Comparing Chatsworth Real Estate the Day Metrolink Train Crashed

Who could possibly forget that on 9/12/2011, a Metrolink train crashed in Chatsworth?  A total of 25 people died, including Los Angeles Police Department Officer Spree De Sha; 135 people were injured.  The crash was precipitated by the train’s engineer missing a red light because he was busy text messaging.

I’m reminded of that final scene of Fail Safe (admittedly a movie most of you are probably too young to have seen) in which there are series of snapshots of what people were doing at the exact moment bombs were falling on New York City.

So, with those images in mind, I wondered what would a snapshot look like that compared what was going on with Chatsworth real estate on that horrible day compared with what was going on with Chatsworth real estate exactly three years later.

On the day of that monumentally horrific crash one Chatsworth home sold.  That’s it.  The house was on Itasca St.  It had 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,164 square foot interior and sat on a lot size of 7,700 square feet.   The sales price was $384,000.

Exactly three years later, on September 12, 2011, five houses were for sale in Chatsworth, one house entered escrow, and two homes sold.  One of the homes for sale was a town home and the asking price was $249,000.  The other four homes ranged in asking prices from $299,000 to $839,000.   That house listed for $839,000 had 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,931 square feet, and was on a 18,504 square foot lot.

The home that went into escrow had a sales price of $469,000.  It had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,837 square foot interior, and was on a lot of 10,140 square feet.  

One of the two homes that closed that day went for $505,000 and the other went for $630,000.  Both of those homes were large.  The house that went for $505,000 had 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, had an interior that consisted of 2,445 square feet and was on a lot that had 16,461 square feet.  The other house that closed had 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, an interior of 3,200 square feet, and was on a lot of 18,770 square feet.

So what does this all mean?  Well, the obvious interpretation is that on 9/12/2011 that there  was a lot more real estate activity a couple of days ago than there was three years ago, at the depth of our recession.

A bit less obvious interpretation is that today’s buyers are indeed buying homes, sellers are selling homes, and lenders are lending money.  

What do you think these numbers mean?

And let’s hope you aren’t text messaging while you are driving.