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LA Developers Are Getting Desperate As Megamansion Glut Worsens


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2019 Jun 4, 9:03pm   1,615 views  15 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-31/la-developers-are-getting-desperate-megamansion-glut-worsens

With homes so unaffordable, it's hardly surprising that existing home sales are mired in a 14-month-long slump - though the return of mortgage rates to multi-year lows in May is certainly cause for cautious optimism among real-estate brokers.

But there's one segment of the housing market that, judging by all available anecdotal evidence and the data, has continued to soften after posting its worst quarterly slump in years during the opening months of 2019.

From Greenwich to the Hamptons to Billionaires' Row, sellers of luxury homes have struggled to find buyers amid a glut of oversupply and the disappearance of the marginal bid from wealthy Chinese buyers, who were once willing to pay a premium for real-estate in places like NYC.

And in the latest indication that the American real estate market has finally topped out, WSJ reports on a troubling new trend on the West Coast: A foreboding glut of luxury spec homes in Los Angeles that is creating serious headaches for developers and lenders alike.

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1   Ceffer   2019 Jun 4, 11:18pm  

What, they can't get some movie star cunt to swan about the places to impress drug lords and Chinese money launderers?
2   WookieMan   2019 Jun 5, 5:37am  

It may change as they get older, but younger people with the means to purchase houses over say $500k aren't going for huge places. It just doesn't make sense. They watched their parents moving into these enormous homes, struggle to maintain them, pay huge tax and utility bills for a half filled house. As usual, it's location that matters most and I think that's becoming a more important factor versus size.

I also think younger people are traveling substantially more than their parents did. That's hard to do with a big ass expensive house. As you're dying, I can promise you won't be thinking about how big your house is/was. You'll be thinking about the good times and memories you had.

And please Boomfucks, don't freak out and say young people are broke and can't save or buy a house. They can and are. I actually don't believe I know anyone that rents (most age 25-40). Not that renting is bad, just waiting for some idiot to tell me young people are broke and lazy.
3   BayArea   2019 Jun 5, 6:11am  

Revolt... citizens should burn down all the McMansions in Beverly Hills and build 10x the inventory in its place on 5000sq-ft lots instead.

YIMBY
4   zzyzzx   2019 Jun 5, 6:47am  

Local governments won't allow affordable housing! Brings in too many children which burden the school system and cost more than what they make off the property taxes.
The solution is simple. Just make parents pay their fair share of income taxes!
5   HeadSet   2019 Jun 5, 6:48am  

"MegaMansions" and "McMansions" are two different things. "Greenwich to the Hamptons to Billionaires' Row" refers to MegaMansions, which are bought by the truly rich and are not affected by interest rates.

McMansions are the 4000 sgft to 6000 sqft or so homes build in area where middle class people can afford them. Mortgage rates do have an effect on McMansion prices.

In 2014, I bought one of these McMansions in a McMansion neighborhood. My main reasons:

I thought inflation was on the way and I thought the house would be a hedge. I am a livelong saver and paid cash for the home.

I thought house prices may stabilize, but not decrease and thus become more affordable. Therefore, we would see a trend on multi-generational living. So I bought a house with 3 levels, 6 baths, 3 car garage, etc., suitable for a family to live on the main level, aging parents on another level, and 20 something kid and spouse on another level.

Although I do know of people living in that multi-generational style, it does not seem to have caught on as fast as I thought.
6   Shaman   2019 Jun 5, 7:57am  

My house (at 2000sqf) is as big as anything I would ever want. If I won the lottery, I wouldn’t move. It’s already taking enough time to keep this place in good repair, and it’s big enough for my kids and maybe an older parent who needs to live here at some point.
Maybe it’s the way that we live these days: a lot of digital stuff, not requiring much room. Having a huge personal space just isn’t necessary for quality of life, much like having more personal possessions becomes a burden rather than a blessing at some tipping point. My wife is always decluttering, getting rid of things we no longer use. It makes for less stress and more peace.
Remember, when you own something it also owns you.
7   HeadSet   2019 Jun 5, 8:08am  

My house (at 2000sqf) is as big as anything I would ever want. If I won the lottery, I wouldn’t move.

For my next house, I plan to build a smaller in a beautiful rural area like Shenandoah and have solar and geothermal with the idea of being "net zero" or even off grid. Hopefully 5g will be out by then and within range.
8   NuttBoxer   2019 Jun 5, 9:10am  

Record homeless population, glut of ugly houses, hmmm...
9   RWSGFY   2019 Jun 5, 9:39am  

NuttBoxer says
Record homeless population, glut of ugly houses, hmmm...


Yep, this is an opportunity for a proper California -style "solution": put a prop for a bond or, better yet, a tax, on a ballot to buy up all the empty mega-mansions (for asking price, of course), divide them into "tiny houses" (work to be performed by "minority-owned contractors", of course) and put all the homeless there.
10   NuttBoxer   2019 Jun 5, 10:53am  

I don't know. I say beggars can't be choosers. Just condemn the properties, tell police to ignore all trespassers, and let nature take it's course.
11   RWSGFY   2019 Jun 5, 11:36am  

NuttBoxer says
I don't know. I say beggars can't be choosers. Just condemn the properties, tell police to ignore all trespassers, and let nature take it's course.


That's not a proper California-style solution. Because too cheap.
12   Ceffer   2019 Jun 5, 3:22pm  

I hate having hired help around, and large homes mean hired help around. The wealthy people I have known in Beverly Hills and Pacific Heights ( the cousin of my brother in law bought the mansion across the street to dorm her butler, cook, nanny etc. so that they could be across the street) all actually live in a small area that usually consists of kitchen, the room where they watch TV and their bedroom where they sleep, all in all about 1500 to 2000 sq. feet at most in a monster house.

I have known two Pacific Heights RichFucks, and neither one of them ever even looked at their fabulous views of the GGB. It was too far to walk across the house, or too annoying to open the drapes.

A really well arranged and managed 2000 sq ft. for a couple is great, and maybe an extra 1000 sq. ft. for special narcissistic 'needs' at most and a nice four car garage for excess luxury seems to be more than enough.

I remember when I was in grad school I was looking for a room to rent when I moved there. I bicycled down Sunset Blvd. to a mansion that had a room for rent. There was some woman who must have been a celebrity. She had photographers there when I went there. She was a knockout, but was lonely because her son had moved away to college and she wanted somebody in his room. The house was egregious, and basically consisted of endless different salons, living rooms, bathrooms etc. clearly unused. The rental room was a typical kid's room that had a staircase from the kitchen to the room upstairs and a private entry. I doubt the kid ever went into the rest of the house when he was there. I didn't rent it because I didn't like the danger of biking along Sunset Blvd.
13   HeadSet   2019 Jun 5, 3:52pm  

She was a knockout, but was lonely

Sounds like you turned down a potentially awesome situation.
14   Ceffer   2019 Jun 5, 3:56pm  

HeadSet says
Sounds like you turned down a potentially awesome situation.


Too nerdy, too poor. I didn't recognize her and was into my studies, ignoring the world. However, she was clearly somebody because she had a bow and scrape retinue around her. She was very, very nice to me, though, when she was showing me the room. The whole scene was kind of intimidating to somebody who thought a studio apt. was a mansion.

It sounds like Billy Wilder and "Sunset Boulevard" and it was kinna but she was younger, better looking and the mansion was not decrepit. It was right on Sunset Blvd., too.
15   BayArea   2019 Jun 5, 10:12pm  

Sunset blvd? UCLA?

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