My hot new listing in Playa Del Rey near LA's dubbed Silicon Beach. Your opportunity to grab your own slice of paradise. Open floor plan and new hardwood floors. Remodeled full baths.
Ocean views, steps to the beach, 3 bedrooms and 3 full baths! Rare top floor penthouse unit next to the Playa Del Rey Lagoon with views of the marina and ocean.

Feel free to contact me direct at 310-963-1623 call or text. Love to show it to you. Serious inquiries only. Location next to the marina bike path at the end of Pacific.

6220 Pacific Ave, Unit 301, Playa Del Rey, CA 90293

Who wants to be my neighbor? Available for lease at $6000/month. Great way to experience the beach lifestyle before you buy!

Sandra Lew -  310-963-1623 or sandy@sandralew.com
Lic#01920376 Re/Max Estate Properties

For Silicon Beach homebuyers, a salary’s just a starting point

New breed of homebuyers in Silicon Beach. High tech affords creative sources of income and tapping into financial resources not possible in the past.  Stock options and crypto are big players to help the new tech professionals afford and be able to boost their purchasing power. This is all leading to a buying freenzy and further driving up demand when inventory of homes are still low. As a local real estate broker with my pulse on the market I'm dedicated to all your real estate needs. I've got the tools to help you navigate the home buying process. As a resident of LA's area dubbed Silicon Beach I know firsthand how frustrating it is to get into bidding wars so let's connect. I'll send you my link to search the MLS (multiple listing service) for up to date information on homes in your area of interest. Love for you to be my neighbor. sandy@sandralew.com
Check out my website: www.sandralew.com



For Silicon Beach homebuyers, a salary’s just a starting point

Techies tap stock options and crypto in deal making frenzy.

By Alexei Barrionuevo | June 06, 2018 10:00AM

 

There was a time when buying a first home meant patiently saving money for several years — or cozying up to mom and dad for the down payment.

While those practices remain, a growing number of young buyers in Silicon Beach are purchasing multimillion-dollar homes by liquidating stock options — or even cryptocurrency portfolios — in a bid to edge out the competition and boost their purchasing power.

And cashing out is not the only way they are doing it.

Over the past year, big banks have become more open to allowing buyers to use option grants as a measure of total compensation. That has allowed buyers who work in tech to shop for far pricier homes than their salaries alone would allow them to consider, mortgage brokers and agents say.

“This is a huge part of how they are able to buy higher-priced homes,” said James Kay, a private mortgage banker at Wells Fargo in El Segundo.

The shifts help explain how Silicon Beach is, in some ways, becoming a housing economy unto itself, driven by its own particular pools of cash flowing from the tech industry. The beachy set of Los Angeles neighborhoods that stretch from Playa del Rey to Santa Monica have seen overall single-family home sales volume hit $2.3 billion between April 2017 and March 2018, a 69 percent increase from the 12-month period ending March 2016, according to The Real Deal’s analysis of Redfin data. The number of sales have also jumped significantly, to 1,133 transactions from 770.

“This is definitely fueling the market,” said Bianca Mitchell, a 30-year-old agent with Halton Pardee + Partners who lives in Santa Monica and is engaged to a tech startup executive. “There is no way I could afford to buy something here unless I had a large infusion of cash like that.”
“How are you going to get that much cash, that quickly, at our age?,” she added.

A wave of new business
Of the five deals Mitchell did this year, she said that all but one client tapped additional funds from stock options at large tech companies, or from past startups, to help fund their down payments.
Stephanie Younger, who leads a Silicon Beach-focused team at Compass, said that buyers used stock-option cash to help fund their purchases in about 15 percent of the 168 sales her team did last year. Among buyers 35 or younger, more than half tapped option funds, she said.

Silicon Beach is an outgrowth of Silicon Valley, anchored by mushrooming extensions of the tech behemoths based up there, including Google, Facebook and Apple. These firms, and the ecosystem of smaller companies that are built off them, are taking over millions of square feet of space in L.A., reshaping the city’s office and residential markets in the process.
The companies are hiring a steady stream of talent in L.A. from the Bay Area, Seattle, Texas and New York, many of whom are looking to buy homes within walking distance of their offices on the West Side, agents say.

“The technology cluster in Silicon Beach is immense,” said Younger. “We are seeing much more activity from media tech, advertising tech, and companies like Tesla, SpaceX.”

Playa Vista, with its long row of tightly clustered apartments, condos and detached homes feeding off of Jefferson Boulevard, is considered the epicenter of the growing tech zone. Developer Brookfield Residential shifted from building smaller condos in the area to larger detached homes, some of which have sold for more than $4 million.

Facebook and Google have rented massive spaces in Playa Vista for expansions, with Google set this fall to take over the former Howard Hughes airplane hanger, dubbed the Spruce Goose.

Neighborhoods like Mar Vista, some four miles from Playa Vista, were considered affordable just five years ago. Now, the bedroom community of mostly single-family homes has become a magnet for tech executives with families.

Earlier this year, Halton Pardee responded to the uptick in business by opening a new office that straddles Culver City and Mar Vista, said Tami Pardee, CEO of the firm, who sold a four-bedroom, five-bath home last year in Mar Vista for $3.7 million.

With 25 buyer’s agents and five listing agents working the area, Halton Pardee is the most active firm in Silicon Beach, agents and mortgage brokers say. Younger’s 13-person Compass team is in second place.

Driving the activity are the high salaries tech companies are paying, generally ranging from $150,000 to $350,000, agents say, and the ballooning rents in the area. The median rental price for a one-bedroom apartment in the Marina del Rey/Playa Vista neighborhoods, was $2,900 this February, up 15 percent from 2015, according to Zumper.

“People are starting to see the value in owning a condo that is $1 million versus paying $5,000 in rent,” said Tamara Mattox, an agent with Halton Pardee who did 20 transactions in Silicon Beach last year, mostly to tech buyers. “Most of these guys have the income to comfortably support any purchase under $2 million. The people that are buying in excess of that have had to cash out a significant amount.”

Crypto and Stock Options Boosting Sales for Younger Buyers
This wouldn’t be a true techie haven without cryptocurrency making a cameo.
Agents like Mattox, a Bitcoin investor herself, have built almost mini-practices around referrals from other crypto evangelists who are looking for ways to turn their profits into a pad.

Last year one of her clients, who had bought Bitcoin when it was $200 per coin, used a portion of his $150,000 profit for a down payment on a $1.6 million, three-bedroom home in Venice. To create the necessary liquidity, Mattox steered him to Robinhood, a third-party platform where investors can convert to dollars for a modest fee.

Kris Zacuto, an agent at Hilton & Hyland marketing homes in Playa Vista, said he has been surprised by how open Silicon Beach buyers are about their source of wealth, “walking around with million-dollar crypto portfolios.”

But the use of cryptocurrency in real estate is still in the crawling phase, as many brokerages and escrow companies are not yet equipped — or trusting enough — of the monetary instruments to treat them as income or assets.

Buyers also need to be careful to liquidate their portfolios into dollars further out than 60 days, said Jonathan O’Donnell, a loan officer at PERL Mortgage in Santa Monica. Any less time and banks may not treat the funds as verified assets. O’Donnell said that some crypto-holders, frustrated at the bank’s rules, have simply elected to convert to dollars and then buy properties in cash.

More common in Silicon Beach has been the use of liquidated stock options to fund purchases, with some buyers using restricted-stock units to extend their buying power.

Where banks once shunned stock options from public companies, they now seem more open to considering them as additional income, provided buyers can show they have had the stock for at least two years and will continue to receive shares as part of their compensation, mortgage brokers said. Banks value the shares based on the average share price for the last year.

The changes allow them to out-muscle lawyers and other professionals working primarily with a salary. Tech buyers, even with median salaries averaging $240,000 at companies like Facebook, “were at a disadvantage previously,” O’Donnell said.

“They had all this income coming in and the banks were ignoring half of it,” he added. “Now they are getting what they deserve. They feel finally banks are willing to see this for what it is; it is part of their compensation.”

Banks that have adjusted their stance on the stock awards include Union Bank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase and Luther Burbank Savings, O’Donnell said.

Kay, the mortgage banker, said Wells Fargo has adopted a “more conservative” stance on how it qualifies restricted stock units as income, compared to more “liberal interpretations” from banks based in Silicon Valley. But he said that “in certain circumstances, yes, we can use that as income to help them qualify for a higher purchase price.”

In one recent case, an employee of a dating app company was able to qualify for a $1.4 million home in Silicon Beach this year on a base salary of $120,000. Originally, his salary was only enough for him to buy a $750,000 home. But with nearly 19,000 vested shares from 2016 and 2017 he was able to boost his income, in the eyes of lenders, by an additional $237,000, to more than $357,000 in total income, according to someone familiar with the deal.

Mortgage brokers worry that banks could adjust their view on the stock awards again in light of companies like Snap, where shares prices fell considerably after the company went public last year, potentially putting some options underwater and future income in doubt. “Does that buyer look the same now?” O’Donnell said.

Kay agreed, noting that lenders that approved loans for Snap employees meant that “you just gave a loan to somebody based on income that is probably going to go down.

“For that reason we are extra-conservative,” he said. “We look at it on a case-by-case basis.”

Source: https://therealdeal.com/la/2018/06/06/for-silicon-beach-homebuyers-a-salarys-just-a-starting-point/


 

 

 

 

HOT NEW LEASE LISTING - LATITUDE 33 SKY EDITION LUXURY CONDO IN MARINA DEL REY

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Latitude 33 Sky Edition luxury building- Marina Del Rey, CA

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Ultimate stunning designer fully furnished coveted rare Latitude 33 Sky Edition condo offers ocean and panoramic views. Ocean breezes situated next to the historic Venice Canals and walking distance from Venice Beach & Pier, the chic Abbot Kinney shopping & trendy dining, and social nightlife of Maria Del Rey/Venice. Located in the heart of the Silicon Beach scene. Southern exposure wall to ceiling windows with unobstructed views of the ocean complete this masterpiece. Loads of natural light floods the open concept space with a dedicated dining area. Impressive chef’s kitchen is complete with a Sub Zero refrigerator & Wolf appliances for coastal living pampering that pleases the most discerning tastes. Gorgeous hardwood plank floors. This one has it all.

Two ensuite bedrooms with full baths on either end provide maximum privacy. The luxurious master suite has a large custom walk in closet fit for a shopaholic.  Inside laundry room with storage for designed comfort living. Personalized concierge care, 2 car secured garage parking, bicycle storage, fitness center, and a security access controlled building. The beach lifestyle you deserve among the clouds that eludes success on this 6^th floor paradise. California dreaming redefined. Go ahead and spoil yourself, you deserve it.

Available fully furnished beginning mid-March.  Tenant occupied. Call LA1 for appt to view. Sandy Lew 310-963-1623. Showings (10am-5pm only by appt). 

FROM LINCOLN BLVD, HEAD WEST ON WASHINGTON BLVD. TURN LEFT ONTO VIA DOLCE INTO DRIVEWAY ON RIGHT- Steps from the Venice Beach Pier and Beach at the end of Washington Blvd.

More pictures on my website: www.sandralew.com

Benefits of home ownership.

Benefits of home ownership are not just bragging rights. Whether you are buying or selling is this the right time for you? Feel free to contact me for a complimentary private consultation. Love to assist you with your specific real estate needs. Call or email me direct 310-963-1623. Sandy@sandralew.com. Love to meet you. I specialize in the area dubbed Silicon Beach in LA with roots growing up in Silicon Valley. I love the California lifestyle and love sharing it with others.
Relocating from either ends of the state? Just want to learn about different neighborhoods? Feel free to connect. =)

Silicon Beach leads the latest surge in home sale growth in L.A

The area in LA dubbed "Silicon Beach" home prices are still surging! Housing market around these parts remain hot especially in Playa Vista the tech hub. The neighboring communities of Venice Beach, Marina Del Rey, West LA's Sawtelle with trendy eateries, and Playa Del Rey are all hot areas in great demand. With so much new development in the area and great lifestyle more people want to live in these communities. As a local real estate broker in the area dedicated to your real estate needs feel free to connect with me. I love this area so happy to connect with you for all your questions. I cherish the beach lifestyle and sharing it with others. Sandy Lew 310-963-1623 www.sandralew.com

 
Silicon Beach leads the latest surge in home sale growth in L.A.

By Jack Flemming

Nov 03, 2017 | 6:15 AM

Temperatures may finally be cooling off across Los Angeles, but the same can't be said for the housing market.

Following a record-breaking quarter that saw median sales prices in L.A. County hit a decade high, and the average days on market near a decade low, real estate markets, particularly on the Westside, have remained white-hot.

In July, August and September, the booming tech hub of Playa Vista saw a 317% increase in sales volume for single-family home sales over the same period last year, according to a survey by the Combined L.A. Westside MLS.

Neighboring communities have also benefited from rapid growth in the area. Venice saw a 10% increase in sales volume last quarter over last year; West Los Angeles, which includes Sawtelle-Japantown, increased 89%; and Playa del Rey saw an uptick of 52%.

"Tech companies such as Facebook and Google have moved to these areas, and many employees of these companies are looking for homes near their offices," said MLS CEO Annie Ives.

And don't expect things to cool anytime soon.

"Venice is getting more and more expensive, which is pushing people to move to Marina del Rey, where you get more for your money," real estate agent Denise Fast said.

In Marina del Rey, 47 home sales during the quarter combined for $72.666 million in sales volume, an increase of 119%.

Fast said that an influx of development near the harbor, such as new restaurants, hotels and entertainment, are also attracting people to purchase homes in Oxford Triangle and the surrounding areas.

Central neighborhoods also continued to trend upward.

Ladera Heights showed an 81% increase in sales volume based on 21 sales. South Inglewood increased 37% based on 25 home sales in Q3.

Across the county, there were 2,688 single-family-home sales during the quarter. In addition, 36 neighborhoods experienced home sale growth, whereas 15 experienced a decline.

Those numbers are nearly on par with the previous quarter, which had 2,813 homes sold and growth in 39 neighborhoods.

"2017 definitely started out strong for the L.A. market, but it may slow down in terms of sales volume in upcoming months," Ives said. "That said, median prices for single-family homes in Southern California will likely continue to rise due to the limited inventory."

Source: http://beta.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hp-mls-market-climate-map-20171104-story.html#nt=oft09a-2gp1

Southern California home prices jump again. Lots of residents worry about affordability

The Southern California real estate market continues to be driven by simple economics of supply and demand. With demand outpacing supply home prices are continuing to surge upwards. With low inventory there were fewer sales. The homes sold are often higher priced with bidding wars a common occurrence for well priced homes. The housing market is still rebounding from the height of the housing market in 2007. The rebound is due to an improving economy, historically low mortgage rates and shortage of homes available for sale. Definitely a sellers market with prices still increasing in the near future as demand continues to outpace supply. 

Southern California home prices jump again. Lots of residents worry about affordability

By: Jim Puzzanghera Contact Reporter - September 19. 2017

The Southern California real estate market continued to sizzle in August as home prices jumped 7.5% from a year earlier, reinforcing new poll results showing widespread concern about the state’s housing affordability.

 Across the six-county region, the median price increased to $500,000 from $465,000 a year earlier, though down slightly from $502,000 in July, according to a report Tuesday from data firm CoreLogic.

In Los Angeles County, the median price surged 9.4% to a record $580,000. The previous record of $575,000 was set in July.

It was the best August for home sales since 2006. Total sales in Southern California were up 3.2% year over year and surged 13.3% from a sluggish July, CoreLogic said.

The August home price for the six-county region was just below the all-time high of $505,000 reached in 2007 at the height of the housing bubble. The market began collapsing soon thereafter.
But it’s been rebounding for the last six years, fueled by a slowly improving economy, historically low mortgage rates and a shortage of homes for sale.

“The market’s just chugging along,” said Tregg Rustad, estates director for Rodeo Realty in Beverly Hills. He and his partner sold 10 houses in August — half were at or above the list price and the rest were very close to it.

“Buyers are taking advantage of some of the lowest interest rates we’ve had in the last year. The economy is continuing to improve and the stock market and financial sector is up, so confidence is up,” Rustad said. “And I think sellers are taking advantage of record prices and low inventory.”

Home prices in the region can’t keep rising 7% a year and will probably moderate to between 3% and 5% annually for the foreseeable future, said Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.

“Unless there’s some existential event like a nuclear missile hurled in our direction,” he said, “I don’t know why prices are going to fall any time soon.”

Los Angeles County is short about 100,000 housing units right now and needs to be adding between 30,000 and 35,000 a year to keep up with growing demand, Green said. But only about 25,000 units are being built annually, meaning the county is falling further behind, he said.

This is different than the housing bubble, which was fueled by real estate speculation, Green said. Now it’s a simple case of low supply and high demand in an area that is attracting more upper-income workers, he said.

Andrew LePage, a research analyst at CoreLogic, said inventory is particularly tight for homes in the lower price ranges and demand for those more affordable units remains strong.
“The result is somewhat higher price gains in many of the region’s more affordable communities,” LePage said.

The median price — the point where half the homes and condos sold for more and half for less — rose 12.5% in San Bernardino County to $315,000, the report said.

Median prices rose 7.7% in Riverside County to $365,000; 7.4% in San Diego County to $535,000; 6% in Ventura County to $567,000; and 5.5% in Orange County to $685,000.

The report came as a new statewide poll showed nearly half of the state’s voters — 48% — described housing affordability in their area as “extremely serious.”

The figure was 42% for respondents from Los Angeles County and 65% for those in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The survey of 1,200 registered voters this summer by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley also found that 56% of voters considered moving to find more affordable housing, with 25% saying that they would most likely choose to leave the state.

Nearly six in 10 Los Angeles County voters — 59% — said they considered moving out of the area because of rising housing costs, the poll found. In the Bay Area, the figure was 51%.
The poll showed 51% of registered voters support a measure on the 2018 state ballot to spend more money on affordable housing.

Last month, Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders agreed to a $4-billion bond proposal to be put on next year’s ballot that would fund low-income housing developments and subsidize mortgages for California veterans.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-home-prices-20170919-story.html

 

 

Trend: Venice Beach Homes Now Selling for More Per Square Foot Than Bel Air or Beverly Hills

Silicon beach prices are still rising. Pure economics supply and demand driving the market. Average per square foot is a whooping $1440 which is even costlier than Beverly Hills. Silicon Beach is the tech hub and as it continues to expand real estate prices will most likely increase even more. The coastal lifestyle by the beach which includes Venice Beach, Marina Del Rey, and Playa Vista are the most desirable areas to buy in all of LA. Hard to beat the main attraction of life at the beach.

Looking to live here too? Or how much would it take for you to sell? Feel free to contact me directly at 310-963-1623 or sandy@sandralew.com

Trend: Venice Beach Homes Now Selling for More Per Square Foot Than Bel Air or Beverly Hills

It’s a seller’s market; homes in Venice Beach are selling for an average of $1,440 per square foot.

 By Alexandria Abramian on August 5, 2017 

 

While homes in Bel Air and Beverly Hills may garner the highest price tags in the Los Angeles area, it turns out that the comparatively sleepy Venice Beach is making headlines of its own. The small beach village has recently moved to the front of the pack when it comes to per-square-foot real estate prices.

The latest numbers from Trulia reveal that the median value of a home in Venice is now clocking in at $1,440 per square foot—well ahead of Beverly Hills, which comes in at $1,049 per square foot.  And Bel Air? At $778 per square foot, Venice beats it handily.

That’s not to say it’s an apples-to-apples comparison, of course. While homes in Bel Air and Beverly Hills are often 20,000 square feet and above, Venice features much more modestly apportioned residences under 3,000 square feet.

Nevertheless, it’s a compelling testament to the once-boho neighborhood that’s now proving to be one of Southern California’s priciest areas per square foot. Since 2012, the median price of one-bedroom homes have increased by roughly 54-percent in Venice. Fueling the stunning rise in real estate values in Venice and the surrounding areas is the emergence of Silicon Beach, a growing concentration of high-flying tech and media companies that call the area home.

“Venice was once just tiny lots with little cottages,” says designer and builder Kim Gordon, who has built eight homes in the area in the past three years purchased by both tech executives and music-industry moguls. “Tech people are now descending here, and they want larger homes where they can live and work and do everything,” she says. Gordon’s latest home, a 3,500-square-foot compound, sold for $5 million (just over $1,428 per square foot).

Other recent sales have closed at even higher prices, including a 7,500-square-foot eco-compound (with 5,000 square feet of interior space) made famous on the television series Californification. Designed in 1995 by architect David Hertz, the home sold in April for $14.6 million, the highest price ever paid in Venice and one that garnered a $2,900-per-square-foot price—something virtually unheard of in Bel Air and Beverly Hills.

Real estate experts say the tech-centric Venice juggernaut is also extending into neighboring communities, as well. Playa Vista—the creative community that’s home to Yahoo, YouTube, and soon Google—has recently seen a significant increase in property values. Newly completed neighborhoods include Jewel, a collection of 14 4,500-square-foot, single-family homes selling from around $3 million to $5 million. The neighborhood features three-story single-family homes ranging from 4,200 – 4,500 square feet.

Even more recently completed is the Collection, a series of tech-centric homes and the very first community in Los Angeles to offer Apple HomeKit technology as standard in all residences.
“Venice, Marina del Rey, and Playa Vista comprise the main hub of Silicon Beach, which is one of the most desired areas to buy in all of L.A.,” says Justin Alexander, director of sales at Halton Pardee & Partners. “Although you don’t get the grandeur of Beverly Hills and Bel Air, these communities provide an array of lifestyles from all around the world, creating a truly unique vibe that can’t be replicated anywhere else in L.A.”

As Silicon Beach continues to expand, prices in Venice Beach are sure to increase—driven not only by demand but by the desire to live near one of L.A.’s primary attractions: the beach.

Source: http://robbreport.com/shelter/spaces/venice-beach-homes-selling-for-more-than-beverly-hills-2725984/