With all the information and debate about the real estate market in the last year, it is very hard to determine what's really going on.  However, one thing that is clear is that each local market has it's own cycle and general market trends and articles may not apply to your local market.

I have done a summary for Malibu's Real Estate market for the first part of 2008 (January 1, 2008-April 7, 2008).  Some interesting information has come from this summary that I would like to share with all of you...

First of all, let's talk volume.

• There have been 26 single family homes that have closed escrow in this year to date
• The median price was $3,687,500 and the average price was $4,905,788 
• The highest sale during this time period was $18,975,000 and the lowest price was $220,000.
• There were 4 homes that sold above the $10 million mark and 22 homes that sold below the $10 million dollar mark

Now, let's look at Days on Market (DOM) or the number of days it took to sell a property.

• The average DOM(total number of DOM divided by the total number of homes) was 197 days
• The median DOM (the number of DOM that is in the middle of all the DOM) was 165 days
• The longest DOM for the 26 homes was 679 days (the home finally sold after a 36% price reduction)
• The shortest DOM for the 26 homes was 18 days (the home had only a 3% price reduction)

Next, let's look at Percentage of Price Reduction (Initial Listing Price minus Sold Price divided by Initial Listing Price)

• The average price reduction in percentage was 14%
• The median price reduction in percentage was 12%
• The highest price reduction in percentage was 36%, again also the longest DOM home
• The lowest price reduction in percentage was 0%

While this is a lot of data to sort through or draw conclusions from, two statistics really stand out to me.

• The Average DOM for homes that had the largest price reductions (above both the average and median price reduction percentage) was 320.25 days
• The Average DOM for homes that had the smallest price reductions (below both the average and median price reduction percentage) was 91.14 days

Buyers Moral of the Story:  Deals are being made for 12-15% below asking price...don't be shy to make offers and begin the negotiating process

Sellers Moral of the Story: Price your home appropriately and it will sell quickly, price you're home poorly and you will be waiting and waiting and waiting.

To find out more about Malibu homes, contact Janet Siderman at: 310.924.4631 or visit www.callmalibuhome.com [1]