Northeast Los Angeles Real Estate: Our Year In 2013

By Author: Tracy King
Total Articles: 32
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It’s been a very, very good year for the team here at LADigs and for our corner of the Los Angeles area real estate market. For the three zip codes that make up Northeast Los Angeles (NELA), 90041,90042, and 90065, the average sales price has steadily increased from $430,000 in January to $562,000 in October, an increase of over 30%! A few homes have even matched 2007-2008 prices--which in the dark days of 2009, didn’t seem likely to ever happen again.


90041 principally covers the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles, while 90042 covers Highland Park homes for sale. 90065 encompasses a larger area of Los Angeles which includes Glassell Park real estate as well as homes for sale in character-filled Mt. Washington.


We have less than 2 months’ inventory of homes on the market in all of NELA now--which means that if nothing new comes on the market, it would take 1.5 months to sell the current inventory. This is an extreme ...
... seller’s market. In Eagle Rock (90041 zip code), it is even more extreme with less than 1 month of inventory!


What is going on?

Interest rates continue to be low--still well under 5% for 30-year fixed loans.
Prices generally are still relatively low--the average sold price for NELA last quarter was $569,000 compared to $617,000 in October of 2006.
Inventory continues to be very low--continuing the supply vs. demand theory of pricing--properties will likely cost more in the future.
Pent-up demand continues to be high as families form and need homes, the jobs outlook improves, and buyers continue to be priced out of the Westside and other higher-priced communities. South Pasadena, for ex- ample, had an average sales price in October 2013 of $1,256,000. Even if you look at that month as a fluke, the year-long average is somewhere around $940,000--quite a bit more than NELA’s $569,000.

What happens next? It’s a guess!

Will interest rates go up?
Will new federal lending regulations make it too hard to obtain a loan?
Will the U.S. economy tank over some new global disaster?
Will the local economy tank over some local disaster?
Will buyers just give up and continue renting?

For graphs and updates, check out our blog at LADigs.com.