Buying a house in LA (Los Angeles, Riverside: bank owned, short sale, lease)

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Question to the OP: Are you trying to buy a home with cash or do you not mind having a payment? By looking in the $150k range you are limiting yourself to places very far away from LA, OC, San Diego & San Francisco. Places like Bakersfield & Fresno have a feel entirely of their own.. it's nothing like any of those cosmopolitan/metro areas I just listed. They aren't bad places, it's just a different pace of life with a different type of person that would choose to live in LA, OC, etc. If you up your price range to $250k you and finance $100k you should be able to easily find some sort of entry-level abode in a suburb of Los Angeles... your payments would be under $1k/mo as well. Plus investing in real estate in this area has always proved to be a great investment over time, we're on the edge of the water and land is at a premium. If you want to pass something onto your kids or grandkids then real estate in Southern California is a great legacy to leave them.

[EricJess123]

Originally Posted by magicmajenta

That's what I want to get to the bottom of. Do you get shot by just walking the streets in Palmdale? Do you pretty much have to turn your house into a fortress? Some of those houses don't look to be in slums but middle class homes. If it's just distance to the major urban centers then that's fine. Buf if it is the former, then I may have to think again.

But yes I am definitely going to SoCal first to check out properties and neighborhoods before doing anything. I'm just relaying what I have come upon on my research in the internet.

Look in Quartz Hill Thats the upper class of Palmdale and it isnt expensive(:

[magicmajenta]

Originally Posted by EricJess123

Look in Quartz Hill Thats the upper class of Palmdale and it isnt expensive(:

Thanks I'll give it a shot.

[Delron]

Originally Posted by magicmajenta

We are going to be selling our house and want to buy a house in LA/Socal. My mom estimates that we will be getting around $100k from the sale that we can put toward our new house. We don't want to get a house beyond our means but are willing to go $50k above what we have. So if we get $100k from the sale of our house we are willing to invest in a place of around $150k at the most. I know LA is expensive and want some help from any of you guys where we can find a house in that price range anywhere in the LA area or surrounding that is in a descent neighborhood. I am just looking for a house to stay even if it is a small 1 or 2 bedroom house. I am open to anything--sales, foreclosures whatever as long as it is in that price range anywhere in the LA metro area.

I was looking are real estate websites and found houses really cheap in Palmdale and Lancaster but read a thread on here that those are bad areas to live in and a lot of bashing altogether about those places.

So basically I am looking at decent neighborhoods. Any advise? Foreclosured homes are also an option to us if there are a lot of them in a particular neighborhood that is worthwhile living. Any help/advise would be appreciated.

150K for LA?!?!? (deep inhale...) BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's a good one. Seriously now, you will never ever ever...ever EVER find anything in that price range in a "descent" neighborhood.

For 150K, you can't even afford the worst ghettos of LA, son. Better start looking at the inland and outlying ghettos, there are some foreclosures in the absolute worst parts of San Bernadino and Riverside counties going for around 150K.

[Delron]

Originally Posted by magicmajenta

The 2 or 3 houses I saw in Pacific Palisades that was in that price range were mobile homes. I know they won't be huge but what else is the catch besides that.

And with all the foreclosures out there I should be able to snag a home with $150k, in a decent neighborhood right.

What about condos or townhouses--what are my chances?

I have also thought of buying a typically priced house in an OK neighborbood and then leases out the rooms to borders who are willing to rent. I mean this is a practical idea, right to help with the income/mortgage. Anyway I need some ideas and I'd love it if someone can throw out some practical ideas.

The catch is, you don't own the land the mobile home is sitting on, you're leasing it.

Condos, townhomes, you name it - you want it near metro LA AND in a decent area? You will have to triple or quadruple your 150K range at the very least. Unless you have a time machine to go back to the mid 1990's or the early 80's, you're not going to find anything in that range other than the absolutely WORST slums in the WORST areas.

Don't believe me? Go to redfin.com and set the search criteria for a max of 150K and expand it all the way to cover as much of SoCal as possible and see what comes up.

[Buzungy]

Rent control

Hi, Is it possible to get a list of rent controlled apartments in Los Angeles? If so how?
Thank you

[BRinSM]

rent control only goes into effect once you've moved into your apartment and only if your apartment was built before 1978. what this means is that you will be charged the market rate on you apartment but the city governs how much your landlord can you increase your rent annually. back to your original question, i don't think there is a list of rent controlled apartments, you'll just have to ask when the apartment building you are interested in living in was originally built. you may also be able to find this info on the internet.

[goodbyehollywood]

Originally Posted by Delron

Condos, townhomes, you name it - you want it near metro LA AND in a decent area? You will have to triple or quadruple your 150K range at the very least. Unless you have a time machine to go back to the mid 1990's or the early 80's, you're not going to find anything in that range other than the absolutely WORST slums in the WORST areas.

I'm going to have to agree with Delron here. Prices weren't that low when I moved to L.A. in the early 90s. People were paying in the $200Ks then for fringe neighborhoods in metro L.A.

A $150K price tag is going to put you so far out you'll have a whole different lifestyle. If you're okay with that, your goal is probably doable.

[Luke9686]

Don't buy the mobile home. You are essentially paying $200,000 for a box you could buy in the midwest for $20K. They don't appreciate and you still have to pay lot rent, because you don't own the land under it.

[Charles]

Good article in this morning's LA Times business section:

Should you buy a home now? - Los Angeles Times (broken link)

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