What I Tell Sellers About the LA Market Right Now
I've had some version of this conversation a dozen times in the last few months: a seller sits down with me, a little nervous, and says some version of "isn't it a bad time to sell? I keep hearing the market's slowing down." And I get why they're asking. If your only reference point is a few years ago — offers flooding in within days, homes going way over asking, no time to even think — then yes, this feels different.
But slower isn't the same as bad. What I'm actually seeing, from Santa Monica to Beverly Hills to the east side, is a market that's found its footing again. It's more normal than it's been in years. And normal, it turns out, still works very well for sellers who do a few things right.
Here's what I want you to know before you list.
This Isn't a Downturn — It's a Reset
Inventory across Los Angeles is the highest it's been since 2020. Mortgage rates sitting around 6% have taken some of the urgency out of the room. Homes that used to sell in a week are now taking 50 to 80 days, on average, across the county.
I know that can sound alarming if you're picturing the pace of a few years ago. But I'd ask you to picture further back than that — to how selling a home worked for most of the last few decades, before ultra-low rates turned every listing into a bidding war. This is closer to that. It's a market with room to breathe, where buyers actually get to compare, think, and choose — which means the sellers who stand out are the ones who make that choice easy.
The homes that struggle right now are the ones still priced like it's 2022. The homes that do well are the ones that meet today's buyer where they actually are.
Every Neighborhood I Work In Is Telling Its Own Story
One of the things I love most about working across LA is that no two neighborhoods ever move the same way — and this year, that's especially true. Here's what I'm watching in the areas I sell in most.
Santa Monica is still rewarding well-priced single-family homes with real speed — I've seen them go under contract in as little as two weeks. Condos are taking a bit more patience, closer to a month and a half, so if that's what you're selling, presentation matters even more.
Venice is more nuanced than people expect. Overall, homes are taking longer than they were a year ago — into the 80-day range — so I tell my Venice sellers not to panic if the first few weeks are quiet. The one exception: anything near the canals. That pocket has a waitlist of buyers who've been watching for years, and those homes are still moving fast, often well into the millions.
Beverly Hills remains its own world. It's a market defined by cash — most of my clients selling there are dealing with buyers who don't need financing at all, which tends to mean smoother closings but also very selective buyers who know exactly what they want.
Culver City has had a genuinely strong year — prices are up meaningfully from last year, and homes are averaging a couple of competing offers. Fewer buyers overall are shopping right now, but the ones who are out there are serious, and they move fast on the right listing.
Brentwood continues to hold its place as one of the most expensive pockets in the city. It's not a fast-moving market, but it's a steady one, and I expect that to continue.
Manhattan Beach is moving fast for a market where prices keep climbing — I'm seeing homes go under contract in under a month even as median prices have pushed into the $3.3M to $3.7M range this year. Buyers here tend to know exactly what they want, and they don't hesitate once they find it.
Hermosa Beach has stayed tight all year. Inventory is genuinely low, and that scarcity is doing a lot of the work for sellers — homes are taking a bit longer to close than Manhattan Beach, closer to two months, but that's buyers being thoughtful with a smaller pool of options, not a lack of interest.
Pacific Palisades is somewhere I've spent a lot of time this year, and it deserves its own honest conversation. The community is still rebuilding after the January 2025 fires, and that's shaped everything about how homes there sell now — from insurance considerations to how buyers think about lots versus finished homes. If you're selling in the Palisades, that context matters as much as anything else we'll talk about, and it's not something I'd try to reduce to a headline stat. Let's talk it through directly.
Eagle Rock, Pasadena, and South Pasadena are, honestly, where I've seen some of the most exciting activity in the county this year. Well-priced homes in these neighborhoods are routinely going under contract within a single weekend. If you're selling on the east side, you're in a genuinely strong position right now.
What I Actually Tell Sellers to Do
Price it honestly, not optimistically. This is the single biggest thing I see cost sellers money and time. With more inventory out there, buyers are comparing you against every other listing in the neighborhood, and an overpriced home doesn't just sit — it starts to look suspicious to buyers who wonder what's wrong with it. I often recommend pricing just slightly below the most recent comparable sales, on purpose. It sounds counterintuitive, but when it draws in a few serious buyers at once, I've watched it turn into a final sale price that lands above where a higher list price ever would have.
Do the paperwork before you're excited to list, not after. I always push my sellers to have disclosures and any pre-listing inspections handled before we go live. A clean, no-surprises transaction is one of the best things we can offer a buyer, and it starts well before the first showing.
Stage it like it matters — because it does. With more homes for buyers to choose from, I don't let my clients skip this step anymore, regardless of price point. It's how your home gets picked out of a crowded field of options online, where most buyers start looking.
Launch on a Thursday. Not Friday — buyers need a day's notice to actually plan around your open house, and a Friday debut often means they've already made other weekend plans. Thursday gives it time to land in inboxes and searches before the weekend traffic hits. I've built entire strategies around that first open house weekend, and it consistently pays off.
Watch your first two weeks closely — this part really matters. I tell every seller this: your first ten to fourteen days on the market tell you more than any other stretch of the sale. That's when your listing gets the most attention — agents are actively showing it to buyer clients, it's fresh on every portal's search results, and anyone who's been watching your neighborhood sees it first. If the showings are strong and offers follow, that's the market confirming you got it right. If the traffic is thin or the feedback is quiet, that's real information too — and it usually means it's time to have an honest conversation about price or presentation, not wait it out for another few weeks. The buyers who were paying closest attention move on fast, and it's much harder to win them back later than to adjust early.
Give it a real timeline, and don't panic. In the hottest pockets — Eagle Rock, South Pasadena, canal-front Venice — I've seen homes go under contract within a weekend. But 50 to 80 days is the honest average right now across most of LA, and that's not a red flag. That's just what a healthy, sustainable market looks like.
If You're Not Sure Whether Now Is the Right Time
Here's what I've learned after doing this for years, across every kind of market: the sellers who do best aren't the ones who wait for perfect conditions. They're the ones who price honestly, prepare thoughtfully, and have someone in their corner who actually knows their specific street, not just the citywide averages.
Every neighborhood in this city is writing a different chapter right now — what's true in Eagle Rock isn't true in Beverly Hills, and what's true in Santa Monica isn't true two miles away in Venice. If you're weighing whether this is your moment to sell, I'd rather just talk it through with you directly than have you guess from a headline.
I'm here for all of it — the strategy, the pricing, the hard conversations, and everything in between. If you're thinking about selling in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Venice, Beverly Hills, or anywhere in between, let's connect.
