Real Estate Blog

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Shawn Foster of Bluewater Inspections that took place on the night of October 12, 2009 in Hermosa Beach, CA:

Tony: Shawn, thanks for agreeing to sit down with me to talk about home inspections. How long have you lived in the South Bay?

Shawn: I moved here in 2001. I am originally from Kansas City, but I’ve lived in the Taos, NM area as well as in Scottsdale, AZ. Continue reading ‘An Interview on Home Inspections With Shawn Foster of Bluewater Inspections’ »

The development in knowledge has been felt in all areas of our lives, from the way we go, to our house needs like the kitchen area. The typical kitchen area of today includes refrigerator, a cook top or cooking array having a hood overhead, a counter best or over the array microwave and a dishwasher. Although the key role of a kitchen is made-up for cooking or preparing food, the kitchen is the main area in a home, where relations and guests likely to assemble for lunch or dinner. This makes quite a few folks pick fancy, costly kitchen area devices and there are many alternatives to select from. The cooking ranges can be replaced by more modern appliances; this can save a great deal of space to be used for a lot more counters or a roomier kitchen area. Picking the correct devices for kitchens is much more important for your well being than picking them for your living room. A bit of thought into what your needs is can make a large difference for your quality of life, specifically if you’re buying devices for small kitchens. Cookers and Cookware are the two most critical things. This could be effortlessly cleaned instantly after cooking. Stainless steel has turn out to be the fastest growing sector of household appliances. There seems to become no end to the use for the steel items. Steel can supply the consumer having a feeling of strength and durability, all at the same time. Many people like the proposal that stainless steel home appliances usually appear clean, when correctly maintained. Laundry appliances, which consist of washing machines and dryers, are one of the most popular consumer products. Refrigerators have turn out to be a necessity throughout the world in the past century, which puts them at the top of most bought appliances. In modern kitchens, quite a few buyers are deciding on alternate choices more than the cooking array. Microwaves have revolutionized the way plenty of people heat up their food, even though controversial it is a great time saver. With so quite a few devices to select from, it can be confusing and frustrating work of finding the perfect appliance.

Choosing a new kitchen is not only an exciting task, but one that is vital to ensuring that your house is raised in value. A kitchen has to have both functional and social elements, as well as exuding class and promoting your house.

It is important for your kitchen to reflect its surroundings and environment. For example, if you live in a period home, then an ultra modern kitchen with no heed of its surroundings may not be the right choice. Likewise, a farmhouse kitchen may look out of place in a modern warehouse conversion or waterside apartment. A fine balance of functionality, environment and personal taste needs to be balanced into the equation to ensure that a new kitchen fits your needs, as well as looking stunning in your home.

Continue reading ‘Choosing a Kitchen to Reflect Your Home’ »

If searching at your old cooking area fixtures and out of date cooking area décor makes you tired, it may perhaps be time for a kitchen area remodel, and you will find numerous new, contemporary styles that will revive by far the most famous area of one’s house. Changing the appear of the cooking area can enable you to appreciate spending much more time from the cooking area performing day to day things. A trend in current cabinetry would be to add glass shelving or transparent glass doors to your kitchen area cabinets. Stainless steel appliances are among the hottest trends these days in modern-day kitchen area design, and this finish matches nicely that has a wide variety of diverse kitchen area styles.

No kitchen area is considered complete without having particular appliances, plus the kitchen area array is among the most crucial appliances uncovered in any kitchen area. Electric powered kitchen area ranges are essentially the most common sort of variety currently uncovered within the industry; along with the most prominent may be the model with exposed coils around the leading on the cooking surface. The smooth leading kitchen area electrical array is generally favoured by a lot of consumers because of the smooth surface. It includes a range-top warming zone, a convection oven too as a second oven, and it all comes in a stylish package. The market place these days is filled having a wide selection of ranges that may go from just probably the most fundamental to by far the most complex.

Continue reading ‘Modern Kitchen Ranges And Home Appliances.’ »

The Golden Hills section of Redondo Beach is essentially bounded by Prospect Avenue to the west, Artesia Blvd. to the north, and Aviation Blvd. to the east and then south. Homes in this area are typically about 1,700 sq ft in size on average and sit on lots that average having 2,700 to 2,900 sq ft. Home values here have followed a pattern very similar to the greater South Bay area in general over the last several years.

In 2001, a home could be bought for just over $400 K on average. This number climbed steadily until it hit $800 K in 2005. It stayed at that level through 2007 before dropping to $730 K in 2008. This year-to-date the average sales price has been just under $690 K. Sales volume peaked in 2002 and has been dropping since. At the peak, there were 166 single family homes sold. In 2008, this number had declined to 72 homes. In 2009 there have already been 53 sales and there are 15 homes in escrow with pending sales. Continue reading ‘Home Sales Trends For the Golden Hills Section of Redondo Beach’ »

Manhattan Village is the only gated community in Manhattan Beach and, as such, offers unique opportunities for its residents. This area includes the Marriott Hotel and the Manhattan Beach Country Club. Over the last several years there have been four times the number of townhome sales than single family sales here. In fact, in a busy year there may only be eight single family home sales. The sales trends of the townhomes have matched a pattern that we have seen for the South Bay in general. The trends for the single family homes have also followed this pattern to some degree, but with a less consistent sales volume.

Back in 2001, a townhome here sold for $538 K on average while a single family home sold for $958 K. The price for the townhomes rose every year through 2005, hitting an initial peak of $1.072 M. Prices dropped in 2006 and 2007, but reached a new peak in 2008 of $1.2 M. This quite possibly may be the only niche of the South Bay market that had a significant increase in 2008. I should note that it was on a very low relative sales volume for the area. This year-to-date, the average sales price has dropped to $877 K. For single family homes, the average sales price rose consistently from 2001 through 2007. The peak value hit $2 M in 2007, but dropped sharply to $1.5 M in 2008. This can be attributed to a very low number of sales in 2008 and thus should not be used for decision making. Continue reading ‘Manhattan Village Home Sales – Trends’ »