Friday, March 13, 2009

Norma Triangle Pt. 3 - C'mon in, the Water's Fine ...

8960 Cynthia St. #101
1BR, 1BA / 775 sq ft.

$459,000 ($592/ft)
On Market: 163 Days

Sold: 4/04 - $349,000
Listed: 10/08 - $499,000
Reduced: 11/08 - $489,000
Reduced: 1/09 - $479,000
Reduced: 4/09 - $459,000


8960 Cynthia St. #106
1BR, 1BA / 771 sq ft.

$459,000 ($595/ft)
New Listing

No sales data found





8960 Cynthia St. #116
2BR, 2BA / 1196 sq ft.

$620,000 ($518/ft)
New Listing

Sold: 7/05 - $605,000




This will be the last of a three-part series on the Norma Triangle neighborhood (for now).

There's an interesting situation going on in the building at 8960 Cynthia, and one that's repeating itself throughout the real estate market.

Notice the first unit (#101), which has been on the market nearly 6 months, with the seller taking our favorite "death by 1,000 papercuts" approach to pricing. The listing says the unit has been "re-done", so maybe the seller didn't have a lot of room from the purchase price, but these minor price cuts mean nothing in a rapidly-moving market.

Now, enter unit #106, a nearly identically-sized 1BR. I couldn't find any sales data for this unit, which leads me to believe that it was purchased a while ago. The listing says the "bathroom and kitchen have been updated". A rational seller would probably look at unit #101, which has been sitting on the market, and price slightly (if not more than slightly) under it. Instead, they try to get cute and list it for THE SAME PRICE. Now, potential buyers have two units competing at the exact same price, instead of one priced lower than the other. And yes, I think even a minor difference ($10-15k) in this market actually makes a big psychological difference. If this is a long-time owner with pricing room, I'd look for a quick, significant cut here in the next 30 days. The issue is that unit #101, languishing on the market, may need to cut sooner than that, leading to a potential price war.

Unit #116 is not truly "comparable", since it's a 2BR unit, but interesting that it just came on to the market as well, also priced over $500/ft. Here, the sellers have no wiggle room - with commission, they're already losing money on this trade, but as we've seen documented by our friends at SM Distress Monitor and Westside Bubble, 2004 rollbacks are already happening, so the chance that this seller gets above $600k is slim to none.

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