Wednesday, June 11, 2008

It's a Mish-Mash Morning

Sorry children, but Your Mama is simply too blisteringly bizzy today to be sassy, clever or long winded. So this is what we have for you today. It ain't much, but we promise we have some good stuff lined up for the next few days.

1.
First and foremost we're going to give Mister Big Time a wee assist with his most recent "Which Celebrity House Is This?" query. With the help of our wickedly well informed pal Lucy Spillerguts Your Mama learned that the house in question was purchased by actor Dave Annabelle. Middle aged ladees and Sunday night TV watching gays will likely recognize Mister Annabelle as the (quasi) rebellious youngest son with drug issues on that sappy and maudlin Brothers and Sisters program that features the dee-lishus Sally Field, one of the too few women of a certain age in Hollywood aging in a dignified manner.

We have Our Fairy Godmother in West Hollywood to thank for the few photos of the house (above). We don't care for the previous owners obsession with "masculine" furniture and we find the landscaping more exuberant than we prefer, but otherwise Your Mama thinks Mister Annabelle chose wisely.

Interestingly, Mister Big Time discussed another Brothers and Sisters actor yesterday. Turns out Welsh born actor Matthew Rhys–a confirmed heterosexual and talented actor who (al)most convincingly plays the über-neurotic homosex brother–also picked up a new nest. Seems that Mister Rhys chose more modest and, at $1,263,000, a less expensive digs than his television brother.

2.
Oh dear. It appears Meet the Fockers and West Wing ack-turuss Teri Polo might be the next celebrity to lose her financial panties in the sagging real estate market. According to the mysterious man who pens the Manhattan Beach Confidential blog, Miz Polo's Manhattan Beach home has, "shifted to 'backup status.'" This is usually an indication that an offer has been accepted. Which sounds great, except...

Property records reveal that in May of 2006 Miz Polo purchased a 5 bedroom and 4 bathroom Manhattan Beach house for $2,500,000. Fast forward to February 2008 when Blondie Acktress put the 3,007 square foot residence on the market for $2,599,000. A few (or four) months later, Miz Polo and her real estate pee-pole used a massive machete to karate chop the asking price all the way down to $2,099,000. It does not take Your Mama's bejeweled abacus (or a bird brain) to figure out the asking price is far below what she paid for the "Asian inspired contemporary" residence. Uh oh.

With the new price along came a buyer. Of course, we have no idea what sort of numbers were offered, but whatever they were–and we'd bet our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly they offered less than the asking price–it appears poor Miz Polo will lose her down payment, and perhaps even more. Such is the sorry state of things for folks who paid top dollar for their properties in the white hot real estate market of the early and mid 2000s and are choosing to sell now.

3.
Miss I Have a Private Hair Salon In My Home Angela Bassett and her huzband Courtney Vance have lowered the price of their Hancock Park house. Again. When Your Mama first discussed the five bedroom and 6.5 bathroom residence on Fremont Place in July of 2007 the asking price was $5,999,000. In early May of 2008 we noted that the price had been hacked to $4,600,000 and today, thanks to Jazzy Jean, we see the price has once again been sliced and diced all the way down to $3,900,000. Considering these two Yale trained thespians purchased this house a long damn time ago, they're still looking at pocketing a couple million even at the much reduced asking price.

41 comments:

Alessandra said...

I feel bad for Teri Polo, except that why did she buy that place at all? I kept looking at the photo and thinking, "Which unit is for sale?" Not a good thought for a SFR.

Anonymous said...

So I went to the Redfin listing of Polo's house and goodness that sucker is one ug-uh-ly hole in the ground. Ewwwwwww...No wonder she had to slice and dice that asking price so low.

Anonymous said...

To all of you idiots that were or are still in denial

I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO !!!!!!

and this is the beginning, I still predict still another 60-80 percent drop in the high end market in LA and NY.

for what it is worth WAMU is up for sale and they cannot find any US buyers .

Here is a brain teaser, if you own trillions in real estate as WAMU does, but you are cash poor with a huge over head as is the problem with WAMU what is the end result ?

If your real estate is bought out for 2 cents on the dollar, will that be the final blow that will drive down RE all over the US 90% and below ?

can we say the next ENRON BANKING FAILURE in the 6 months ????

I wonder when that will happen, next week, next month ?

The sad thing is that I know so many that are now out of cash so even with RE at 90% off there will still not be enough buyers to support this huge drop for years to come.

Anonymous said...

BTW

WAMU stock $5.75 a share

and they need to do more multi billion dollar write offs ?

I highly doubt they will be around for much longer.

pch said...

Nailed it, Alessandra.

Anonymous said...

Count me in, Alessandra and pch. My reaction, too. But the good thing is that she has time, youth and talent on her side. Some things are best learned first hand, althought financial hits are always painful. Unfortunate.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Mama, and I agree with nearly all the posters here. Joe, you are like walking into a glass door I didn't see coming, and it's not fun.

Anonymous said...

Here is a brain teaser, if I own trillions of tribbles in trenton, but I am brain cell poor with a huge ego as is the problem with my alter ego Ed what is the end result ?

Parker said...

Aside from the kitchen, I really like Dave Annabelle's house. I was sure I was going to read that it was in Hancock Park because of the style and the fact that they clearly have a busy gardener. I'm not a fan of the pool either, come to think of it.

As for the Manhattan Beach house, so many houses there are ugly. I'm in no way criticizing Manhattan itself b/c I used to live there and I'd live there again if the opportunity arose, but when people buy there, they're just going for location. Many of the homes there are knocked down and rebuilt anyway.

Angela Basset's house - Av. Joe can blame that on the market all he wants, but it's not a good house. And, only a certain type of (stuck-up) person wants to live there so it doesn't have the wide appeal that homes in Hancock Park proper have. I, for one, would never live in Fremont Place. In Fremont, you're isolated and separated from the neighborhood-feel of Larchmont Village. That, and, you have to wait at the awful stoplight at Wilshire just to leave the confines of Fremont Place - no thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hey Nurse Nancy are you really a nurse ? or a crack head I just passed on SM blvd ?

what fraud ? turn on CNN it is all over the news, oh you don't have a TV well there you go, no news no clue.

Anonymous said...

btw if you really think about it, WAMU with tens of thousands locations through out the US does have trillions in real estate value if you go by todays price trend.

What makes a business very valuable ?

real estate "business 101"

what can cause a business to loose it's worth or go bankrupt ?

a major stock drop.

Anonymous said...

One thing I have to say about manhattan beach

love it love it love it !!!

RE never goes down in value there, so unless you were paying 1500% over the 1999 listing prices you are still fine.

Even the genius who just paid 2MM for this place will find a 50% drop in value in the next year or two.

Then again if the banks do not exist next year who will give out the loans ?

so in that case overpaying right now has to be better than waiting, esp if you cannot get anymore loans because the banks by that time will have all gone belly up.

I am now keeping my money in paypal, much safer I think.

At least paypal is not out there making greedy ridiculous investments with my money, or so it seems.

Anonymous said...

Mr Average we regret to inform you that yur account has been clsosed. This is an automated notice sent to all accounts with balances below $1.00.

Anonymous said...

Hey Paypal office

where is your money, hmmm ???

what are you going to do when 10,000 people show up at your bank and try to get their money out ?

this very sad scenario is likely months if not weeks away.

Anonymous said...

I've seen the Angela Bassett house. IT'S NASTY... the photo looks ok, but go inside and you're NOT in for a treat. I thought it was going to be nice but it needs a lot of work to bring the charm out of it and the layout is very choppy. The back addition looks like a motel.

These are NOT good homes to describe the LA housing market.

Why is it that certain home prices on this website (not in the ghetto) get "karate chopped?" It's simple: The homes are either ugly as shit, have a terrible location, just plain aren't functional, or the people were dreaming with their high price from the beginning and have now priced more realistically.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Mayor, well said but don't you think there needs to be a 90% price cut across the board on all high end homes in the major cities ? it is going to happen anyway, but it is better to do it now before the banks cease to exist.

What is going on is the perfect storm that will bring everything down.

Of course there is talk about increasing all wages/salaries by 1000% to match the current food, gas and RE pricing so if that happens everyone will be a millionaire, billionaires will be a dime a dozen and the trillionaire will be the new status symbol.

Anonymous said...

if our govt passes a bill that allows a significant wage increase then this whole mess could just disappear in a month.

This problem is really an illusion.

Anonymous said...

Dave Annabelle's house is one I could live in, the kitchen has to go but otherwise it's nice. It looks quite similar to the one his TV family lives in on B&S just on a smaller scale.

Teri Polo's house is a disaster. I hate that house. I thought it was a tasteless townhouse development on stilts. Paint the whole thing beige and invest in some hydragias...the place needs help.

Angela Bassett's house...it reminds me of what I imagine Katherine Chancellor's house looks like on 'The Young and the Restless'...Katherine Chancellor of course can live in whatever she wants, the old dame is fierce! Ms Bassett is NOT Katherine Chancellor. It's stuffy and looks too damn dry, redo the landscaping.

Anonymous said...

Did someone write something between Hollywood Mayor and Viva? I couldn't tell.

Anonymous said...

Don't these Real Estate agents know how to price a house?

Do they just say to the buyer "Yeah I can get you $6m from some sucker"? just to get the listing?

This agent needs to be dropped and scalped. Who us this prick?

StPaulSnowman said...

How does one seek a void?

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Average,

We have suspended your account for non-payment. The Paypal account you provided when you opened your account in 1998 is no longer accepting charges. Please provide an alternate so that we may continue to autoship your monthly refills of Zyprexa.

Anonymous said...

Avg Joe,

AGAIN, if housing prices went down 90% I would own entire city blocks of LA (you're dream of this ever happening needs to go away).

So what if some banks are in trouble... it will all stabilize, in my opinion, over the next 2 years... meanwhile there are still a TON of people sitting on cash waiting to snap up homes

Parker said...

I am so sick and tired of people (that's you, avg joe) ranting about falling real estate prices in L.A. A house on my block sold in two days, and we thought it was priced high. A friend of mine just sold her house in four hours, at a price we thought was about $300K too high. A backup offer of $500K higher was rejected. Another friend bought a house for $4MM and there were two backup offers on that one.

As others keep pointing out, GOOD houses in GOOD locations are selling, and they're selling high. Stop trying to frighten everyone and ruin people's days. Just live your own life, be happy, and spread a little joy rather than pain...

Anonymous said...

Gee...Where does PayPal keep money? I'm pretty certain it is...

Washington Mutual!

So Joe takes his pennies out of WaMu, gives them to PayPal, who charges percentage fees for all transactions, so they can deposit it in WaMu.

Yeah. Of course since all Joe is doing is buying video games and comic books, keeping his allowance in PayPal probably makes sense.

Anonymous said...

Paypal has their own bank

Anonymous said...

Mr Mayor I highly doubt you can even afford to pay the rent where you live much less buy a property

prices are going to come way down, nothing can stand in the way of the tidal wave that is off shore

the real question is when

the only answer I see is to match the salaries or wages with current true inflation which I believe has gone up over 1000 percent in the last 5 years.

Anonymous said...

Like I said... if housing came down 90% I would own entire city blocks of LA... I own several properties as is and I'm looking to expand my portfolio right now (and yes, I'm an agent)

You state the same points on every post. Nobody here needs to hear them again... now go away

Anonymous said...

"Paypal has their own bank"

According to their website, not in the US. They are not licensed as a bank in any of the states. PayPal Europe accounts are through a PayPal Bank in Luxembourg but US account funds are held in US banks.

Anonymous said...

Hollywood Mayor

you are an agent ?

well that explains it all

I have yet to meet an agent that is not broke

how is the top ramien ?

I bet you miss the steak

btw I have had a CA RE lic for the last 10 years but even I know better than to go around bragging "I am an agent" in the last year.

Anonymous said...

(So, how many months or years will the realtors keep calling bottom until they realize they have absolutely no credibility left?)

Anonymous said...

Moron Joe sez -

"I have yet to meet an agent that is not broke"

Then sez -

"btw I have had a CA RE lic for the last 10 years"

Assuming he has met himself at some point, isn't he admitting he is broke?

Just wondering....

Anonymous said...

Avg Joe/Ed,
It was so nice here after you stopped posting your distructive rants. I wish you'd find a site more suitable to your interests.

Alessandra said...

Just saw a $17mm house on caravan today that was fabulous and will sell in the $15-17mm range. It had a two story wood-paneled library with leaded glass windows and a spiral stair case to the second level widow's walk of bookcases.

Had a house listed for $4.99mm in Pasadena on the market for two days when it got multiple offers and sold.

Average Joe and his kin can fuck right off...

As for Realtors pricing high, some do it to get the listing, but let's remember that July of 2007 was still a time before the mortgage meltdown. I'm sure there were available sales comps to justify the listing price.

Anonymous said...

Avg Joe,

I wasn't bragging... just merely saying that I'm looking to buy right now myself, with interest rates still historically low and deals popping up. A lot of people with cash are buying properties and investments now. I agree with what seems to be the majority of the other posters here that you find a better website to suit your needs

Anonymous said...

Well here is the problem

not enough homes will be sold to support the market

you will see what I am talking about in 6 months when the crash is here.

prices are still coming down but the crash has not happened yet.

ever seen force 10 from navarone ?

how long did it take the dam to crack and what damage did it do in the end ?

Hollywood Mayor even if prices were to drop 90% tomorrow how could you buy any properties ?

remember there will not be any banks or institutions to give out loans or to invest, they are already reaching their limit as it is.

it is not just the skyrocketing of RE properties, now you have gas, food tripling and soon all material goods that will follow and that will change the whole equation.

so again if prices drop 90% where will you have the money to buy properties

btw very few are buying right now, most are still on the sidelines waiting for huge drops and making ridiculous offers in LA

I have folks asking me every week with increasing frequency if I can find them investors for their real estate investor pools and they all have great deals in the works in all the cities, the problem ?

NO MONEY !!!!!!!!

everyone has a great idea or a deal going on but who can execute it with out MONEY ????

even the mega evangelical churches are starting to go out of business, their coffers are drying up fast, they spend millions a day to stay in business and if they only make a million a day in tithes they go out of business, they cannot do write downs because why ???

they do not pay taxes.


lets have this conversation in a year and see where we are at.

Anonymous said...

I actually have one last question

if the bank stocks are almost down to 90% and lehman bros, morgan stanley and other brokerage firms their stock is coming down to 90% then why can't all of you see that RE will come down 90% in all markets across the globe ?

more importantly where did all the trillions that have been lost go ?

could the wars and other on going military projects have actually been costing us 50 trillion ? and not 4 trillion like the news has been saying lately ?

if so that would make a lot of sense.

Cameron J. Awesome said...

I saw the Bassett House last week, and I can assure you that the reason it isn't selling has nothing to do with the neighborhood. Elements of it are beautiful, there's an amazing, grand living and dining room,a nd the open kitchen's layout is just lovely, but the kitchen is about 10 years old, and trust me, it looks it.

And it only gets worse from there... "The private hair salon"- addition is just a huge, disconnected box taking up space in the backyard. The guest apartment and office are great, but that downstairs level needs some serious so that it doesn't feel like a den.

Also, the BACKYARD IS SODDED WITH ASTROTURF!!! Which is so brutally, awfully terrifying that my hand quivers at its mention.

But that, my friends, isn't the only issue. The biggest problem is the upstairs floor -- Ms. Bassett and Mr. Vance waited to have kids, an understandable decision, but in the process, they laid out hteir house for a couple of single people. The master suite is a dark, awkwardly proportioned coterie of rooms whose gorgeous faux-finish paint job doesn't distract fromt he fact that it easily takes up a thousand square feet, has a carpeted bathroom and looks like my grandmother's tract house in Sacramento.

FInally, there's the additional bedrooms, which are punctuated by something almost as unmentionable as the astro-turf:

Laminate. Floors.

The two bedrooms are teeny tiny, and although they have en-suite bathrooms, they feel like cheap afterthoughts and can only be reached by a long, dark hallway that seems separated from the rest of the house.

I know they've already moved, but the Vance/Bassett clan would be well served to hold the property and use 500gs of their potential profit to remodel the upstairs, knock down the box int he backyard and invest in some landscaping that's as the peaceful setup they've got out front.

But then again, that's just my opinion...

StPaulSnowman said...

If the astroturf thing is accurate, it is both environmentally responsible and strangely appropriate for this architectural pile.......no......hemorrhoid.

Anonymous said...

Astroturf? Cool. I will buy it and laugh at you all as while I don't have to mow my grass.

Anonymous said...

Good JOb! :)