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By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

Home prices in Los Angeles are quickly getting out of reach for many residents, according to a new report from the California Association of Realtors. It finds that just one in four residents of LA County make enough to afford a median-priced home in the area.

The association’s Housing Affordability Index shows that a typical LA County home cost $553,330 in the fourth quarter of 2017. With property taxes and insurance factored in, that comes out to a monthly payment of $2,790 for buyers (assuming they put down a 20 percent downpayment).

Given those figures, prospective homebuyers need a salary of $111,730 (based on household income) to make those payments without becoming cost-burdened—meaning that more than 30 percent of income goes toward housing. Unfortunately for most people, 75 percent of LA County residents don’t earn that much.

Historic data shows it’s gotten much harder to afford an LA home in recent years. As recently as the first quarter of 2012, more than half of residents took home the required income to purchase a home in the area. Since then, though, prices have risen dramatically and incomes haven’t quite caught up.

In the wider Los Angeles metropolitan area, a salary of $53,780 was required to buy a median-priced home in 2012—compared to $100,210 today.

The outlook is a little better if you’re a first-time homebuyer looking for a starter house. With a median price of $470,330, starter homes in LA County are affordable to 43 percent of residents. Of course, they’ll first have to save up for a hefty $94,066 downpayment (after that, payments are $2,400 per month).

Not surprisingly, the report finds that homes in LA are far less affordable than they are nationwide. Across the country, buyers need a yearly income of $50,040 to purchase a typical home (median price: $247,800). That means that buying is still within reach for 56 percent of Americans.

If only more of those affordable homes were in LA.

By Jenna Chandler for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

Los Angeles city planning commissioners on Thursday unanimously signed off on plans to build a 38-story condominium tower in Downtown LA’s Historic Core.

Developer Barry Shy has been working on the project, named SB Omega, for more than five years. “The review process... has been extraordinarily exacting,” his planning consultant, Kate Bartolo, told the commission.

The plans still have to be vetted by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee and the full City Council, but if ultimately approved, the high-rise would replace Joe’s Auto Parks at the southwest corner of Sixth and Main streets.

It would bring 467 condos (15 of them are designated as “commercial” units), 21,500 square feet of space for ground-floor shops and restaurants, and a whopping 860 parking spaces to the neighborhood. That’s 314 more spaces than what’s required by city code, but commissioners said the parking is needed.

Parking will be built below ground and in a six-story podium below the residential floors. The spaces will be used not just by future tenants of SB Omega, but by residents of four old buildings nearby that have no parking.

“The over-parking makes perfect sense given the neighborhood,” said commissioner Samantha Millman.

Some residents told the commission that they, too, support the project having all those extra spaces, because even in transit-rich Downtown, they still use their cars.

“The Historic Core … is mostly adaptive reuse. We already have a dearth of parking,” said resident Blair Besten. “I need my car. I think asking families to go down to one car is reasonable; asking them to give up their cars is not. I depend on my car to take my child to school, to take him to his father who lives in the suburbs, and to visit friends in outlying areas.”

Commissioners were also finally on board with the project’s architecture, after asking for a number of design changes in December. (See the original renderings from 2014 here.)

“I appreciate the revised tower design, and the layout of the balconies seems clearer,” said commissioner Renee Dake Wilson. “I think it’s gone into a positive direction.”

The latest design tweaks also include adding perforated metal screens to the balconies and “vertical” landscaping on the facade.

Architect David Takacs, who lives on the same block as the project, told the commission that the design concept is “an expression of movement” that “comes from the flow of people and traffic” in the neighborhood.

“I think it’ll be a pleasant experience for a lot of the folks that are walking around Downtown,” said commissioner Caroline Choe.

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

With a cadre of local officials beaming nearby, construction got started Thursday on an ambitious new affordable apartment complex in Skid Row.

Called the Six Four Nine Lofts, the complex will go up at the intersection of Seventh and Wall streets, rising seven stories and bringing 55 units of housing and a new medical clinic to the area.

The project is among the first developments to be funded through Measure HHH—a ballot initiative approved by Los Angeles voters in November of 2016. The measure provides $1.2 billion in funding for permanent supportive housing developments aimed at homeless residents. Such projects include housing set aside for lower-income tenants, along with on-site services such as healthcare, counseling, and job training.

Nonprofit housing provider Skid Row Housing Trust is developing the project, which will include four floors of housing and a three-story medical facility. Los Angeles Christian Health Centers will operate the clinic, which is set to include dental, mental health, and optometry offices, along with a pharmacy.

So far, the city has agreed to provide funding for nine projects using Measure HHH dollars. Once complete, they’ll produce a combined 416 units of affordable housing. That’s not bad—but it’s just a small fraction of the 10,000 units city officials aim to fund over the next 10 years.

By Bianca Barragan for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

The new owners of the landmark Rosenheim mansion, famous for its role in the first season of American Horror Story, are suing the brokers who negotiated the 2015 sale, alleging the agents did not disclose that the house appeared in the TV show, The Real Deal reports.

That’s information that should have been shared, argue the mansion’s owners, actress Angela Oakenfold and her husband, cardiologist Dr. Ernst von Schwarz. Their lawsuit alleges that if they had known that the estate had been featured in the show, they never would have bought it.

The mansion was built around 1908 as the private residence for architect Alfred Rosenheim, who designed the Hellman Building in Downtown’s Historic Core. The house holds a handful of Tiffany features—stained glass windows, lighting fixtures, and a stunning set of Tiffany glass doors—as well as six Batchelder tile fireplaces and a solarium.

In their lawsuit, Oakenfold and von Schwarz say they are plagued by fans of the show “weekly.” The suit claims that the regularity of the attempted trespassing and break-ins has become “a significant nuisance.”

The couple is also disturbed that “the seller and brokers failed to mention the house was haunted by two ghosts, a point that was not included in the complaint,” says The Real Deal.

The couple is suing for damages, and despite the ghosts and obnoxious fans, they are planning to stay in the house.

By Bianca Barragan for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

A Hollywood development that would face the sad, unfinished shell of a Target at Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue is jumping forward with the release of its final environmental impact report.

The report details developer Reliable Properties’s plans for the two-acre site at the intersection’s northwest corner. Those plans include a six-story building that, if ultimately approved by the city, would bring 293 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments to the neighborhood, plus 33,000 square feet of commercial space along the street. (Fifteen of the apartments will be available to very low-income tenants.)

Construction on this Withee Malcolm Architects-designed project, called SunWest, is expected to take about two years, though a start date hasn’t been announced.

The SunWest project will have company at the Sunset and Western intersection. Another project is slated for the southeast corner of the block, currently occupied by a Food 4 Less market. That project would bring nearly another 800 apartments to the neighborhood.

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

Are homes in Santa Monica getting too big? Local officials think so, and in a Tuesday meeting that lasted into the early hours of Wednesday morning, the City Council approved a new bill that temporarily limits the size of new single-family residences.

The average floor area of newly built homes in the city is around 5,000 square feet—more than twice the size of the typical American house, according to a city report. In Santa Monica, where cozy bungalows once dominated the landscape, staff estimates that existing homes are up to three times smaller than what’s being constructed today.

Mayor Ted Winterer said the rules were “in direct response to resident concerns” and would help preserve “the diversity and uniqueness of our residential neighborhoods.”

The new rules will go into effect in February and will last until at least May, though they could be extended up to five years. They will limit the height of new homes in single-family neighborhoods to 28 feet and ensure those residences don’t take up more than half the lot they sit on.

Additional restrictions would limit square footage on the second floor of new homes and keep down the size of balconies and upper level decks.

While the interim policy is in effect, the city plans to craft new design guidelines regulating development of new single-family homes going forward.

Some residents complained that they had been blindsided by the new rules and that their plans for building new properties would be dashed by the policy.

“We’re building a home that’s similar, if not smaller than our neighbor’s,” resident Horace Hertz told the council. He said that the new rules would require a change in the design of his new home, resulting in a “significant loss in value.”

Other residents said that larger homes are threatening the character of lower-slung residential neighborhoods, many of which are filled with historic homes overshadowed—and in some cases replaced—by the new developments.

Resident Kit Dreyfuss said that most of the homes on her block had been replaced with new construction or “remodeled to the point of being unrecognizable.”

City staff reported that property owners apply for roughly 70 demolition permits for single-family homes per year (around 40 end up being approved). Residences that replace these homes are typically around twice the size, according to staff.

“A small handful of developers and realtors are making themselves very wealthy, Zina Josephs told the council on behalf of Friends of Sunset Park. “Neighborhoods are losing their character.”

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

A row of single-family homes and a small triplex in Palms may soon be replaced with a six-story apartment complex, according to plans filed last week with the Los Angeles city planning department.

Located just off Venice Boulevard at 3739 South Cardiff Avenue, the project would add 74 new units of housing above an underground parking garage.

Property records show that the cluster of homes that would be razed to make way for the project were all purchased within the last year, and that an Ellis Act application was filed in February to remove the units in the triplex from the rental market.

Some of the apartments in the new building would be affordable, as the developer (listed as Frame DTCC, LLC) plans to take advantage of new incentives meant to spur the creation of affordable housing in areas close to transit stops. Less than two blocks from a bus stop, the project site is also roughly a half-mile from two different stops on Metro’s Expo Line.

It’s not clear yet exactly how many units would be affordable and what income level residents would need to earn in order to live in them.

It’s no Koreatown, but the Palms area has seen a bit of new development since the Expo Line extensionopened last year. Less than a mile from this project, another six-story complex is in the works near the Sony Pictures Studios lot. Yet another six-story development would bring 41 units to Overland Avenue.