Real Estate Industry Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County's real estate market continues to climb out of the depths of the recession of the early 1990s, but the region's more affluent neighborhoods have made markedly greater gains than other areas, according to property tax data to be released today. Overall, the county's real estate assessments increased by $30 billion, or 6%, last year, a boost that shuts the door on years of decline in property values that led to government crises and financial hardship for homeowners.

Home sales in Los Angeles County rebounded in October, raising hopes that the region's housing market will stay on track despite the economic downturn and the events of Sept. 11. Boosted by strong purchases of lower-priced houses, sales overall rose 5% from October 2000, after a 6% decline in September. The median price rose by 12% last month from year-ago levels, to $227,000, according to a report Friday by DataQuick Information Systems.

Santa Monica's largest apartment complex was sold last week in a deal that illustrates how dramatically the end of rent control in that city has affected the market for apartment properties. Brentwood-based Douglas Emmett Realty Advisors paid $95 million for Santa Monica Shores, a two-building, 17-story complex that was built in the mid-1960s, according to Ron M. Pelleg, an independent broker who represented the seller, Santa Monica Shores Limited Partnership.

Got water? That, in short, is the question behind California's new law requiring developers of large housing projects to prove they have enough water before they build. In Los Angeles County, the stricter standard could affect at least five planned developments, including the 21,600-home Newhall Ranch in Santa Clarita Valley and a 4,000-home suburb envisioned for the rolling cattle country of Tejon Ranch near the Kern County line.

Would-be home buyers, tantalized by a bidding minimum of $395,000, thought they could get a recession-era real estate bargain Sunday at an auction of luxury homes. Instead, they found themselves caught up in a bidding frenzy that seemed like a throwback to pre-recession days.

Federal authorities have charged two men in connection with an alleged $60-million fraud scheme against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, believed to be the largest in the agency's history. The two men allegedly bought inexpensive apartment houses all over Los Angeles County, worked with appraisers to inflate their value and then recruited low-income people to apply for HUD loans to supposedly buy the properties.

A Mediterranean-style mansion known locally as the "Gucci house" sold this week for $13 million. A mile up the coast, a house that sold last year for more than $14 million is back on the market--for $18 million. From south Orange County to Malibu and beyond, the coastal abodes of the region's richest and most famous are once again hot items. Realtors say the battered mansion market bottomed out two years ago and has zoomed this year.

Companies being squeezed out of Commerce and other industrial centers close to Los Angeles have been heading down the freeway to the Mid-Counties market in recent years, but the same boom that has consumed nearly every square foot of industrial space in Commerce appears destined to do the same to Mid-Counties industrial land. The Mid-Counties market, also known as the Mid-Cities, is a group of communities straddling Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Stanley Glickman, a principal in one of the San Fernando Valley's biggest real estate Ponzi schemes, has pleaded guilty to 17 felony counts in a case involving more than $1.2 million in losses to investors, the district attorney's office said Thursday. Glickman and his father-in-law, Elliot Fine, from 1970 to the early 1990s ran Property Mortgage Co. in Sherman Oaks.

Mike Glickman Realty Inc., the San Fernando Valley's largest residential real estate brokerage firm, will close all of its offices and lay off its more than 1,200 agents by Wednesday, industry sources and Glickman agents said Monday. In addition, agents said owner Mike Glickman has told them that he intends to liquidate the company through bankruptcy. Glickman, who until recently steadfastly denied rumors of impending failure, would not return phone calls.

Rents and property values climbed at a slower pace in Los Angeles and Orange counties during the first three quarters of this year, but apartments remain one of the most popular real estate investments and probably will hold their appeal despite the declining economy.

After massive aerospace cutbacks and the recession of the early 1990s, the South Bay's commercial real estate market remade itself and rebounded strongly by attracting a more diverse and entrepreneurial group of tenants. Now, landlords and real estate investors are counting on that diversity to soften the effect of a slowing economy.

The owners of one of the South Bay's largest industrial parks--the Port Los Angeles Distribution Center--have sold the property for an estimated $130 million, according to people familiar with the deal. A pension fund advisory firm identified as State Street Resources purchased the nearly 2-million-square-foot complex in San Pedro on behalf of one of its clients.

The value of Los Angeles County real estate jumped 6.8% last year and continues to climb in 2001 despite signs of a softening U.S. economy, according to interviews and a report from the county assessor to be released today. The increase in assessed real estate values last year marked the third consecutive annual increase of 6% or more recorded by the assessor's office.

Typical home prices in Orange and Los Angeles counties set record highs last month, the latest indication that the region's housing market is barreling ahead despite the sluggish national economy. In May, the median price of new and existing homes sold in Orange County rose nearly 11% from a year earlier to $297,000, according to a report released Monday by DataQuick Information Systems.

Home values in Los Angeles County last month recorded the biggest growth spurt in 12 years, as the median price of houses sold jumped by 13% from a year earlier to a record $219,000, according to figures released Monday. The surprisingly strong report was further indication that the region's housing market is barreling ahead despite the weakening national economy.

After days of runaway brush fires, you might be thinking this a less-than-ideal weekend to hold an open house for your "OCN VU, 2 FP, WOODSY" Malibu home. True, the smoky scent backs up that "rustic" billing, but how to peddle a vista of hills that are charred gray? Here's how: "It's just a reversal," said Pamela Witham. "This spring the wildflowers are going to be so magnificent."

Four years ago, economist Ron Halcrow had some bad news for Palmdale and Lancaster, the dusty desert towns that had become two of California's fastest growing cities almost overnight. At the northern edge of Los Angeles County, where dozens of spanking-new housing tracts had sprouted in the old alfalfa fields during the mid- to late 1980s, he saw dark clouds on the horizon.

Boosted by entry-level and move-up buyers, home prices last month rose more than 10% in Orange and Los Angeles counties as the bellwether market for higher-end housing started to soften a bit. Analysts have been watching for signs of weakness in a surging home market that has defied a national economy soured by layoffs, poor corporate financial results and lagging stock prices. But housing overall has remained largely oblivious to the economic slowdown.

The traditional spring home-buying season kicked off with a vengeance in March as San Fernando Valley home sales jumped 57.9% but fell short of the previous year's activity. A total of 1,058 homes closed escrow in March, up from 670 in February. However, sales were down 5.2% in March compared with the same month a year ago, the Southland Regional Assn. of Realtors reported. Home values held their ground from February and rose 10.8% from the same period in 2000.