Malibu Real Estate and Malibu Homes for Sale

The top subprime lenders whose loans are largely blamed for triggering the global economic meltdown were owned or backed by giant banks now collecting billions of dollars in bailout money — including several that have paid huge fines to settle predatory lending charges. The banks that funded the subprime industry were not victims of an unforeseen financial collapse, as they have sometimes portrayed themselves, but enablers that bankrolled the type of lending threatening the financial system.

• At least 21 of the top 25 subprime lenders were financed by banks that received bailout money — through direct ownership, credit agreements, or huge purchases of loans for securitization.

• 9 of the top 10 lenders were based in California, including all of the top five — Countrywide Financial Corp., Ameriquest Mortgage Co., New Century Financial Corp., First Franklin Corp., and Long Beach Mortgage Co.

• 20 of the top 25 subprime lenders have closed, stopped lending, or been sold to avoid bankruptcy. Most were non-bank lenders.

• 11 of the lenders on the list, including four recipients of bank bailout funds, have made payments to settle claims of widespread lending abuses.

City staff at an Administration and Finance Subcommittee’s special meeting this past week, staff members suggested the city begin taxing short-term rentals of private homes.  This could start as early as July 1st and would add an estimated $200,000 to the cities budget.

The 12% tax on rental price would be instituted on all rentals of private homes rented for 30 days or less.  Basically a property owner will have to pay $120 per $1000 in collected rent.   They will also have to file a one-time registration fee of $25 per property.  

The Malibu Municipal Code allows for such a tax but has never had a need to enforce it.  They currently impose this law on the hotels and motels in the area.

The big issue is HOW the city will be able to enforce this law.  They will have to work through the various real estate agencies (shouldn’t be too hard to find one around here) in order to determine whether or not a home is considered a “vacation rental” or not.

Currently they are over 400 leases available in Malibu, more than half of them on the beach.  One can only imagine what kind of profit the city is going to be making off all this “potential” taxable revenue.

During the filming of the new move “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, a movie starring Nicolas Cage, this past Monday Morning a brand new Ferrari F430 crashed into a Sbarro’s pizza restaurant in Times Square.

A Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz were involved in a chase scene late that night when the Ferrari slid out of control.  Jeremy Fry, the driver, was apparently supposed to power slide the car around the corner and instead slid a bit too far and jumped a curb knocking over a pole and the entrance way to Sbarro’s pizza.

No one was seriously hurt but the condition of the brand new $200,000+ Ferrari F430 has yet to be released.  Nicolas Cage stars as the lead role in the Fantasia inspired movie as, Balthazar Blake who travels to New York in hopes to find a new apprentice.  The movie isn’t expected to be released until the summer of 2010.

Mr. Cage is no stranger to these parts.  He owned home here in Malibu a few years back that sold in 2005 for $10 million.  He then began a shopping spree of real estate b

uying a property on Paradise Island, Bahamas, a 40-acre island near Nassau, a medieval castle in Germany, as well as his most recent purchase, a 24,000-sqft country manor in Rhode Island.

As much as I love to be optomistic about everything going on in the real estate martket, I can not help but be a little bit shocked when I see a new listing for over 15M hits the market.  It isn't that the agents representing these properties do not know what they are talking about, not at all, but it is that these properties are so completely over priced that it is as if the sellers simply make up a price.

Currently there are 14 properties on the market over 15M on the beach, 2 of which have been listed in the last couple weeks.  One is a little north of pepperdine, 33428 Pacific Coast Hwy for close to 17M represtented by Eytan Levin and the other is 21804 Pacific Coast Hwy for 65M represented by Stephen Shapiro.

Regardless these places are beautiful and who knows, maybe they will actually bring up the market.  Assuming these places actually sell...