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Everything Sourdough 🥯 – TBG Update 1/10/2023

Everything Sourdough 🥯 – TBG Update 1/10/2023

I’m excited for our two new listings that just went live and are open today, Tuesday, from 11-2!

 

126 N Rossmore is an opportunity for a new owner to restore a 1924 Brick County English Hancock Park Home that’s sited on a flat 20,000 square foot lot.  The yard has a newer pool + spa and a legal guesthouse.  There are 4 fireplaces currently in the house – in the living, dining, den, and primary – and also an elevator!  There are 6 tall mature trees with grand canopies on top; the owner hired an arborist to do a tree report and all 6 seem to be robust, healthy, and poised to continue providing shade for many years to come.  The house is ripe and ready to be brought into the 21st century; once the renovation is complete it will be a showstopper on park-like grounds just a hop and a skip away from the Wilshire Country Club and Larchmont Village!

 

525 N Sycamore Unit 312 is a corner unit condo with 2 beds + 2 baths in a secure building with key FOB entry, gated off street parking, pool + sauna + recreation room, recent upgrades including new carpet in all the hallways building wide. Most of the building is 1 bed/1 bath units and there are only 2 bedroom units in the corners of the building, which makes this a relatively rare offering.  It’s super pleasant inside the space, filled with sunlight and quiet the times I’ve been there.  There’s also fantastic energy because the owners are hysterically funny so my every association of the space is with so much laughter and lightness!

 

December was active and busy for us. We closed on sales at 5552 Edgewood, 339-341 N Orange, 409 N June, 612 N McCadden, 1354 N Fairfax, 2405 5th Ave, 6135 Montecito (buyer), 623 N Fuller (buyer).  We leased 426 N Citrus, 345 S Mansfield, 333 N Orange, 1053 S Hudson, and 537 N June (tenant).  Most of these sellers had committed to sell before interest rates went up and these sellers stuck with their commitment to follow through and get their properties sold; 100% of them were thrilled with their decision at the close of escrow because they wanted to sell their properties and they did.  There’s something inordinately satisfying for every seller, in every market, about setting out to achieve a goal and crushing it. In this market, it might be more satisfying.

 

The market right now is deliberate and thoughtful.  Sellers mostly have locked-in mortgages at rates lower than today’s rates so selling means a thoughtful and deliberate decision by a seller to let go of those lower rates.  Citibank’s latest current rates (as of end of last week) are 5.250% for a jumbo 30 year fixed and 5% for a 10 year ARM (before relationship discounts).   Mortgage payments for today’s buyers are higher than they were just 6 months ago, so buying means a deliberate and thoughtful decision by a buyer to float new house payments at the current rates until rates go lower again, hopefully by 2024.  Running the actual numbers is smart at both ends because it makes the decision practical and based on real information versus emotional and based on theoretical considerations (and fears).

 

Measure ULA kicks in April 1, 2023, and that means sellers who sell their property for 5M or more have an added 4% transfer tax taken off  their sale proceeds, whether they sell at a gain or a loss.  We’re getting emails from attorney’s offices with offers of workarounds to the 1000% tax increase, but no details yet on how those workarounds actually happen in real life.

 

I finally joined all the sourdough enthusiasts and I love baking sourdough bread!  It’s so cool how a shaggy mixture of flour, water, starter and salt is so sticky at first but then as the dough rests, and with each stretch + fold, the dough gets more and more elastic and silky.  It feels (and smells) miraculous when that puffed hard-on-the-outside + light-and-airy-on-the-inside loaf comes out of the oven! Homemade (East Coast chewy) sourdough bagels and fresh sourdough (still hard to perfect) artisan pizzas are pretty neat too!  It was loads of fun to make an impromptu pizza party with the kids on Saturday night; one person’s hair got singed when the pizza oven was turned up too high.  Whoops!  

 

Wishing everyone an awesome weekend and week ahead!

 

Xoxoxo,

Sheri

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