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The continuing saga of declining home prices in "desireable" Los Angeles

By dodgerfanjohn   Follow   Mon, 23 Jan 2012, 9:15am   547 views   3 comments
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About a month ago I posted about Burbank, CA. Burbank had been one of the LA County "desireable" locations where bubble inflated prices remained stubornly entrenched while the rest of LA County fell in price rapidly.

By desireable, I mean:

1.) Good schools.
2.) Short commute to job centers(in this case, Burbank itself, Glendale, and ~30-45 min rush hour commute to Downtown LA).
3.) Low crime.

Suprisingly few locations in LA County meet the above criteria. Of those that do, the only place I can think of that has a decent stock of SFR under $400K is Lakewood. And the problem with Lakewood is that its about an hour rush hour commute to South Bay, or DTLA and prohibitively difficult to get to anywhere on the Westside. If you can adjust hours and start work at say 630, it works great as its a max 30 minute drive to South Bay or DTLA.

So we are left with either very wealthy areas, or bubble inflated areas such as Culver City, Burbank, Glendale, South Pasadena, Alhambra, etc.

In my recent Burbank posting, I posted sales that were below $400K. For various reasons, each of these was marginalized by the housing bull crowd. Like somehow prices weren't actually falling to the extent I was trying to portray. The nicest of the homes I posted was located close to Burbank airport, and was marginalized for that reason. The marginalization isn't entirely valid...the neighborhood is great and that particular airport has stringent time and traffic restrictions...but its not necessary for me to protest further on that.

Thats because of this:

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Burbank/1422-N-Avon-St-91505/home/5321436

I realize its just a listing. I realize its a dated home. Nonetheless, $257/sq ft for a move in ready home in this part of LA County is groundbreaking. The mortgage on this home with a FHA 3.5% down loan is ~$1850/mo. Thats significantly cheaper than renting(I estimate this would rent at $2100-2300/mo. If it was stainless/mcgranite updated it would rent at $2500-2800/mo)

This place is actually a middle class home, in a middle class neighborhood, thats affordable to a middle class income(say a family income of $90-110K). And thats a definite change from even 2 years ago.

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1. David9 Follow Befriend (3) 28 threads 747 comments Tarzana, CA

   1   9:47am Mon 23 Jan 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (2)   Well, one reason could be nothing has changed in the last few years and a major player is the huge white elephant in the room no one wants to address, Fannie and Freddie: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-23/put-fannie-and-freddie-on-federal-books-papagianis-and-swagel.html Basically, the 'market' is not a market, just a bank / 'whoever' wish list balance sheet price listings they control. It doesn't take much to see this, pick a few cities on Redfin, you will see: 1.) Most are short sales or REO's 2.) A cash investor got lucky on the courthouse steps and is trying to flip. 3.) Someone who bought wants out. Week after Week, ever wonder why no listings come out on the weekend? The banks are not open on the weekend...

2. PockyClipsNow Follow Befriend 19 threads 1,534 comments Los Angeles, CA

   2   9:48am Mon 23 Jan 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Good location for sure. Lets watch and see what it goes for.

3. m1ckey6 Follow Befriend (2) 2 threads 71 comments

   3   10:19am Mon 23 Jan 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   That is very cool. You are right that LA has very few places to live that fit your criteria. Does Burbank bus students in or do they only accept Burbank residents?