In his new Los Angeles architecture blog, Moby features a photo of a lemon-yellow Silver Lake bungalow (pictured at top) to illustrate a post about how affordable L.A. is for working artists compared to New York, London and San Francisco. The electronic music star tells of how a friend recently purchased a two-bedroom condo “in a pretty nice part of l.a.” for $250,000 that would probably fetch $1 million in New York. The result, he said, is a “brain-drain” of artistic talent from those high prices cities to Los Angeles. Said Moby:
I know nothing about the [Silver Lake] house in this picture except that: a-it’s kind of beat up. b-it has spectacular views of griffith park and huge swathes of l.a. c-it probably costs 1/10th as much as it would cost in any other big, western city.
But what if Moby’s friend had gone house hunting in Silver Lake? That friend and any other working artist would find very little to buy for $250,000, based on what’s currently on the market. In fact, according to Redfin, only three of the Silver Lake homes now on the market are priced below $250,000, and one of those is in escrow.
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View Flipping Highland Park in a larger map
Homes for sale or in in escrow shown in blue; red markers indicate homes sold during the previous year.
Photo from Redfin
Home flippers have been busy buying and selling homes across Highland Park for sometime now, but some corners of the neighborhood are attracting more attention than others. Take for example Burwood and Strickland avenues east of Figueroa Street, where in the past year six homes within about a block of each other have all shown the signs of being bought and sold by investors (typically, house flippers buy, fix and sell a property within a year). Three of the homes, shown in red in the above map, sold within the past year while three (shown in blue) are currently on the market or in escrow. The newest fixed up flip to hit the market – an 858-square-foot bungalow at 6217 Burwood (pictured) – went up for sale this past week at an asking price of $419,000 – that is nearly $180,000 more than what the house sold for in November, according to Redfin. If this Highland Park block gets flipped out, where will investors head next?
Photo from CRISNET/MLS
Most of the Spanish Colonial-style homes and storybook cottages that line the streets of Atwater Village were built in the 1920s and 1930. Those homes are relative newbies compared to this newly listed three-bedroom home in the 4000 block of Baywood Street. The farmhouse-like structure was built in 1890, according to the listing and city records. It’s not clear if the house was built somewhere else and later moved on to the block but its location north of Chevy Chase Drive puts it one of the earliest parts of the neighborhood to be developed, according to an Atwater history posted by the Friends of Awater Village. In fact, at the time the house 122-year-old house was built, there really was no community known as Atwater – the area near the river was called Riverdale – and Baywood Street was known and Eucalyptus Street.
How much to own a piece of pre-20th Century Atwater/Riverdale? Asking price is $454,000, according to Redfin.
Silver Lake’s How House - a 1925 designed home designed by modernist legend R.M. Schindler - display’s the architect expertise in creating a showpiece out of concrete and glass. But, in recent years, it’s the home’s plunging price – not the architecture – that have generated attention. In 2008, the four-bedroom house on the 2400 block of Silver Ridge Avenue was put up for sale at $4.995 million after being restored. But that rich price put off buyers, and the price chopping ensued a million dollars at a time. A year ago, the How House returned to the market listed at $1.695 million but apparently no sale took place. Now, the home is back on the market at $1.495 million, according to Redfin. Is the fifth time (or is it the sixth?) the charm?
Photo from Redfin
What to do when your noisy neighbor turns out to be the southbound 2 Freeway? In the case of this newly listed Silver Lake home in the 240o block of Corralitas Drive, the front wall that faces the freeway across the street includes a layer of QuietRock, a type of drywall that the manufacturer claims absorbs more sound than traditional drywall and other materials. The Redfin listing gives top billing to the QuietRock over the stainless steel appliances, soaking tub and other amenities of the $649,000 home:
Starting with the Quite Rock” drywall used on the front walls, this sound reducing drywall allows you to walk into the living room and shut out all the noise of the hustle and bustle outside.
How much less hustle and bustle – or freeway roar – will be heard as a result of that layer of Quiet Rock? The listing does not say but a pair of ear plugs always helps.
Before: Contemporary style proposed by Heyday Homes.
After: Same project redone in Spanish-style. Image from TERA newsletter
Last year, local developer Heyday Partnership sold the Eagle Rock site where it proposed building 19 homes designed in a sleek and stark contemporary style (pictured at top). Now, the new owners of the project, housing giant Pulte Homes, has reworked the design, and the result is a much more traditional, Spanish-influenced style (pictured at bottom). The new design was presented to The Eagle Rock Association. The association had given its blessing to the Heyday project- called Ellenwood – but decided to also give its stamp of approval to the Pulte design, which also included one fewer home than the previous plan. The most recent TERA newsletter explains why TERA lined up behind the Pulte:
Architectural Style: Pulte’s plan depict s a Spanish style exterior, moderately rich with architectural detail. Heydey’s plan was contempory. We concluded that the Spanish style may be a more comfortable fit for the neighborhood.
Setback: Small courtyards at dwelling entrances allow Pulte’s plan to place the building facades 10 to 15 feet away from the property line, much farther away from the property line than contemplated by Heydey. The courtyards also provide a limited amount of outside space to each home. This was not present in the Heyday plan.
Construction of the now 18-home development, which Pulte is calling Mosaic, is expected to begin later this month, according to TERA. Prices are expected to begin in the $500,000 range.
Photo from Redfin/CRMLS
| Date |
Price |
| Dec. 7 |
$575,000 |
| Dec. 17 |
$445,000 |
| Dec. 21 |
$435,000 |
| Jan. 5 |
$430,000 |
| Jan. 10 |
$425,000 |
Many home sellers are reluctant to cut prices once a property hits the market. Not the owners of this 107-year-old Angeleno Heights bungalow, which has seen its price cut four times since it was listed at $575,000 in early December. The first price chop – a whopping $130,000 reduction – came only after 10 days on the market, leaving the Calumet Avenue home priced at $445,000, according to Redfin. Since then, the price has been reduced almost nearly every week, with the most recent reduction bringing the asking price to $425,000 or more than 25% below the original asking price. Will another week bring another price cut or will $425,000 finally attract a buyer?
Photo from TheMLS/Redfin
A “stuccalow” is what an Eastside preservationist calls a wood-sided or shingled bungalow that has been smothered in a layer of stucco. Some homeowners have begun to restore stuccalows by removing the stucco, tar paper and chicken wire to reveal the original wood siding underneath. But that was not the case with a nearly century-0ld Echo Park bungalow on Mohawk Street that recently went up for sale. The listing describes this “stylishly remodeled” two-bedroom home with hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances as ready to move in – if you want to pay $529,000 or about $150,000 more than what the house sold for a year ago, according to Redfin. But the house flippers apparently did not think it was worth spending the extra time and money on a “de-stucco” t0 restore the bungalow’s exterior siding and historic charm. Too bad.
Only a few houses away, the owners of another Echo Park stuccalow stripped the stucco off the exterior and repaired and replaced the clapboard for a head-turning restoration completed last year.
View Frost Chadwick in a larger map
The developer that demolished a block of storefronts at Silver Lake’s Sunset Junction last year now wants to demolish more buildings – including the former Sunset Pacific Motel and the 4100 Bar – and build more than 300 units of housing as well as retail and restaurant space within a three-block strip. Frost/Chaddock has notified the city’s Planning Department that it is preparing a preliminary environmental review for three different projects on or near Sunset Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Bates Avenue. “This is the first step of many,” said an attorney working with the developer.
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Photo from TheMLS/Redfin
The new year has just begun but this newly listed Highland Park home on Hub Street looks like it has been painted with Easter in mind, with a combination of bright-blue siding, yellow window frames and gray trim (pink probably would have been a bit much). The blue and yellow color scheme on the 1920 bungalow is a break with the sage green or putty colors favored by most Northeast house flippers. The colors might be different but the investors who purchased the thee-bedroom house are following a tried-and-true flipper formula by seeking a steep mark up in a relatively short period of time. After being sold for $260,000 last August, the approximately 1,200-square-foot home is now up for sale at $489,500, according to Redfin.
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