South Los Angeles is seeing some of the county’s fastest rate of home price increases as well as growing numbers of young people living there, according to data provided by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
Four of the top seven fastest-accelerating Los Angeles County neighborhoods in terms of home prices were in South Los Angeles between August 2012 and August 2017, said Amber Schiada, a senior vice president and director of research at JLL.
The median sale price for single-family homes in Jefferson Park rose 187.3 percent during that time to $790,000. Leimert Park saw a 147 percent price increase to $660,000 while Watts saw a 123 percent gain to $320,000. The Crenshaw district saw a 115 percent increase to $710,000.
Price swings have been dramatic and emblematic of the county’s soaring home prices, but it’s notable that it takes only a small number of home sales in an area to make a big impact on the numbers.
“The median home sales price data is a little more volatile because of the nature of the sample sizes in each neighborhood,” Schiada said.
Meanwhile the number of people between the ages 20 and 29 living in South Los Angeles increased by 25,000 people, or 20 percent, to more than 151,000 between 2000 and 2016, according to information compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and data supplier Esri.
That’s roughly the size of South Pasadena’s population, Schiada noted.
The South Bay area saw a 6 percent increase in twentysomethings to roughly 114,600 people during that period. Overall, Los Angeles County saw a 7 percent increase.
“This could also be a residual trend of young people living at home much longer post-Great Recession,” Schiada said. “Even though it may be young people living with parents, the needs of that young demographic will still shape future development and retail options there.”
Growing Market Presence
Newly-launched brokerage Advisors Commercial Real Estate has set up shop at the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles and hopes to carve out a place for itself in the county’s middle market, according to Rob Cord, the brokerage’s president and chief executive.
“We’re not the biggest and I don’t ever want to aspire to be the biggest,” Cord said.
The brokerage was formed after First Capital Real Estate Investments, a New York-based property investment firm, acquired the assets of Coldwell Banker Commercial Advisors of Salt Lake City in March and combined its investment platform with the new network of brokers.
The new brokerage includes 180 brokers at 12 U.S. locations, but it aims to make its presence felt in Southern California. The firm also has offices in El Segundo, Irvine and Ontario.
“We anticipate tripling our (overall) size,” Cord told the Business Journal, saying the firm plans to add 30 agents to its downtown office along with four or five more at each of its additional offices.
Housing the Homeless
AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Healthy Housing Foundation of AHF has purchased in April the King Edward Hotel at 121 E. 5th St. in downtown Los Angeles for $15.3 million, its third deal in the last six months for properties it intends to operate as transitional and longer-term housing for the homeless.
The 150-unit hotel sits on the peripheral of Skid Row. Ged Kenslea, senior director of communications at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said the monthly rents will be $400 to $500.
The other sites acquired by the foundation were the 220-room Madison Hotel in downtown and the 27-room former Sunset 8 Motel in Hollywood.
Staff reporter Ciaran McEvoy can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8337.
