Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

 

LA's Journey From Richest to Worst


— Photo By TJ Sullivan —
Two years ago, scant media attention was being paid to the fact that Los Angeles was the least affordable housing market in the US.

Most of the real-estate news back then revolved around what big money was being made in housing.

At about that same time, the California Asssociation of Realtors quietly reformulated the way it calculated housing affordability. And, as a result, LA appeared more affordable than previously thought.

The old formula had served CAR well for 22 years, so why the change in 2006?

CAR said it was to "better reflect the realities of today’s real estate market," which was another way of saying the new formula accounted for the reality that pretty much anyone with a heartbeat could get a home loan. And we all know how that's turned out.

Today the story is quite different.

Today Los Angeles tops the list of Fortune magazine’s worst real estate markets for 2009.

No surprise there.

This from CNN's report on Fortune's list:
The housing market hasn't bottomed out yet. For the third quarter, the closely-watched S&P Case-Shiller national home-price index fell 16.6%, and experts are predicting further declines. Of the top 100 markets, here are 10 with the worst forecasts.

1. Los Angeles

2008 median house price: $375,340
2009 projected change: -24.9%
2010 projected change: -5.1%

The median home price in the L.A.-Long Beach-Glendale metro area is projected to fall nearly 25% in 2009 - the biggest drop in the country ...

More at CNN and LA Biz Observed.

— TJ Sullivan in LA
Bookmark and Share



0 Comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are appreciated, especially those that inspire spirited-but-courteous discussions. Your comment will be reviewed before it is posted on the site.

Anonymous comments are not permitted. I put my name on what I say here, so I hope you don't mind doing so as well.

<< Home