Malibu real estate: could the bottom be in?

The editor of the Malibu Times recently commented that we may be "bottoming out" in the Malibu real estate market. Under normal conditions we could care less what he says, but these are not "normal" conditions and we will pretty much listen to (and report) anything positive about this real estate market. Here is what he said:

For one thing, the real estate market has slowed to a crawl. We might actually hit 100 single-family residences being sold this year in the Malibu ZIP code (90265), which is the lowest number of annual sales in the last 20 years. Check out Rick Wallace's column in last week's issue of The Malibu Times for the analysis and the statistics online at www.malibutimes.com (click "Archives" and use "Rick Wallace" for search terms). If history is any guide, we're probably (and hopefully) getting close to the bottoming out of the real estate market. I'm hoping for the beginning of the up-climb in about mid-2009, although I must admit some friends think I'm a bit Pollyannaish about this.

Another running indicator of the state of the real estate market is the number of foreclosure notices we've had in our paper. Last week the legals were more than two and half pages, although most of the foreclosures were in Calabasas and in parts of the Conejo Valley, which is pretty typical. A few Malibu houses may go into foreclosure but, in the main, people here either take their houses off the market or just sit and wait. Credit is still tight but there are loans out there and if you have cash there are many good buys out in this market.

http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2008/11/26/editorial/opinion/opinion1.txt

Malibu Real Estate Celebrity Scoop

Malibu resident Leonardo DeCaprio, has just listed his Encinal bluffs home at $8.9 million after paying $6.35 million only a year ago. Leo had recently installed a custom staircase down to the beach cove below. You can check out the home here: http://www.32628pch.com/

Timothy Busfield, an actor from "West Wing" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", just put his Malibu home on the market for $1.995 million. He paid $1.25 million for it in 2003. You can read more about it here: http://www.bergproperties.com/blog/actor-timothy-busfield-lists-his-three-bedroom-2396-square-foot-house-near-malibu-ca-for-1995m/

Roy Schlobohm, son of the founder of Shirley's of Hollywood, the famous bra and langerie company, has listed his Malibu home for the lovely price of $13.3 million. You can read more about the property here: http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/printedition/la-hmw-hotpropschlobohm29-2008oct29,0,4825425.story

Cher's house is also up for sale. She built it from scratch so its hard to say how much money actually was put into it. The current price tag is: $45 million and you can check it out here: http://www.realestatechannel.com/chers-45-million-malibu-home-for-sale-58.php