Address: 428 21st Place - 90402
Details: 5 bed/4.5 bath 4,878 sq ft house, 9,000 sq ft lot, 1988 construction
Description: Sensational Traditional with lovely private gardens and pool. Gorgeous wood and stone floors, ideal center hall floor plan. All rooms in the right places. Large living and dining rooms. Great open kitchen / family room with lovely breakfast area. Separate office / library. Sumptuously romantic master with large sitting area. 3 guest rooms + maids with private entrance. Fabulous back yard for entertaining with BBQ, pool & spa. This is a great offering for Santa Monica.
Previous Purchase: 7/30/04 - $3,550,000
Listing History: 8/11/09 - $3,449,000
SOLD: 11/11/09 - $3,250,000
This location is solid. The lot is large. The house looks pretty nice. I don't see many (any?) flaws here and yet, just like the real estate agents and the bulls said could not possibly happen, we've got a healthy rollback into 2003 territory.
I have consistently said that I think 2010-2012 will likely be a good time to make a purchase -- with the big caveat being that you don't lose your mind and overpay for something. With sales like this one, I think it should be clear that there are a few motivated and realistic sellers out there with quality merchandise to sell. As the froth continues to get squeezed out of the system, it becomes safer to buy.
Finally, the sale before the one in 2004 shows how much more downside may exist if you are really bearish. This house sold on
3/2/01 for $2,350,000. When the most bearish were posting on this site that we would go into a depression I argued against them. I will take this opportunity to once again argue against the biggest of the bears and say that I don't think we will see a nominal early 2001 price on this type of house. However, things get kind of interesting if you assume the 2001 price was close to fair value and then you do an inflation adjusted valuation.
Take 3% inflation and assume a March 2010 purchase date for an even 9 years of time from the 2001 sale. That brings you to a fair value of $3,066,000. So maybe this buyer jumped the gun a bit and could have bought this place a bit cheaper down the line...but I don't think you can call this purchase all that bad.