Pardee / Moorpark Highland update + Big Sky Simi - Glenmeadows pic

I went by Pardee Homes Moorpark Highlands this weekend, unfortunately after a day out on the town my camera battery was shot. Not much to report, no protesters around the offices trying to inform people of the Mello-Roos issue. What was interesting was the number of lots clearly being worked on nearby. I am not sure, but I don't think very many of these were for the current Shenandoah, Cherry Hill, Magnolia Lane development, and if true it kind of leaves the door open for lower cost developments to come in during this slow time. I will grab some pictures later as there is a lot of new lots going in. There was a fair amount of lookers at all 3 developments for Sunday 3pm in January, imho.


Before hitting Moorpark I stopped by "Big Sky" north on erringer at the 118. This is a collaborative effort by such builders as D.R. Horton, Shea Homes, and Standard Pacific. This area was the former Big Sky Ranch where "Little House on the Prairie" and "Bonanza" were filmed. Lots of big new houses about half being able to afford to put landscaping in, and the other half just letting the weeds grow through. I drove through Crosspointe, Tioga, and Glenmeadows. Here is a higher end house and bigger lot than typical for the area, but the green you see in front is weeds with a dirt lot for a lawn.

All this can be yours for a mere $1,000,000+.

Simi short sale?

2859 Briarpatch (Zip realty account required) in Simi Valley, according to zillow it was sold on 10/12/05 for $563,000 now selling for $450,000 with 5% realtor fees that is a $136,000 loss that someone is going to eat. I can't imagine the bank will just happily accept that. My guess is that this house will be seen on the bank owned lists soon.

Wednesday points of interest.

Every Wednesday I look at the weekly Mortgage Application Index which is a good leading indicator of the national housing market. After reading the release and adding the data to my charts I like to go over to the great blog Calculated Risk for their roundup and discussion, Please join us.



Also, once a week I take a sample of data Simi Valley inventory levels, this week was the first week since August that the inventory didn't drop. If inventory stabilizes here and starts going back up for the Spring selling season it would represent a starting inventory equal to almost 50% of last year at this time. This represents an extra hurdle to the new selling season as it is already starting behind the eight ball somewhat in regards to supply and suggests that the real estate agents are having trouble finding market price.



I also highly recommend reading todays O.C. Register article regarding L.A. County versus Orange County housing markets. They have a great graphic representation of what is happening in the housing market by price range:



The high-end is compressing down onto the low-end and this will be THE trend to watch in the coming selling season. The "spread" between the high-end and low-end widened during the housing boom and now it is coming back together. When things are running hot people are willing to stretch their finances more, but as things cool down people stretch less and are willing to buy in the lower end areas in order not leverage themselves. Keep an eye on the monthly DataQuick zip code chart for more information.

And finally, head over to the Wall Street Examiner blog for a wealth of charts and data on the state of the new home housing market. There is such a wealth of data there it will take some time to digest, but it is worth it.

Another Real Estate Blog?

This blogs purpose is to discuss real estate in general. As a consumer in Los Angeles & Ventura County today, I hope to bring a different point of view to the various discussion regarding the local economy, the local real estate market, as well as the national housing market. I also hope to bring local real estate agents and local consumers together in a place so we can ask questions and get answers in an open forum. I'm also going to be posting interesting houses I find off of the MLS for discussion.

Some of the statistics I get from watching the MLS will also be available here, because I don't think you can get the health of a local market without historical context.