market – Page 7 – LA Loft Blog

Downtown Drama — Housing Market Cooling, Cracking or Collapse?

As the reports of real estate market cooling appear in more communities across the United States, we are taking a hard look at where we are today, and where real estate might be in the near future. As some prices begin to stagnate or tumble, winners and losers appear as the dust settles. The winners usually turn out to be the home buyers, sellers, renters and landlords who are able to see what is coming early, and then take the right steps to survive, and even profit from every situation. Here’s how the iffy real estate news is already starting to dramatically play out in the initial phase of a Downtown real estate plateau. #dtla #loft #realestate

Many communities across the USA are still reporting white hot real estate markets. Notice that many of them are the remote areas and other portions of the country that were late to the party in benefitting from the dramatic real estate price escalation that started in Downtown Los Angeles around 2012. Desert areas like Arizona and Las Vegas are today still extra hot for two reasons: 1) Remote areas are last in line to benefit from a real estate recovery as the home prices rise to stellar proportions in the more popular areas first, such as Downtown Los Angeles; 2) Urban and suburban residents are cashing out and moving to the desert areas to escape crime and high prices, and to take advantage of the lower home prices in the remote areas.

Bane of Buyers

Downtown Los Angeles has been a primary epicenter of real estate energy since around 2002, when Downtown’s infrastructure began to improve, and builder developers began to convert abandoned buildings into amazing live-work residential lofts under the City of Los Angeles Adaptive Re-Use Ordinance. What L.A. Loft Blog readers know that others do not is that the thriving Central Los Angeles area is among the first to quietly lose a bit of enthusiasm as prices already skyrocketed to surprising heights by 2014, then continued a steep upward climb through 2017. The 2018 numbers are showing the first signs of Downtown real estate weakness as the average home sold prices slid down a bit. The highest property prices slid down, and the lowest property sold price slid down also. The number of prospective home buyers has slid, and the enthusiasm of Downtown home buyers has tumbled. We are seeing signs that initial desperation of loft sellers has already begun.

Shock to Sellers

Several recent prospective home sellers at loft condos in Lincoln Heights have been surprised that their home did not immediately attract offers. One of those sellers actually called the L.A. Loft Blog office to falsely accuse our real estate team of bullying and harassing them after we asked a tough question on the private community chat room: Who gave the listing broker permission to place a large real estate yard sign in front of the condominium building? As with virtually all condominiums, it’s against the CC&R’s to place large yard signs in front of the condo building where I live and help others to buy, sell and lease while carefully adhering to the rules. Breaking condo CC&R rules and unethical activities like misplacement of large signs and lockboxes, defeating MLS rules by repeatedly rapidly listing and re-listing a property to make it appear to be a fresh listing, breaking other laws, and hiring real estate salespersons and brokers with a history of breaking laws and rules are signs of seller desperation.

D.C.-area real estate market is slowing.

LA home prices drop for the first time since January

Find out what the home down the street sold for

As promised in the title of this article, we will predict the winners in the dismal game of economics. The winners are inevitably those who have cash at the right time, who buy, sell, or lease at the right time, and who have the foresight and continuing resources to carry through a sensible plan of action. The winners? The big money billionaire investors have already placed their bets that rent prices will soar and soar in Downtown Los Angeles for many decades to come. There have been many thousands of more down-to-earth big winners who own lofts today. They are the smart, creative loft owners. As for the other side of the dice, the biggest losers in real estate are typically those who buy at the top of the market, lose their sole source of income, a price slide, and then feel forced by cirsumstances to sell at a low price. While many renters feel that they benefit by not avoiding the real estate roller coaster ride, renters lose big due to opportunity cost and stagnation of net worth. The average homeowner has a net worth that is an astounding 44X larger than that of the average renter. The wealth effect of homeownership, along with pride of ownership, make it super satisfying for a great many city dwellers to make the biggest investment of their lives in pricey Downtown L.A. real estate.

Time and again, Downtown has survived downturns. Forged through struggle and triumph, DTLA emerges stronger than ever before in one of history’s greatest stories of rise, fall and renaissance. A happy ending is in the cards for L.A. loft lovers.

Find out what the loft down the street sold for. Get a free list of nearby homes that sold, including prices, photos, descriptions and homes currently on the market. Fill out my online form:

<a href="https://laloft.wufoo.com/forms/qbg942419l39cs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fill out my Wufoo form!</a>

LOFT & CONDO LISTINGS DOWNTOWN LA [MAP]

Copyright © This free information provided courtesy L.A. Loft Blog and LAcondoInfo.com with information provided by Corey Chambers, Realty Source Inc, BRE#01889449 We are not associated with the homeowner’s association or developer. For more information, contact (213) 880-9910 or visit LAcondoInfo.com Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker.

HOME SELLERS: BE PREPARED FOR LOWER PRICES IN 2019 / 2020

Scary real estate market of Downtown Los Angeles

Real Estate Market News (Downtown Los Angeles, CA) — The last six months of completed Downtown real estate activity shows very healthy numbers for sellers, and a pricey time for buyers: Downtown Los Angeles median price is up 3.2% over the last 6 months compared to the same period last year. Inventory of available Downtown homes for sale has dropped by 6.15% over the same period. Homes sold faster with average days on market dropping by 12.9%. So why is the L.A Loft Blog, along with a few other media, sounding the alarm?

While there is no reason to anticipate a huge downturn in home prices, all of the signs and signals are in — most importantly: the feedback from L.A. Loft Blog readers, who really are the final arbiters of truth regarding Downtown residential real estate. The wallets and calendar of the readers do not lie. When a Loft Blog visitor spends time and money, (or, in this case, stops spending time and money on something), there is no equivocation, no conjecture and no doubt as to the truth. L.A. Loft Blog readers (and other prospective buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords) have communicated explicitly through words and actions that they generally have no plans to purchase a home in the next 3-6 months. At the same time, very few plan to sell in the coming months. This combination indicates a plateau (little or no increase in prices for a sustained period) and a sideways market (a combination of roughly equal up and down prices). #dtla #realestate

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES REAL ESTATE MARKET METRICS

The calm before the storm — While the median price went up, the average sold price did not budge from the same period one year ago. This indicates that price pressure has already begun. The lowest home sold and the highest home sold prices are down from the previous year. Total volume of real estate sold is down by 6.2% over the same period. #homeprice

Some say that the bull market may continue a lot longer:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-this-bull-market-may-have-miles-to-go-before-it-sleeps-2018-08-20

Locally, the statistics and the behavior of home buyers shows that we have reached a crossroads. “In 2019, the loft buyers have started to dry up,” says loft specialist Corey Chambers, Associate Broker with Realty Source Inc. “My clients and I bought lofts in 2012, and we did very well. Now, I’m informing prospective sellers that the time has come to consider locking in those gains by cashing out.”

For those who are considering selling their loft or condo, now is the time to put extra thought into future needs and wants. Once the market begins to falter, the slide may escalate faster that expected. Or, in this case, real estate could sadly stagnate for an extended period of time. Because the financial well-being or L.A. Loft Blog readers is on the top of our priority list, we are repeating the warning that we gave recently. — And remember, the mainstream media generally gives economic warnings about 6 months after they happen… too late.

HOME PRICES LIKELY TO DROP

We are not going so far as to predict the future, nor to guarantee any economics because there is no way to know how thousands of locals, and millions of individuals nationwide will behave at any time in the future. Based on the factual numbers and market data that we receive daily from hundreds of loft lovers corroborated by technical sources, we are confident that we can and should disclose the reality of a cooling market, and that we should reveal the likelihood of a mild price slide, plateau or sideways market coming up.

Real Estate Chill: