with ads and emails for a specific product within hours of running a simple search on Google for said product. What's scary is when a service like Google moves beyond the internet and into our neighborhoods... even moving into our homes where they spy on us and sell as much of our personal information that they can get their sticky webbed fingers on.

As Salon.com reported in a piece in February of last year, Google Street View wasn't only taking photographs, and your Android phone can do a lot more than make calls.

Admittedly, we can simply choose to not use Google when we search the web or use

Why Housing Has A Supply Problem

There are just 1.89 million homes for sale, which is down from a year ago and well below current demand. The number of listings from January to February historically rises about 6 percent, but this year it inched up less than 2 percent. Inventory is a major issue for the housing market, as larger builders are catering more to higher-end buyers, which leaves very little for lower-end, first-time buyers to move into. Lack of supply is pushing prices again, up 7.5 percent year over year to a median sale price of $202,600 in February.


This is "all about inventory," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors. "Smaller local builders are not in the game. They don't have access to credit." Larger builders are catering more to

At Least 3 Things Home Buyers MUST Do Before Signing Off On A Property

Your offer has been accepted. Congratulations! Now begins the "due diligence" phase. The investigative process.

So we get all of the disclosures from the seller who is obligated under California law and the contract to inform you of everything materially that they know about the home they are selling you. Have there been plumbing issues? Has the property been painted in the last 12 months? Any flooding? AND they must inform you to the best of their knowledge of any goings on in the surrounding neighborhood - like airplane noise, fire department noise, disputes with neighbors, etc.

With that information alone, you may decide that you do not wish to proceed with the purchase. That's okay. You are free to walk away, having not spent a dime on inspections. But let's say you are

The Silicon Valley Techies Are Coming! And They're Buying Real Estate in Los Angeles!

Image From RadioLive

In a recent Los Angeles Times article, it was pointed out that the tech moguls are "snapping up" properties in Southern California in a very big way.

Since these high rollers been getting priced out from purchasing big homes up north, they have come south in search of their trophy property. Their weekend getaway. Their pied-à-terre.

This is fueling demand for real estate throughout greater Los Angeles and contributing to driving prices up even further. It's also a very big hint that, just like Randy Newman pointed out in his ode to Los Angeles song, everyone is back to loving LA even more!



So for those of you who live here and have always dreamed of owning a home in Los Angeles, it's time. Interest rates are very very low. Like 3.8% as of this writing. Sure the prices are a bit inflated, but balanced out with low rates, even if prices were to drop a bit in the coming months (though that doesn't appear likely) an increase in interest rates will keep your costs the same as now and for years to come.

The LA Times article also pointed out:

Mortgage rates falling; 30-year drops to 3.78%, Freddie Mac says

According to the Los Angeles Times earlier today:

Long-term interest rates declined this week, with Freddie Mac saying lenders were offering conventional 30-year mortgages at an average of 3.78%, down from 3.86% a week ago.

The average for 15-year fixed home loans slipped to 3.06% from 3.1%, the mortgage financing giant said in its weekly report, released Thursday. The initial rate on loans fixed for five years before becoming variable fell to 2.97% from 3.01%.

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Confidence in U.S. Housing Market On The Rise

American renters are growing more confident in the housing market, and more than 5 million are planning to buy a home this year, according to the Zillow Housing Confidence Index (ZHCI).

More than 12 percent of current renters nationwide – roughly 5.2 million – said they plan to buy in the next year, an almost 25 percent jump from the same time last year, when 4.2 million renters said they had plans to buy within 12 months.

Among all renters surveyed nationwide, 59.7 percent said they think buying a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, compared to 56.9 percent at the same time last year. This improved long-term outlook was especially evident among younger renters. Among all 18- to 34-year-old renters, 66.2 percent said owning a home was the best long-term investment, compared to 61.4 percent last year.


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Trulia Will Lose ListHub Data in April - Bye Bye Listings?

This is big news in the real estate industry, the consequences of which will spill into the consumer world of buying and selling homes.

Realtor.org just reported: The real estate website Zillow will soon stop receiving feeds of hundreds of thousands of for-sale home listings from ListHub within the next three months, as it expects to transition to its own listing syndication tool.

According to Inman news:

Second most popular real estate site could lose more than a quarter of its listings
Move Inc.-owned listing syndicator ListHub will stop supplying listings to Trulia on April 7, giving the second most popular real estate site less than a month to come up with an alternative source for more than a quarter of its listings.

At a hearing today, a San Francisco Superior Court judge lifted a temporary restraining order

March 2015 Housing Market Looks Amazing

Freddie Mac released today its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for March, highlighting some of the positive tailwinds at the start of the spring homebuying season.  Check out the informative video, along with the complete March 2015 U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook and forecast.

Outlook Highlights

• Expect 2015 to be the best year for home sales and new home construction since 2007 when total home sales were about 5.8 million for the year.
• Improved job prospects have started to drive those aged 25-34 back to the labor force, with 76.8 percent employed as of last month, up from 75.9 percent last year.
• Expect rising rents at or above inflation in 2015 to push more would-be homeowners into the market. Rents increased an average of 3.6 percent in 2014 and nearly 11 percent over the last three years.
• Due to some recent upward pressure on Treasury bond yields, the 2015 forecast for the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was increased slightly to at 4.0 percent for the year.
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Do You Understand the Mortgage Process For Purchasing a Home?

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The Importance of a Mortgage Pre-Approval

There was a time, early in my career, when I'd hop in my car and gladly take new buyers out to look at prospective homes before said clients had even checked with a lender to see how much mortgage they could afford. We'd buzz around Los Angeles looking at $400,000 fixers, then quickly work our way up to million dollar move-in-ready homes. Their wish list growing week-after-week, house-after-house.

"I want a pool," she'd say. "And his and her walk-in closets."

"I want a wine cellar," he'd say. "And a three-car garage."

This would go on for a weeks until my buyers had finally fixed their sights on the property of their dreams. An $850,000 beauty near the Grove. We then began the process of submitting an offer and the other items needed for them to be seriously considered by the seller. Then came the bad news:

TIME TO SPRING FORWARD - Daylight Savings This Sunday

Don't forget to turn your clocks forward before you pass out this Saturday night, because we will be one hour ahead on Sunday, March 8, 2015. That's right, you lose an hour of your precious beauty sleep. Just a friendly reminder, because that's what Realtors like me do - we remind you to turn your clocks ahead one hour. And please enjoy this video from our friend Boy George to help remind you why it's so important to turn your clock ahead...



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National Home Prices Projected to Increase by 4.9 Percent Year Over Year by January 2016

CoreLogic^® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider, today released its January 2015 CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI^®) which shows that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 5.7 percent in January 2015 compared to January 2014. This change represents 35 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 1.1 percent in January 2015 compared to December 2014.*

Including distressed sales, 27 states and the

Is Tiny Living For You?

These days, Tiny living is all the rage in a big way. There are even TV shows featuring living small. And let's face it: When it comes to real estate, aside from location, it's almost always true that the smaller you go, the less you pay, as square footage is king when it comes to finding most home values.

This week, Curbed Los Angeles will be running features for their first ever Micro Week. Their focus will be "five days' worth of stories, photos, and minuscule floorplans that celebrate the grand tradition of small-space living. We'll tour small homes, explore the city's smallest neighborhood, and so much more!"

So, are you ready to downsize? Whether it's a tiny condo or a teeny-weeny house that we in the real estate industry like to refer to as a "condo alternative", tiny living is more popular than ever. Take a look at Curbed Los Angeles's first feature How 7 Tiny Home Dwellers Learned to Love Micro Living

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