Palos Verdes Property Values

While Ron Taylor is a pleasant gentleman, I cannot believe the article he wrote entitled “Property Values, Spirits Sink on Peninsula,” in the Nov. 5 Los Angeles Times South Bay section. Mr. Taylor interviewed me as a prominent realtor who is also an attorney and real estate developer on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. But he chose to ignore the information I gave him.

There are situations that can be carefully chosen to present overblown stories of financial disaster. You can find them in any market. People even lost their homes in the late ‘80s. But The Times has not accurately presented the real estate market by quoting only one realtor.

Some people have unreasonable expectations when they set the asking price on their homes. If they do not select a good realtor, the property will be placed on the market at that unreasonable price. Of course it will not sell at that bloated price. Then, a newspaper reporter can select those situations to show how amazing it is that the property sold at a price that was dramatically less. It is not amazing to a professional realtor that an overpriced property sold in a longer period of time for a market price that declined as the market declined.

TIM BURRELL

Broker/attorney