🇺🇸 Happy 4th of July! 🇺🇸

July is one of my favorite months of the year.

Summer is in full swing, the days seem to last forever, kids are out of school, the beaches and parks are full, and there’s an excitement in the air that’s hard to describe. Whether it's vacations, backyard BBQs, fireworks, or simply spending more time with family and friends, there's something special about this season.

One of my favorite traditions began over 16 years ago.

Every year, my family places more than 750 American flags throughout the Mesa and Village at Los Carneros to celebrate Independence Day. After the holiday weekend, we return to collect them so they can be reused again next year.

🇺🇸 It all started because I remembered seeing rows of American flags lining the streets where I grew up in Orange County. As a kid, I always thought it was something special. Now it's a tradition I get to share with my own boys and our Santa Barbara community.

This year feels especially meaningful as our nation celebrates 250 years of American independence. It's an incredible milestone, and I'm thankful we get to celebrate the freedoms and opportunities we've been blessed with.

Our family will be spending the day enjoying a local parade, heading to the beach, and ending the evening with great friends, a backyard BBQ, and fireworks. 🎆

I hope you and your family have a wonderful, safe, and memorable Independence Day.

Thank you for allowing my family to be a small part of this amazing community.

❤️🤍💙 Happy 4th of July!

P.S. I'll be back in your inbox next month with a full Santa Barbara real estate market update. If you have any questions before then, don't hesitate to reach out. I'm always happy to help.

— Justin Etherton
Etherton Real Estate Group

Musk math: How much California housing does $1 trillion buy?
The Press Democrat

There’s been lots of chatter about just how much money is $1 trillion, now that Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has a net worth that makes him Earth’s first “trillionaire” – at least on paper.

Numerous folks have tried to put this incomprehensible bounty into digestible, relatable terms. Please allow my trusty spreadsheet to do some “Musk math” to put that mountain range’s worth of dollars into a language many of us speak: California homes, using some Zillow data.

Let’s imagine that Musk had a huge interest in real estate. How far would a $1 trillion homebuying budget go for the Tesla/Space X founder?

Hypothetically, that sum buys you 1.3 million California residences in cash at the $776,000 median value as of April.

Nationally, $1 trillion buys 2.7 million homes at the U.S. median price of $368,000. Only Hawaii gets a Musk-sized buyer fewer homes than California: Just 1.2 million purchases at the Aloha State’s $830,000 median.

After California comes Massachusetts, 1.5 million homes at  $662,000, Washington state, 1.7 million at $604,000, and the District of Columbia, 1.7 million at $580,000.

Where in America does $1 trillion buy the most homes? That’s where this enormous bounty runs into a touch of real estate reality.

That astonishing budget would theoretically buy you 5.7 million homes in West Virginia with its $175,000 median price. But the state has only roughly 800,000 ownership options.

The same puzzle is found in Mississippi, where $1 trillion gets 5.1 million homes at its $194,000 median – but there are only 1.2 million residences. In Louisiana, it’s 4.7 million at its $215,000 median, but the state has only 2 million residences. And Oklahoma’s 4.5 million at $222,000 outstretches its 1.5 million residences.

See a theme here? All told, $1 trillion would buy every home in 34 states. Yup, an astounding two-thirds of America.

Value proposition

Ponder this mind-boggling Musk math by another method, looking at Zillow’s 2025 estimates of the total value of all residences in a state.

If you spent $1 trillion in California, you’d buy only 9% of the $10.8 trillion value of all residences. That’s the smallest slice among the states.

Read the Full Article Here!

These new SpaceX millionaires are reshaping SoCal coastal real estate
KTLA
Marc Sternfield

The recent initial public offering of SpaceX stock has created a wave of new millionaires, boosting demand for luxury homes in Southern California.

The Hawthorne-based aerospace company went public June 12 and quickly raised $75 billion.

Around 4,000 current and former SpaceX employees are expected to become millionaires, with roughly 400 of them making $100 million or more from the stock, Andrew Benson, chief executive of Hill.com, told the Los Angeles Times.
With its headquarters in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County, Realtors expect a surge of interest in homes along the “Silicon Beach” corridor, from Santa Monica to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, including Venice and Manhattan Beach. Other upscale neighborhoods could also see a bump in wealthy homebuyers.

Melissa Pilon, a South Bay real estate agent with Compass, told the Times that one SpaceX buyer contacted her the day of the IPO about a property in north Redondo Beach.

“I think there will definitely be an uptick, but I don’t know if it will be a sustainable thing,” she said. “There might be some superficially inflated prices.”
Realtors told the Times there is strong interest in properties priced above $5 million. Buyers are seeking homes with ocean views, swimming pools and at least four bedrooms.

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Read the Full Article Here!