LA.CURBED-Roughly since World War II, the car and the single-family house (with its trusty sidekick the yard) have teamed up to create the popular view of Southern California as a hot, sprawling wasteland criss-crossed by jam-packed freeways. But that's changing: data out today shows that SoCal house-buying is down, condo-buying is up, car use is down, and transit use is up.
It's a new day in Los Angeles; adjust your snobberies accordingly.
As a new SoCal real estate bubble inflates, fewer people than ever can afford to buy houses, but some can still afford to buy condos--one condo-buying financial analyst tells the LA Times "A single-family house with a backyard is just a beautiful thing … But that is a luxury." (Yeah, that's a finance guy calling a backyard a luxury. This is not your parents' America.)
In October, the median price for a SoCal condo was $72,500 less than the median price for a house; sales of existing houses fell 7.2 percent over last year, while condo resales rose 3.3 percent. From January to October this year, condo sales have made up 22 percent of all home sales in Southern California.
But the shift toward denser living isn't completely about housing costs--younger people actually like living in city environments, where they can walk or ride transit to their jobs or friends' or bar. And as the director of UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate tells the Times "The median-priced condo is significantly better located than the median single-family home ... It's probably closer in, with less of a commute, and it's closer to entertainment." (Read the rest … including a new study showing SoCal using their cars less … here)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 99
Pub: Dec 10, 2013