The Los Angeles housing market is swinging back into shape after imploding during the financial crash. Homes are selling for more than a million dollars in West L.A. and hitting above the million and a half mark in Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n

Recovery is underway even in low-income areas such as South L.A., which was stung particularly hard by predatory loans and foreclosures. Prices have crept up to the pre-bust levels of 2005. And just like 10 years ago, residents today want to become homeowners. But realtors are finding there just aren\u2019t enough homes go around.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny home that\u2019s halfway decent is selling,\u201d said realtor Leon Higgins, who\u2019s worked in South L.A. for 15 years. \u201cBut you still have more buyers than what\u2019s available to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

On average, he says, three or four people bid on every property. It’s the same rate as 2005, but now there are even fewer homes available.<\/p>\n

Where did they all go? When the housing bubble burst, investors and hedge funds began snatching up foreclosed properties and holding onto them as rentals.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was running to South L.A.,\u201d said Higgins, going after the bounty of foreclosed properties sold cheap.<\/p>\n

Other cities nationwide have experienced a similar phenomenon. In 2011 alone, according to a New Republic article citing Wall Street analyst Graham Fisher & Co., investors made 27 percent of all home purchases. Between the crash and 2014, investors as a group had bought 200,000 homes, according to the Center for American Progress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One company, Blackstone Group LP, has been especially prolific. It spent $2.7 billion on properties nationwide by 2013, reported\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Certain areas have been particularly targeted. In Oakland, for example, investors bought nearly half the housing inventory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While no reports have analyzed South L.A., realtors and nonprofits say the area has seen a similar pattern. A report<\/a> written by several L.A. housing organizations found that Blackstone owns at least 130 properties in South L.A., an area measuring roughly 50 square miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey picked up all the good deals,\u201d said Inglewood-based realtor Frank Oti, referring to Blackstone and similar companies. \u201cThey\u2019re probably sitting on them, and waiting for the big price before they can begin to let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home values, indeed, are going up, even in neighborhoods that still grapple with foreclosures. In the zip code with the city\u2019s highest foreclosure rate \u2013 a South L.A. neighborhood \u2013 median sales prices have just nudged past their 2005 levels, according to Zillow<\/a>. (That price is $259,000, compared to $450,000 at the height of the bubble.) RealtyTrac reports that 28 homes are currently for sale in this area, with five times as many in some state of foreclosure.<\/p>\n

Some analysts say that investors were partially responsible for pushing up values as they battled against one another to grab discounts. Prospective homeowners, without the deep pockets of investors, were left out of the game \u2013 especially here in Los Angeles, the nation\u2019s fourth most expensive housing market. And even with low interest rates, loans these days are hard to come by.<\/p>\n

During the height of the bubble, a joke circulated among lenders, said Higgins, the realtor: \u201cThey would put a mirror in front of you, and if it fogged up, you had a loan.\u201d These days, just breathing isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the meltdown and the bank crisis, the pendulum swung way over to the other side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lenders now enforce tough criteria that can foil even well prepared buyers. And banks have grown hesitant to give homes to people only able to afford a down payment of 3, 5 or 10 percent, worried that they\u2019ll simply walk away if they can no longer afford their mortgage. In more affluent areas, buyers tend to put down 30, 40 or 50 percent of a home\u2019s value.<\/p>\n

According to Oti, potential buyers need to quality for a traditional 30-year mortgage to get a loan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese days, it\u2019s not like you just walk into a bank, and you can just present any data and get approval,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to definitely apply for the loans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some residents are as wary as the banks, noted Beverly Roberts, a South L.A. resident.<\/p>\n

She took out an adjustable rate mortgage in 2007, only to see her interest rates skyrocket after five years. She refused to pay for two years, and enlisted a nonprofit to help her get a loan modification. Now she volunteers with that organization, the Alliance for Californians for Community Enterprise, to assist the many South L.A. residents fearful of predatory loans — but still anxious to buy homes.<\/p>\n

As Oti noted, many people are willing to see South L.A. continue to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a neighborhood that has a pride of ownership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But John Perfitt, director of Restore Neighborhoods L.A., warned that\u00a0finding the right price point will be tricky. He doesn\u2019t believe prices should rise past their 2006 levels, calling those figures \u201cuntenable\u201d \u2013 a sign that \u201csomething is awry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPoliticians tend to say home ownership is good,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut prudent ownership is what we\u2019re striving for.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles housing market is swinging back into shape after imploding during the financial crash. Homes are selling for more than a million dollars in West L.A. and hitting above the million and a half mark in Beverly Hills. Recovery is underway even in low-income areas such as South L.A., which was stung particularly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":618,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/618"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}