It's just getting too expensive in Los Angeles (Glendale, Vista: best neighborhood, townhomes)

[harhar]

Originally Posted by Electrician4you

No i doubt that. Prices have flattened out for the past 6-12 months or so. I'm seeing a lot of languishing on the market for anything overpriced. N the area I'm targeting. The only thing really selling is stuff that is priced right. I'm also seeing a lot of pending back on market. One townhouse I was looking at went pending back in market 3x in 6 months. Finally sold at 450k which was 45k under asking.
Another house I was looking at dropped 40k. It's still 30k over what it should be.mits been listed for 8 months no bites.

The crazy prices just aren't selling right now. And no matter how much the sellers ask it's the buyer that sets the price. L.A. Is hot in some areas. But middle class won't be eliminated

Exactly.

As I mentioned in my neighborhood there are more an more homes coming on the market, prices are leveling off. Supply + eventual higher interest rates will push or keep prices level for a long while longer. A lot of the higher priced homes have been on the market for, in some cases, hundreds of days.

If anything we might see a few more peaks and valleys, but nothing too crazy.

It will be "normal" when I can buy a fixer for a decent price. We're still not there yet, as investors still try to snatch them up as much as they can, but I think we'll get there soon.

---

It used to be, you could buy a fixer; a house with original, dilapidated fixures/tile, and well get a good deal and fix it up.

There's two things that have happened over the past ten or so years.

1. People that lived in those homes were underwater. And those homes went to auction. Investors buy them cash and flip them making 2-3x profit.

2. People that lived in those homes were NOT underwater but were playing off of the market and selling those homes for WAY more than they were worth. Buyers were desperate, because of "low- once in a life time interest rates" and little to no selection. AND competition.

So crap homes sold and have been selling for a LOT of money here in CA.

Now this seems to be tapering off and thank goodness.

[AlexiaAxiom]

Originally Posted by cityKing

California is clearly is trying to drive out the middle class, soon there will only be the very poor and very rich living there.

Yeah! I hate to think there are only 2 people kinds of people in every urban living - the rich and the poor and nothing in between.

[PDF]

Originally Posted by UKWildcat1981

Everyone thinks I hate LA on here. I love LA. I would def move to LA, I would love to live in California but I do not have a job offer in CA right now and its an expensive place to live, especially if you want to own your own home. I hate living in apartments.

Well if you refuse to live in apartments, then of course LA is going to be expensive. Even rental prices aren't cheap.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by PDF

Well if you refuse to live in apartments, then of course LA is going to be expensive. Even rental prices aren't cheap.

There's a word used to describe someone in LA who refuses to live in apartments. That word is "homeless"

[YoungTraveler2011]

LA needs to do 2 things:

1. build lots of residential high rises on the west side
2. expand the metro just like NYC

everyone wants to live on the west side but there aren't enough places to accommodate the demand because its mostly houses and/or 2 story buildings.

anyone seen the new residential high rise going up in century city right by the beverly hills entrance? looks great. problem is, its gonna be like 700k+ for a 1 bed im willing to bet.

[echoParkDate]

Originally Posted by YoungTraveler2011

1. build lots of residential high rises on the west side

BINGO! this is exactly correct, however westside homeowners are very politically powerful and use the legal system to prevent construction of more apartments.

This is the single biggest cause of the horrible traffic on the westside. No apartments, so everyone drives to the westside to work, then drives out again.

Realistically, I don't see this changing in the next few decades. The homeowners' associations run the show on the westside.

[jtamay3]

Originally Posted by echoParkDate

BINGO! this is exactly correct, however westside homeowners are very politically powerful and use the legal system to prevent construction of more apartments.

This is the single biggest cause of the horrible traffic on the westside. No apartments, so everyone drives to the westside to work, then drives out again.

Realistically, I don't see this changing in the next few decades. The homeowners' associations run the show on the westside.

Well at that point, you are eliminating neighborhoods. Apartment towers will be the neighborhoods I guess. Even then, with the crazy prices of housing, you think a developer is going to build the westside out without asking for coin back? It's not going to drive down the cost to make any real dent.

You want to drive down costs? Eliminate foreign buyers and flippers.

[genjy]

You can't out-build demand here.

Los Angeles is one of the most desirable places to live in the world. The more housing is built, the more people will move here to live in those housing.

Even if you built the Westside into a mini-HongKong, it would still be expensive and congested (see: real Hong Kong).

[majoun]

Originally Posted by genjy

You can't out-build demand here.

Los Angeles is one of the most desirable places to live in the world. The more housing is built, the more people will move here to live in those housing.

Even if you built the Westside into a mini-HongKong, it would still be expensive and congested (see: real Hong Kong).

Not without water....

[majoun]

Originally Posted by jtamay3

Well at that point, you are eliminating neighborhoods. Apartment towers will be the neighborhoods I guess. Even then, with the crazy prices of housing, you think a developer is going to build the westside out without asking for coin back? It's not going to drive down the cost to make any real dent.

You want to drive down costs? Eliminate foreign buyers and flippers.

Build enough housing, even "luxury housing", and the costs will decrease. That's what happened in Houston in the '80s.