We've had an active summer in the Topanga real estate market with 25 homes closing escrow between June 1st to August 31st. The homes selling? Those priced right for the market of course. Today's buyers are coming to the market informed on value. When they see value, they make a move.  This trend is well illustrated in the average days on market number for these sold homes. The sold homes averaged 62 days on market.  The average days on market for the first week of fall of all homes for sale is 211 days.  Price it right - it sells.

Buyers with good credit are getting purchase loans. Surprisingly enough, we had a few 30 day escrows that actually were financed, funded and closed at or near that 30 day mark. That is a change from the constant delays we were previously seeing at the lenders. Sales of distressed homes, however, are still seeing long, drawn out periods of waiting for short sale approvals and negotiations. That being said, communications on these sales has improved over the past couple of years.

Here is a snapshot of the week ending the summer market season:

Search Topanga Homes for Sale at DiscoverTopanga.com

Elaine Hanson, REALTOR® of Snyder Sutton Real Estate specializes in representing home buyers and sellers in the canyon community of Topanga. Please contact Elaine with any questions about buying or selling a Topanga home.

Get your tickets for the Topanga Canyon Gallery Studio Tour at the gallery. Check in at the Gallery, then follow the map to see your favorite artists in their home studios. It's a great chance to see where they work and live. Many will have demonstrations of their craft. There are usually a few artists at each location.

Saturday, June 11th, 10am-5pm

Sunday, June 12th, 11 am-5pm

Tickets at the door are $20, you can still get the presale discounted price of $15 if you buy your ticket today.

Free reception with the incredible Silent Auction will be on Saturday at 5-8 pm.  Come take a little bit of art home with you.

For more information, go to Topanga Canyon Gallery

Elaine Hanson, REALTOR® of Snyder Sutton Real Estate specializes in representing home buyers and sellers in the canyon community of Topanga. Please contact Elaine with any questions about buying or selling a Topanga home.

The enjoyable spell of warm weather we are having is not the only thing that has heated up in Topanga. The real estate market has moved into high gear.  Since February first, we've had 17 new listings hit the market. Big news? Considering that Topanga's average number of active listings circles right around 70 active homes for sale, that is a big chunk. 

But that's not all.

Along with new listings just entering the market, 16 homes have entered escrow and are in either Looking for Backup or Pending status.

Nice.

Along with the numbers on the MLS, there has been an upsurge in active buyers cruising through open houses and showing tours.  Considering we are not even quite halfway through March, it's a good sign for our spring-summer season. 

If you would like a personalized market report for the type of home you are looking for, or an evaluation of your own home, give me a call.

Search for homes at DiscoverTopanga.com

Real Estate Activity in Topanga 90290 - June 2010

There were 88 Total Homes for Sale

• 71 in Active status
• 10 in Looking for Backup Status
• 7 in Pending Status

There were 7 homes Sold in June 2010

• Lowest sale price $570,000
• Highest sale price $3,345,000
• Average selling price to Average Listing price 91,88%
• YTD homes sold in 2010 - 29

Average Days on Market

• Active homes - 131
• Backup - 80
• Pending - 60
• Sold - 110

This puts the numbers slightly ahead of sales for June 2009 in which 5 homes were sold. Year to date rate is way up with only 23 homes sold through June 2009 and 33 sold through 2010 - PLUS we immediately closed 4 more homes in the first week of July 2010.  The Median Price for Topanga 90290 has staggered around a bit, but has settled in at just under $1 million.

Inventory has climbed back up since February. We did not see the impact of the First Time Buyers Home Credit, as the majority of buyers of Topanga homes have previously owned a home.

Based on data from CLAW MLS, Inc.

Come up to "Reggae 'Pon the Mountain" Saturday, June 26, at the Topanga Community House. It's only $20 for an entire day of reggae music featuring Pato Banton. Ras Michael, and Quinto Sol. There will be local and regional artists as well.

One cool thing about this concert is the producers - two guys who grew up here in Topanga and wanted to produce a fun event to support the Community House and its youth services programs. Best wishes for a successful event to Brooks Ellis and Amit Gilad!

• Saturday, June 26, 2010
• 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Topanga Community House 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.
• $20 entry

More artist and ticket info at TopangaReggaeFestival.com

Hey Batter! Anyone out there feeling Spring-y and ready to step up to the Topanga Community House ball field for softball?

Every Wednesday from 6 p.m. to dark, you can put on your glove and get in the groove of adult pick-up softball games. Bring your gear, some snacks and a drink and join in the fun. There is even a BBQ, so bring something for the grill.

Teams are formed each evening from whomever shows up, so you can meet, greet and beat a different group of folks each week.

Youths from 14-17 can join in too, with parental sign-in. Have mercy on the adults, please, although, quite possibly, no mercy may be given in return. Come up and have fun - it's free, but a donation would be nice. It's tough on a volunteer organization to take care of that big field.

This is a program of the Topanga Community Club’s Topanga Recreation @ Community Club, or TR@CC sports programs.

Elaine Hanson, REALTOR® of Snyder Sutton Real Estate specializes in representing home buyers and sellers in the canyon community of Topanga. Please contact Elaine with any questions about buying or selling a Topanga home.

A Window to the Canyon

Come up and take in the views from this spacious three bedroom plus two bath home at 19726 Horseshoe Dr. in the Fernwood Pacific area of Topanga Canyon  Bask in the light from the rows of windows, or in the breezes on the wide deck. Entertaining is easy in the great room which provides many options to gather or spread out.  Once you step inside, you will want to make it your own.

Call to schedule your private viewing.

Offered at $1,085,000

More Topanga Homes For Sale

Elaine Hanson, REALTOR® of Snyder Sutton Real Estate specializes in representing home buyers and sellers in the canyon community of Topanga. Please contact me with any questions about buying or selling a Topanga home.

I don't know why it hit me.  It just did.

My baby girl was screaming in the car.  You know, that I'm here and I'm hungry cry.  For some reason, she was off the charts with her earsplitting wails.  Almost home -- it was the "Feed me NOW" cry.

I raced up our stairs, ran around the kitchen, finding the bottle, getting out what I needed, but I just could not move fast enough for her.  Food from mama was so much quicker, but we were past that point!  The cries escalated another octave.  I grabbed the handle of the refrigerator and stopped dead in my tracks as a thought from out of I-don't-know-where hit me like hard kick to the belly.

What if I opened the refrigerator and there was nothing there.

Nada.  Zip.  Empty.

What if I knew that I, her mother, had nothing to take away her misery? 

What if I knew that there would be nothing tomorrow, or the next day? 

What if I had to watch my baby slowly and painfully waste away to a shriveled sack of baby bones?

I knew that there were millions of mother's all over the world who knew that they had no food to feed to their babies. 

I don't know why it hit me at that moment, but hit it did, and that horrifying thought has stayed with me ever since.

Today is Blog Action Day 2008 to encourage bloggers to spread awareness of the deplorable poverty that exists in our world.  It exists in every country, city , town, village, community on earth.

Why?  The roots are strong and deep, but we have a big beautiful community of humans here who have the brains and the means to eliminate it if we focus on the problem.  Just thinking about the enormity of the problem makes my head hurt and my mind spin -- how can I possibly help?  I'm not going to try to dissect the causes, but just share a few ways to help that are accessible to you and me.

Mercy Corps

Heifer International

Habitat for Humanity

Feeding America (Second Harvest)

Mothers Fighting for Others

Don't wait for our fearless leaders to solve this one.  We can do it ourselves.

Copyright 2008 Elaine Hanson

Have you ever lived on the same street long enough to watch it cycle through its own seasons?

To watch the new people move in and the Topanga long-timers meet and greet?

To see the young couple have babies, and the old couple pass on?

To watch the babies grow up to babysit the new young ones?

This month, I am celebrating my 20^th anniversary of living in my beautiful Topanga, with the best Topanga neighbors on the best Topanga street. 

I got a chance to think about the changing nature of neighborhoods while relaxing with my most awesome neighbors at our first ever, streetwide yard sale.  It was a mild and sunny spring Saturday, perfect for browsing through others' past treasures.  

Parking my camp chair behind our table of treasures old stuff, I leaned back and lost myself in the reggae playing from my neighbors' driveway.  Reggae is perfect for a yard sale.  It makes people relax, unwind, and think "Hey, that's not such a bad price for a chipped ceramic puppy" and "I could play in the waves on that boogie board - the dog only chewed off one corner." 

Of course, I had to stroll around to find out if my neighbors had any good stuff I just had to have.  I learned that my next door neighbors used to weave and had an interesting wooden loom up for sale.  My ballroom dance teacher neighbor at the top of the street had some great sparkly accessories.  I could picture her wearing them as she waltzed around the room, the light playing between the mirror ball and her earrings.  My other neighbor had some cute clothes, but she's way shorter than I am, darn it.  No treasure haul for me!  (Thank goodness!)

After the reggae morning, my garage was host to our neighbor's Topanga surf band for the afternoon.  It's really easy to wind up the event and bag the leftovers for charity when you are dancing to "Wipeout."  It was good to think that each neighbor was also donating up to 50% of the profits to two great Topanga causes.  T-CEP - Topanga's nationally recognized emergency preparedness organization, and the new Topanga Native Garden to go in at our Topanga Community House.

Our neighbors are the best - we like each other!  We still do those phone calls asking to borrow a cup of this or a tool to fix that.  We get together at least a couple of times a year to barbeque and just chat.  We are also great cooks and the tables at these events are loaded with all kinds of yummy things.  We couldn't have this event without a post sale barbeque.  Over dessert, I got to tell them the great news that the home on the corner of our street had closed escrow and we could look forward to some new faces on our street.  Time to meet and greet! 

Real Estate Bonus:  I also got to tell them that the house closed at full list price.  Full.  A cheer went up for our property values!  We might be a warm & fuzzy street, but hey, you've got to love that news for our Topanga real estate market!

Throughout this really relaxing and beautiful spring day, I was thinking about how fortunate my family is to be surrounded by caring neighbors.  We look out for each other.  We know that they are there for our family, and they know we would drop everything to help one of theirs.  A few of the faces may change, but the nature of our neighborhood has remained good.  Really good.

You know, I might be just a little bit partial.  There are a lot of great neighbors all over Topanga Canyon, and a lot of good streets.  I can help you find your Topanga Treasure Home.

Copyright 2008 Elaine Hanson