so, who can really afford the "cheapest" houses on the west side? (Los Angeles: sales, neighborhoods)

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Yeah lots of foreign money , plus LA being a big destination for wealth from other parts of the country too .

That must be it. In the 80s, 90s, early 00s the westside was still expensive but was affordable for someone with an "upper middle class" income. Now it's only available to the top 1%. But there aren't enough 1 percenters to buy every home.

[WizardOfRadical]

Foreign money, domestic money, and individuals who inherited in the last 30 years that were not too stupid/greedy to sell.

Most people in LA rent, woopdie do. Do you think average Joe's in New York, SF, Boston, and DC can afford homes?

If you want an affordable home, move to Dallas.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by WizardOfRadical

Foreign money, domestic money, and individuals who inherited in the last 30 years that were not too stupid/greedy to sell.

Most people in LA rent, woopdie do. Do you think average Joe's in New York, SF, Boston, and DC can afford homes?

If you want an affordable home, move to Dallas.

Yep. How many people in large European cities own? Or large Asian cuties? Or any large cities? Americans are too caught up in the dream of home ownership. The only reason I care is because it seems rent is going up at a much faster rate than my 3% annual raise

[JustMike77]

Originally Posted by YoungTraveler2011

i want to know what the hell these people do.

I am here to help. I am always curious when I see a young average looking couple buy a $ 1.5 million house in Mar Vista or, worse, a $ 2.5 million house in Venice, SO I ALWAYS ASK WHAT THEY DO. While there is a lot of foreign money around, that's usually at the VERY high end for the most part. The correct answer actually is ENTERTAINMENT. Not movie stars or famous people, but sound engineers, casting directors, art directors, screenwriters and all of the tens of thousands of people behind the scenes that you've never heard of and never will. As it turns out, they make a ton of money too. I can't tell you how many houses I've done where the 3rd bedroom is crammed full of equipment for sound or video editing. The tip off is always the movie/TV posters around the house. If they worked on it, they have a poster of it on the wall. This always prompts me to say, "So, you're in the business"? Then they tell what it is they do. The writers are the most fun. When they say they're a writer, I always follow up with, "Anything I might have seen"? One lady said, "I wrote Mrs. Doubtfire". (Gulp). The most shocking one was in a nice house in Santa Monica. He just said, "I wrote Alien & Total Recall". So, there you have it. Get into the entertainment business in some form or other and you, too can own a grossly overpriced house on the Westside.

[WizardOfRadical]

LA has the largest creative class in the United States. Lots of high end people, but even more baristas living with 4 roommates as well.

[hsw]

Isn't that what markets determine?

For some, daddy (or sugar daddy) pays bills and enables place/lifestyle in cool places@young age

For others, they make their own money and choose how/where to spend it: suspect LA's Westside is high on list (after one makes money in SV), thus somewhat high costs vs perhaps suburban TX (though, like SF, awfully cheap vs Manhattan): mkt is the mkt, right?

As for LA's alleged "creative" class, suspect market ultimately determines what their ads/alleged "creative" product is worth....same std for clowns @GOOGL/FB or any old-media co. peddling ads trying to sell junk to morons who watch the stuff (and even dumber losers who buy the junk in ads)

Mkt ultimately determines how wealthy one becomes via infomercials/nwspprs/TV/movies/fiction, etc of ancient times or online ads (alleged "tech") of more modern times....and lots of those enriched by such ad/junk industries through gens have chosen to have places in playgrounds like LA or NYC no matter where they originally made their money

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

That must be it. In the 80s, 90s, early 00s the westside was still expensive but was affordable for someone with an "upper middle class" income. Now it's only available to the top 1%. But there aren't enough 1 percenters to buy every home.

Actually you can go further than that. As recently as the late 90's lower end homes in places like West LA and Culver City sold in the low 200's, even high 100's fixers.

Its getting harder and harder to prove this point as realtors have been quite busy scrubbing property histories on mls listings, I may have to go back to my old posts on the subject...

Peak of market in 1990...$220K in West LA

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Angele...4/home/6756470

Again no where near the bottom which would come a few years later....$189K in 1992.

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Angele...5/home/6755925

But this home is a FANTASTIC example $302K in 2001 https://www.redfin.com/CA/Santa-Moni...5/home/6766128

and this guy...again in Santa Monica, and in 2001 after prices had already risen substantially...$345K in 2001

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Angele...1/home/6744767

[John7777]

My guess is that most people don't take out a million dollar mortgage. Most people that buy these expensive houses already have a large part if not all of the money. To be sure, a million dollars isn't what it used to be, so there are probably some high earners who can easily handle a million dollar mortgage.

What can the average family actually afford? $250K? No wonder people are renting.

[smpliving]

A lot of these people also inherited money or houses from their wealthy parents or grandparents who lived for years in LA.

[echoParkDate]

Originally Posted by rigizug

A lot of these people also inherited money or houses from their wealthy parents or grandparents who lived for years in LA.

Yup, when you see young families in expensive westside homes, usually its family money. Go to open houses, mom and dad are there too. People don't talk about it but that's the reality.

30somethings simply do not have $300k lying around for a down payment. Even the most successful ones.