9040 Cynthia St (90069)$1,245,000
3BR / 3BA
1,279 sq ft (?)
Lot Size: 4,500 sq ft
Pristine Country English home situated behind lush privacy hedges, pedestrian gate, and gated driveway. French doors, hardwood floors, updated kitchen/bathrooms and high ceilings. Detached guest studio with gorgeous remodeled bathroom. Flat grassy yard, verdant period landscaping, spacious outdoor patio off of sun filled den complete this charming offering. Seconds from Sunset Strip and Beverly Hills adjacent. Show cold.
Sold: 8/27/02 - $575,000
Sold: 3/16/05 - $921,500
The Redfin/MLS listing didn't show square footage, so the number is from my least favorite site, Zillow, but Zillow's also reporting the house to be a 3+2, so I'm guessing the guest studio with bath mentioned in the description isn't included in the size. So maybe closer to 1500 sq ft?
Anyway, this looks like a nice property with some recent renovation. I would give this a slight location discount since you're on Cynthia a half-block off Doheny, in a mixed residential area (large multi-family building across the street and at the beginning and end of your side of the block).
So, why the "canary" in the title? Much like the birds sent in first to test the quality of air in a mine, it will be interesting to see if and how listings like this, with sales near the beginning and in the thick of of the "bubble" era, will survive.
It's difficult to tell what renovations were done when, but from the info I see, this wasn't a tear-down situation. Same structure with some renovations over time. So an almost doubling in less than 3 years from 2002-2005, and now another 30% on top of the early 2005 price?
Ask 10 people about when the "bubble" started (in other words, what prior price levels we should be looking at for normalcy over the next few years) and you'll get 11 opinions.
Personally, I think we're in for a period where, 5-8 years from now, prices will be nominally the same as they were in the 2004-2005 era, so lower on a real basis including the effects of inflation.
Do I think we'll get back to sub-$600k for a nice SFR like this in a solid area? I'm not that bearish. But could we see a $900k type price tag 5+ years from now? Sure think so.
3 comments:
Saw this property back in '05 and it was "updated" back then with new kitchen and bathrooms -- makes you wonder whether there should be disclosure about the last time certain features were "updated."
Don't remember the detached guest studio, but this could be another example of a quiet coversion of a garage into living quarters, without the requisite assessor adjustment and increase in property taxes designed to support infrastructure, services, schools, etc.
Not to mention whether such "guest studios," "bonus rooms," "mother-in-law quarters" etc. are up to safety codes in the first place. We can continue to bemoan the lack of parking spaces on public streets.
And if a canary burns to death in one of these conversions, we can all have a candlelit march down Santa Monica Blvd. to show our concern.
The current asking price is overly optimistic, but I guess you have to start somewhere before going down.
I always consult the LA County Assessor's site for square footage. According to that site, the house itself is a three bedroom/two bath affair with 1,279 sq. ft. That's entirely believable as my own house is a 2 bd/2 ba. with 1,160 sq. ft.. The bedrooms will just be modest in size and ditto the bathrooms. According to the site a deed was recorded in March of 2006 with assessed values of $800,100 for the land and $200,000 for the structure.
The only way to sell property in this market is to price it low and attract a bidding war. That obviously wasn't done here. Plus, you don't list it at the end of the selling season.
flaminia.
For what it's worth, actor John Krasinski (The Office) owns this house, but has already moved out. Some people may be willing to pay for a "celebrity" home. So it might not be the perfect canary.
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