West Side Story: Would You Believe 59 Offers On a Single House?

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We’ve written often about how the LA market is mixed, with real strength in pockets, notably the Westside. But this report from Santa Monica Realtor Chris Clark really caught our eye: ‘How’s the Westside market?,’ he asks. ‘Would you believe that 59 offers were submitted on a house with a list price of $1,195,000? It sold on 4/27/07 for $1,552,000! A listing of mine opened escrow Monday, 5/14/07 after 13 offers were written on it. I’ve had buying clients face multiple offers and steep competition since March.’

Chris, a bit of a numbers-cruncher, says he has counted 685 homes sold on the West Side this year, and 257 of them sold in 21 days on the market or less. ‘After working with both buyers and sellers this year where multiple offers have once again seemed to be the norm as opposed to the exception, this data is overlooked by the nay-sayers.’ I would say he is correct on that count.

He also sees many cases where houses were priced on the low side in order to invite multiple bids. He counts 49 houses that sold in 21 days or less, and for above the listing price. The average listing price of those: $1.62 million; average sales price: $1.74 million.

These are the areas Chris included in his data crunching: Westwood, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, Venice, Marina del Rey, Mar Vista/Palms, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Culver City, and Westchester.

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