Downtown Los Angeles

[PerryChase]

Does anyone know of a good blog on Downtown Los Angeles?

A friend just bought a condo in Downtown LA because he’s convinced that it’s a GREAT investment, notwithstanding the RE downturn.

Downtown LA does have some big backers.

Here’s a Washington Post article on Downtown LA.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/01/AR2006010101086.html

I’m hoping that you guys who live up north could chime in.

[no_such_reality]

He’ll either be really right and sitting on a condo/loft in a revitalized downtown or be really wrong sitting in the middle of failed projects.

Personally, I think the condo/lofts are massively overpriced downtown now. More importantly, I think the revitalization is doomed to failure. NYC is NYC, slapping condos up around a stadium and building a downtown Disney of generic ‘entertainment’ isn’t going to cut it. In addition, the SoCal lifestyle is about being outside enjoying the weather, if you’re going to trap yourself in a concrete expanse, go for NYC, London, Paris, Barcelona.

My final thought, the waiting lists for the condos will evaporate as the 10-20% annual appreciations evaporate.

[cr]

I live 15 minutes from Downtown (without traffic of course) and the only reason I would ever live there is if I actually worked in downtown.

I know two couples (no kids) who just bought down there, but they work about 20 minutes away. I think the novelty of living there that attracted them. The prices are not much better than an average home right now.

I say let them build all they want. It can only serve to speed up the correction. It will be a while before Downtown is the “5th AVE of LA,” and I agree there are more “big backers”, but I think most of them would rather find a place for their family, which downtown is not.

Everyone says there is no room to build in LA as support for maintaining high prices, but they always find a way. Lofts are an example of that. I tend to think they will be sitting on excess inventory in a few years, and maybe then I’d consider one.

[PerryChase]

Thanks for the input. It’s interesting how Downtown SD builders are having trouble selling and holding open houses (eg Icon) whereas in Downtown LA, the waiting lists are still 6 months long.

I also tend to think that the LA market will tumble as well. Time will tell…..

[Anonymous]

Downtown SD is bad enough, but downtown LA is a total craphole. Anyone investing in that is going to lose their ass (deservedly)

[PerryChase]

But Downtown SD doesn’t have big backers such as Eli Broad, Disney, et al.

The woman (i forgot her name) who developed the City of Villages concept for San Diego is now working for LA. Downtown San Diego does have the advantage of the beautiful bay. I do think that LA has great potential to remake itself in the next 50 years. It has population, employment and, of course, Hollywood with the international acclaim that brings. LA can be one of the top cities in the world to live in, not just for the ultra rich but also for the average person. But 50 years is a long time. I’ll be close to the grave by that time.

If I lived in LA today, I’d stay on the west side, anywhere from Santa Monica to the Marina/Playa Del Rey area. I’d live in Downtown LA only if there were a commensurate discount over the coastal areas.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

Downtown SD is MUCH more attractive to me than downtown LA.
I currently live in LA’s westside and the climate is much better here than downtown in many respects beyond the weather.

What I fund funny is that the city that historically leads the country in trends (fashion, etc) is SOOOO far behind the downtown condo boom. I mean, it hit Fort Worth Texas a few years ago for goodness sakes.

[DaisyDuke]

I work in the Wells Fargo tower in Downtown Los Angeles right next to all the lofts. Your friend is (IMHO) an I D 10 T . . . sorry. But we can only wish him/her the best of luck.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how long it’ll take those new residents of downtown condos and lofts to get tired of dealing with the noise and lights of all the filming that is done down there. Crash scenes, explosions, banks of lights that can make night into day. Yep, that’s what I want in MY neighborhood!

[VanMorrisonFan]

For crying out loud, Downtown LA doesn´t even have ONE supermarket yet. It supposed to get one this summer…supposed to, I have heard. Why would anyone live in a place without even a supermarket? It makes no sense at all to me..to say nothing of other conveniences.

I live near the corner of Lake Ave. and Del Mar in Pasadena, short Gold Line ride from Downtown LA. From the front door of my apt. I can be at movie theaters, drugstores, supermarkets, restaurants, bookstores, etc., all in ten minutes or less…AND I feel perfectly safe walking the streets. HELLO! Does anyone in Downtown LA feel safe walking the streets much past 6:00 PM?

[DaisyDuke]

Yeah, if you are a drug dealer, prostitute or looking for some place to put up your cardboard box and park your shopping cart.

[brian_in_la]

check out

http://www.la.curbed.com
http://www.blogdowntown.com/

[PerryChase]

Apparently, Downtown LA is still going strong. My friend signed up 6 months ago to buy and he recently closed. Oh well, que sera sera.
—————–
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-homes13mar13,0,237940.story?coll=la-home-business

Even as most of Southern California is in the throes of a slowdown that has curtailed sales and tamped down price growth, downtown L.A. appears to be one of the few bright spots. And that helped Los Angeles County stay strong in February, with a median home price that was up 7.8% from February 2006, according to figures released Monday by DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based real estate research firm.

[LA_Renter]

It sounds to me like downtown LA will get hit pretty hard with the tighter lending standards. I like what Bill Fleckenstein said about the next step being the housing freeze

“This credit collapse is an unequivocally important event. Because, as I’ve been writing, the ability of anybody with a pulse to get a loan for any amount is what drove the real estate market, and the real estate market is what drove the economy. Sometime in the next three to six months, the real-estate market will basically just freeze up. Of course, inventories are going to explode and prices will eventually drop rather dramatically as a vicious cycle feeds on itself.”

The L A Times article touched on this

“Downtown broker Perabo says he’s busier than ever answering queries from potential homeowners. But he also is more worried because fewer first-time buyers will be able to qualify now.”

“”The days of 100% financing are over,” he said, adding that about 20% to 30% of the first-time buyers he meets with would be unable to buy without improving their credit standing and coming up with a down payment.”

IMO any remaining remnant that fueled the housing boom has basically evaporated. This is a totally different ball game.

[SHILOH]

By Jonathan Heller
STAFF WRITER Union-Tribune
March 7, 2005:

“Remember that scene from “It’s a Wonderful Life” in which George Bailey is waiting at the railroad station for his brother to return from college? He says wistfully: “You know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are? … Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles.”

Many residents of downtown San Diego complain that blaring train whistles in the middle of the night hardly contribute to a wonderful life.

” There’s a sadistic SOB who just lays on the horn at every intersection,” said Phil Gorman, who recently moved into the Watermark condominium complex on India Street.

The noise problem is the latest byproduct of downtown’s rapid residential growth.

Today, 20,000 people live downtown, and an estimated 60,000 more are expected in the next two decades. Many of the condominiums are being built on land that once belonged to the railroads.

More than 125 sleep-deprived residents crammed into the Downtown Information Center on Thursday to demand that the Centre City Development Corp., the city’s downtown redevelopment agency, do something about the noise.
The agency has been working on the problem since mid-2004 and hopes to silence the whistles within 16 months.”

Does anyone know if they were successful in silencing the train whistles?

[Author]

Posts