The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, the housing market appears to be doing alright in the Studio City, Tarzana, Sherman Oaks, and Encino areas vis-à-vis a large number of interested buyers and historically low mortgage rates. Second, the large number of interested buyers are likely to be the most qualified purchasers, increasing the chances that home sales come to fruition.
To the first point, we all know that mortgage rates are historically low; we’ve discussed this topic ad nauseum. Of course, low mortgage rates are designed to increase the interest in purchasing homes by decreasing the lifetime cost of a home loan. What most people don’t know, is that the housing market in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, and Tarzana are doing surprisingly well in this economic climate. Of course, you’d never know that with all analysts pointing to doom-and-gloom for the housing market nationally. What many people fail to realize is, much like different sectors of the economy can do better or worse under any given set of circumstances, different housing markets are impacted differently during economic downturn. To this point, we think anecdotal evidence will suffice:
Last Friday night, the Chernov Team listed a Tarzana home on the Multiple Listing Service (“MLS”). By the end of this weekend, the Chernov Team had received, and provided, over 20 showings of that property. By Saturday night, the Chernov Team had already received a full price offer on the home with several more expected to come in.
Now there are a myriad of factors that go into peaking interest in a given property, but one of them is certainly a function of the real estate agent’s skill and experience. Another is the financial stability of the Buyer pool, which leads us to our second point.
The fact of the matter is that people looking for homes during this economic downturn are, almost by definition, the most financially secure people among us. It makes sense logically – most people are hunkering down to weather the storm however long it lasts. Some people, however, are financially secure enough that an economic downturn does not prevent them from making a down payment on a new home and taking advantage of these historically low mortgage rates. Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, and Tarzana are typically more affluent than other housing markets and tend to attract other affluent people. It does not require a stretch of the imagination to understand why these markets are doing fine, despite the fact that the housing markets nationally are not.
At the Chernov Team we understand that knowledge is power, and knowledge of which housing markets are thriving in uncertain economic is powerful knowledge indeed. At the Chernov Team we know that whoever comes to the table most prepared leaves with the most, and the Chernov Team always leaves the table with the most.
