Santa Monica is one of the best known suburbs of Los Angeles, home to many world famous celebrities and wonderful homes. It’s home to the famous designer Frank Gehry’s house, which is an amalgamation of house and warehouse. Basically, Gehry took an existing small house and built into it and around it, interesting and fascinating patterns that, eventually, make the house look more like a fancily designed warehouse than the traditional stylish home that most designers would live in. Light wood, corrugated metal and chain link; definitely not traditional by any means, and yet even with such harsh aesthetics it’s a popular home for visitors to stop by and take a look.

Of course, when we want to get back to what we expect of the rich and famous, we don’t have to look any further than the house actress Julianna Margulies is trying to sell. Presently being rented by another top actress, Kyra Sedgwick, this house is on the market for $4.2 million. Built in 1927, it’s 3,235 square feet, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a living room with a beamed ceiling and wood-burning fireplace. It has an open chef’s kitchen, a den, an office-library, a swimming pool, and the detached guesthouse has one bedroom and one bathroom. It also has a three car garage.

Then we have the Britney Spears home that’s still up for sale. At $7.9 million, it’s considered as somewhat of a bargain because it’s a spacious 7,453 square feet. It’s a wonderful six-bedroom Italian renaissance inspired house in a gated community. It also has six baths, a gated motor court, a wet bar, maid’s quarters, a library and looks down into the living room, a smoking room/den, a formal dining room, a grand entrance foyer, dramatic high ceilings and carved millwork, the standard pool and a chef’s kitchen.

Of course, not only the famous own lavish homes in Santa Monica. One wonderfully large home right on the beach, a 5-room European villa style home sitting on a double lot, is up for sale right now at $16 million. It’s a 2-story courtyard style house with a retractable roof, a master bedroom suite with his and hers bathrooms, large living and dining rooms with a professional screening room and a bar on the lower level. It’s a house that was originally built in 1927 (there seems to be a pattern here), but obviously has had many modern touches added to it.

But Santa Monica is known for the stars that live there, and the houses they live in. Stars include Jamie Lee Curtis, Ted Danson, Jane Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Judge Reinhold, Jeff Bridges, Mel Brooks and Tom Selleck. Even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lived in Santa Monica at one time before he married Maria Shriver, and still owns commercial properly there.

Most Americans are a little sheepish about taking the homeownership plunge. Even with the election behind us, we’re still a ways away from a stabilized economy in Santa Monica real estate market.

However, this may very well be the time that you take a good long look at the real estate market and check your fears at the door. When the all the news in the media is bad, that may very well be the time to start thinking of buying real estate.

The fact is, there are more homes on the market now than in recent years. And not only that, the prices have gone way way down…as high as 25% in some areas. This is great news for home buyers.

And don’t forget that while mortgages are a little more challenging to get than in the free-wheeling home buying days, the rates are still incredibly low. Some banks are offering fixed rate loans at less than 6%. This is really great.

Many wise investors will tell you that when others begin to flee from a certain market, that’s the time to get involved. With so many people spooked by the Santa Monica real estate market, today’s buyers have more power than ever before. You can really drive a hard bargain and get way more house than you could have in recent years.

And we haven’t even touched on foreclosures and reo’s yet. Sadly many people are losing their homes. It’s a terrible situation made worse by a challenging economy. But remember you didn’t do anything to cause the homeowner to suffer financial difficulty, so you shouldn’t feel guilty about writing an offer on a foreclosure or reo. Take advantage of this opportunity before it passes you by.

For those readers who are looking more for an investment than a place to live, consider the many benefits of buying rental property in this market. For starters, financing isn’t as easy to get as it once was. That fact alone is creating a significantly larger rental market. This is also coupled with a financial downturn, so fewer people are buying and more are renting. So rental prices are beginning to creep up.

This is great for the savvy investor…lower buying prices, and higher rental rates can equal a great investment. And don’t forget the tax write-offs that you get from expenses, depreciation and interest. Buying rental properties is all about cash flow when comparing your mortgage payment and expected rental amounts. When the market was booming, it was hard to make the numbers add up due to large valuations and resulting mortgage payments. That lanscape has significantly changed with the lower valuations.