2011: A Look Back at a Year of Stabilization in Culver City Real Estate

If I had to use one word to sum up the Culver City real estate market in 2011, it would be stabilization.

There are many small details that lead me to this conclusion. There are too many to include here so I will focus on a few key areas:

1. The price of single family homes has averaged for the last three years right around $620,000. This is pretty much the price of sold homes for all of 2011. In my book, that's pretty stable.
2. Homes have been selling or going under contract in less than 45 days from the date they first hit the market. This demonstrates that there is a market of buyers ready, willing and able to pull the trigger and write an offer on a home they like, without waiting for the price to drop very much.
3. The amount of inventory has never risen above more than 60 for the entire year. Some months it has been in the low 40's. This is antithetical to a down market. Normally there is a tremendous over capacity of homes relative to the number of buyers in a real estate recession. This is very much bucking the national trend.
4. Last, but definitely not least, most of the couples I have worked with in purchasing a home in Culver City state their primary reason for moving here is the school system. Despite a couple of very difficult years that saw deep cuts in the budget, most of Culver City's schools either maintained or improved their API scores over the previous year.

Add all these factors together and Culver City ranks up there with some of the best perfoming markets in the country. Now that is something to celebrate over the holidays.

Mike King is an Associate Partner at Partners Trust Real Estate and Acquisitions and a father of two kids in Culver schools. He is passionate about three things: family, real estate and McVities Chocolate Biscuits (or cookies to the uninitiated). You can connect with Mike on Twitter @mikeking4re and on Facebook.

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