L.A. Home Prices Surpass Peak in High-End Neighborhoods
Home prices in high-end Los Angeles neighborhoods including Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Bel Air have surpassed levels reached before the housing bubble burst even as values in the region’s broader market continue their recovery.
In areas including the Westside and downtown Los Angeles, the median price of single-family homes and condominiums was $885,000 in the fourth quarter, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier and 0.7 percent from the previous three months, brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate and appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. said in a report Thursday. It was the first by the two firms for the country’s second-largest city.
“It’s what we’re seeing in Manhattan and in high-end housing markets across the country,” Jonathan Miller, president of New York-based Miller Samuel and a Bloomberg View contributor, said in a telephone interview. “There’s been this general shift toward higher-end real estate, less dependent on financing.”
The all-time high for the Los Angeles region was last year’s second quarter, when prices reached $895,000, according to Miller, who also tracks real estate in the New York City region and South Florida. The Los Angeles-area record during the last boom was $862,000, in the third quarter of 2007. Prices typically peak midyear, Miller said.
The report is based on sales in the listing area that stretches from Malibu south to the beach district of Playa del Rey, and to the gentrifying Highland Park neighborhood northeast of downtown. It doesn’t include such lower-cost areas as the Antelope Valley, South Los Angeles and Compton.
Low Affordability
The Los Angeles County median home price was $441,610 in January, compared with a September 2007 high of $625,810, the California Association of Realtors said yesterday. Statewide, the median price for single-family, detached homes was $426,790, up 3.4 percent from a year earlier while still 28 percent below the May 2007 peak.
“Despite a leveling off of home prices and continued decline in interest rates in recent months, California’s housing market continues to be constrained by low housing affordability,” Chris Kutzkey, president of the Realtors association, said in a statement.
Los Angeles’s high-cost areas had mixed results last quarter, influenced mostly by the tight inventory of homes for sale, according to Elliman and Miller Samuel. There was a 2.3-month supply of homes on the market, meaning it would take that long for all listed properties to find buyers at the current sales pace. A six-month supply is balanced, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills had the highest median price for single-family homes in the fourth quarter, at $3.55 million, down 36 percent from a year earlier, according to the Elliman Report. Even with the decline, sales included the $70 million paid in December by Markus Persson, the Swedish creator of the Minecraft video game, for a Beverly Hills home developed by handbag tycoon Bruce Makowsky.
Prices also fell from a year earlier in Malibu, with a 4.8 percent decline to a median $2.47 million, and in the Bel Air and Holmby Hills districts, down 22 percent to $1.75 million. In the Beverly Hills post office area, which lies inside the 90210 ZIP code but outside the city limits, they climbed 37 percent to $2.6 million, and in Santa Monica they gained 21 percent to $2.19 million.
The average price per square foot for all sales covered in the Los Angeles report was $740, up 12 percent from a year earlier. The Manhattan average was $1,284, up 9 percent, according to a report by Elliman and Miller Samuel last month.
By: John Gittelsohn
