Hunting mountain bargains
The Lake Arrowhead area is having a fire sale of sorts.
The real estate market in this San Bernardino County resort community is plagued by the same travails that are besieging many second- and primary-residence communities. But the Arrowhead vicinity has the added whammy of having experienced devastating fires last fall that destroyed more than 500 houses and damaged many more.
The area is starting to recover as spring vegetation replaces burned greenery and owners of fire-damaged homes work to settle their insurance claims. What hasn’t recovered is the home sales market. And though this news isn’t great for sellers, area real estate agents say buyers shopping for a second home or vacation rental can find some bargains.
There are 12 homes listed for sale now in Arrowhead Woods -- the area in Lake Arrowhead with designated lake rights -- for under $300,000. And there are 149 homes listed from Green Valley Lake to Crestline for under $200,000, up from 111 listings about six weeks ago, according to the Rim of the World Multiple Listing Service.
“Inventory is way up with lots of choices. What used to be unaffordable is now affordable,” said Andrea Lassak, an agent with Coldwell Banker Sky Ridge Realty. “There are amazing buys in the mountain area, starting at around $100,000 now.”
Although some analysts, such as Delores A. Conway, director of USC’s Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast, had predicted that prices in Southern California would bottom out at 20% to 25% off their peak, some properties in this mountain-and-lake resort area have already fallen below that mark.
Recent listings indicate as much:
* A Running Springs property sold in October 2006 for $219,000 and is now back on the market at $124,900 -- a 43% reduction in price. It is described in the Multiple Listing Service as having a “panoramic view of Catalina Island, city lights and the valley below.” The 768-square-foot A-frame has two bedrooms and 1 3/4 bathrooms and sits on a quarter-acre lot.
* In the Arrowhead Woods area, a 2,678-square-foot home with four bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms was listed at $549,000 in November 2007; it is now listed at $370,000 -- and the seller is offering a $10,000 credit toward closing costs. The current price is about 33% off what the owner hoped to get six months ago. It is in escrow.
* In December 2004, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Running Springs sold in four days for $188,000. It is now bank-owned and was marketed at $151,000 -- 20% less than what it last sold for; it’s in escrow. The 1,176-square-foot house is set amid boulders and has a seasonal creek running behind it. The living room has a rock fireplace and there is level parking, a bonus in this hilly community.
* In Green Valley Lake, a one-bedroom, one-bathroom cabin with mountain-ridge views and a front deck was listed last May at $182,700. The current asking price is $137,800 -- a reduction of almost 25%. The living room in the 600-square-foot home features a wood-burning fireplace, and the home has new carpeting.
DataQuick Information Systems statistics show that the number of sales in the combined ZIP Codes of 92341 (Green Valley Lake), 92352 (Lake Arrowhead) and 92382 (Running Springs) from 2006 to 2007 was down by 21% while the median price rose 4.3%. But then came the fires and 2008. Through the end of March, 2008 sale prices were down about 5.75% in the 96 sales recorded in those three ZIPs.
Among recent sales:
* A bank-owned 2,678-square-foot Tudor-style house in Arrowhead Woods with floor-to-ceiling windows, a formal dining room and kitchen with center island listed in October at $519,900. It sold for $390,000 in January -- about 25% below the asking price. It has three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a garage.
* A lake-view home that needed repairs was listed “as is” for $840,000 in May 2007. It sold in November for $388,000, almost 54% below what was originally sought. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with 2,308 square feet was not in the fire zone but was a foreclosure.
* A 1,500-square-foot home on the north side of Lake Arrowhead was listed for $369,000 in May 2007. It sold for $295,000 in January -- 20% below the original listing price. The three-bedroom, 2 1/2 -bathroom home has panoramic views, a cathedral ceiling, a new kitchen, a wall of glass and a big deck. And it came furnished.
It’s all music to Carolyn Carlson’s ears. She was married when she first moved to Lake Arrowhead in 2000 and bought a view home with a Jacuzzi on its deck for $212,000. When she divorced in 2005, she and her husband sold that 2,500-square-foot house for $419,000.
Despite the handsome appreciation on her marital home, Carlson couldn’t afford to buy. She looked for a few months and, frustrated, quit looking and spent the next nine months backpacking through 30 countries with her now 23-year-old daughter, Jessica.
“It was the trip of a lifetime,” she said, “just the best thing in the world we could have ever done.” But when she came back in July 2006, home prices were still out of her reach. Carlson and her daughter spent some time as housesitters and then moved in to care for her ailing mother in Chatsworth.
Eventually, Carlson restarted a staging-decluttering-painting business in the Lake Arrowhead area and rented a place in Running Springs.
Now Carlson, 47, believes that the market is ripe for the picking. She’s shopping in the under-$200,000 range and has “plenty to choose from,” she said.
Bill Deering, who lives in Carlsbad and works in advertising, just took the plunge. He moved up to a larger second home. For $470,000, he bought a 1,700-square-foot lake-view cabin with four bedrooms that was originally listed at $599,000 -- about 22% off the asking price. He had been looking for about a year and “watching the prices come down.”
“We saw about 50 houses,” he said. The Deerings bought the cabin with another San Diego County family. The two families co-own a house on Lake Gregory, which they plan to sell. They’ve owned it for 10 years.
“We wanted to upgrade,” Deering said. “And yes, we feel we got a bargain, but it isn’t just about the price. We love coming up here.”
What do they do when they go to Lake Arrowhead about once a month?
They relax, take hikes and shop, Deering said.
“We just enjoy being here,” he said. “And of course we look at real estate.”
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