Los Angeles Real Estate
According to a recent article in the LA Times, the reconstruction industry is picking up, and that is a sure sign that the Los Angeles luxury real estate market is making a strong recovery.
Land has always been is short supply in Los Angeles, and it’s often the case that older homes must be razed in order to make way for new construction. Like much of the real estate industry in Los Angeles, the destruction and reconstruction industry ground to a halt during the recent recession, but now, it’s back with a vengeance – especially in the affluent areas of Los Angeles. Sadly, in recent past several significant historical Beverly Hills homes where torn down such as Ira Gershwin’s old house on Roxbury Drive, Howard Hughes’ Wallace Neff designed house on Linden Drive and John Lautner’s curvaceous Shusett House to make way for new construction homes. After a home created by modernist Richard Neutra came perilously close to meeting the same fate, Beverly Hills finally got serious about preserving its architectural legacy and passed a historic preservation ordinance.
In the Hollywood Hills area the popular site for this tear-down phenomenon are view properties particularly in the Doheny Estates and “Bird Streets” neighborhoods where prices rival property values in Beverly Hills’ Trousdale Estates selling for up to $2,000 per square foot!
In greater Los Angeles, the Department of Building and Safety reported a 29-percent increase in raze and build permits from January to December of 2013 from the same period in 2012. This along with a 20-percent increase in the median price for a home in Southern California bodes well for the real estate market.
So, what does this increase in destruction and reconstruction mean for homebuyers, home sellers and real estate investors in Los Angeles? For homebuyers, this means a larger new-construction inventory and the opportunity to invest in one-of-a-kind, new built homes in Los Angeles.
For Los Angeles sellers, this means an increased level of competition that hasn’t been present in the past few years, but the corresponding increase in the median sale price of Los Angeles homes should offset that. Owners of smaller homes might also be able to command higher prices for their properties as investors are looking to snap up properties and are willing to pay at or above market value.
For LA real estate investors, the prospects are a bit murkier. Obviously, the market is improving, and that is a good thing; however, the possibility of tighter restrictions on destruction and reconstruction means that knowing the local political climate is essential before making a large investment. In this type of environment, the services of a local real estate professionals that knows the market is essential.
To read the complete article in the LA time, please click here.
Susan Andrews | Estates Director
BRE License #01425843
Susan Andrews is your ultimate real estate source for Los Angeles, California and surrounding communities.
Photo courtesy of the LA Times.