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# It’s A New Day In LA … Adjust Your Snobberies Accordingly
December 09 2013
Written by Adrian Glick Kudler.
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***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](http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/11/the_us_isnt_in_a_housing_bubble_but_southern_california_is.php) inflates, fewer people than ever can afford to buy houses, but some can still afford to buy **condos**--one condo-buying financial analyst t[ells the *LA Times*](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1204-condo-sales-20131204,0,5224354.story) "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)](http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/12/los_angeles_is_changing_in_the_two_most_fundamental_ways.php)*
-**cw**
**CityWatch**
**Vol 11 Issue 99**
**Pub: Dec 10, 2013**
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