Palos Verdes is an umbrella term for a number of predominately residential communities found in the southern portion of the city of Los Angeles. Palos Verdes' numerous cities and suburbs are all found on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and is of distinctly low density. The Palos Verdes real estate market continues to follow the general pattern of the Los Angeles real estate market, having endured a relatively rough first quarter of 2009 but starting to show gradual signs of recovery. Palos Verdes is not especially unique compared to other suburban regions in Southern California, and has been experiencing trouble in the same standard areas - defaults, foreclosures, low home sales, etc. - as many other communities.

The Southern California real estate market in general and the Palos Verdes real estate market in particular has been experiencing a moderate rebound in terms of number of sales and sale price, at least according to the most recent figures available for the month of June. According to a blog posted to the Los Angeles Times website, “MDA DataQuick's statewide housing-sales figures track the trend we saw earlier this week in Southern California: the median price is rising as the mix of houses sold shifts away from the cheapest properties...As we've noted before, the rising median actually means prices are falling at the higher end of the housing market. That brings sales up, and raises the median because a greater share of homes sold are more expensive properties.”

Realtor George Fotion pointed out in an article posted to the Realty Times that “we find that the amount of unsold inventory decreased from 216 days to 110 days for the Greater South Bay, it decreased for the Palos Verdes Peninsula from 189 days to 144 days, but increased from 185 to 200 days for Palos Verdes Estates. The decreased in unsold inventory from last year's similar time period is positive news for the market.” Additionally, an article in the July 23 edition of the Los Angeles Times found that foreclosures had dropped considerably since the last quarter, although it did caution that more were likely to come in the third quarter of the fiscal year.