LABJ Insider: April 24

Homebuyer’s Blues

You know that buying a house in California is difficult, and especially so for first-time buyers. But occasionally a statistic or survey comes along that underscores that difficulty.

And that happened last week when the personal finance website Moneywise reported that first-time homebuyers in California face a median down payment of nearly $99,000.

Again, that’s for first timers, who often are younger people without a great deal of savings. “For first-time homebuyers, the challenge of finding and affording their dream home can feel insurmountable at times,” Moneywise said in its report.

If there’s any solace to it, California’s down payment requirement is not the highest. That ignominious status goes to Hawaii, where the median down payment for a first-time homebuyer is more than $110,000.

Monewise assumed first-time buyers would finance only 13% of the sales price with their down payment, not the traditional 20%. And Moneywise used the median statewide price as its guide. In California, that is more than $760,000. Obviously, home prices can be even higher in many parts of Los Angeles, so the down payment requirement would be even steeper.

Other states with the highest down payment requirement are Washington, Colorado and Massachusetts. The state with the lowest down payment requirement is West Virginia. There, a down payment of 13% to buy a median-priced house is less than $16,800.

Moneywise suggested that those who really want to own a home should consider one of the lower-cost states. Arkansas, for example, has the third lowest down payment requirement of more than $22,000. 

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Does it seem to you that California has a full urn of Starbucks shops? Indeed, a new ranking says California has more Starbucks stores per capita than all but four other highly caffeinated states. 

There is a Starbucks in California for every 12,800 people. That’s a higher concentration than all other states except for, in order, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. Oregon, the No. 1 state, has one shop for every 10,450 people. The ranking was done by a price-tracking website named Pricelisto.com, which ground the numbers to see which states percolated to the top.

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What’s the most beautiful beach in the United States? Alas, the title does not go to Los Angeles, but to San Diego’s La Jolla Cove. 

At least, that’s according to FloridaRentals.com, which compared the number of Instagram hashtags per meter for each beach in the country. After La Jolla, the most hashtags per meter went to South Beach in Florida and then to Laguna Beach in Orange County, followed by Venice Beach in Los Angeles. 

Although the organization that did the study equated the volume of hashtags with beauty, a high number of hashtags could simply be the result of popularity. Venice Beach, by some measures, is the most visited place in all of Southern California except Disneyland, which could account for its high number of hashtags.

For what it is worth, L.A.’s Manhattan Beach and nearby Hermosa Beach came out 7th and 8th, respectively, in the ranking of most beautiful beaches. 

The Insider is compiled by Editor-in-Chief Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].