Best and Worst Foreclosure Areas in "Prime" Los Angeles

Today, I'm taking an in-depth look at the best and worst foreclosure areas within "prime Los Angeles."

I've written at length about how little foreclosures are affecting some of the prime areas of Los Angeles. And I've written about the worst foreclosure areas in Los Angeles County.

But today I'm going to show you some of the numbers I look at regularly. I generally work with buyers and sellers from Downtown Los Angeles to the ocean and in the eastern portion of San Fernando Valley. These are the areas I'm calling "prime Los Angeles."

To come up with the best and worst areas, I calculated the percentage of new foreclosure auctions relative to the number of homes and condos currently on the market. My foreclosure numbers are based on the NEW Foreclosure Auctions for the month of August, as reported by Property Shark.

Within my focus area, below are the 14 areas LEAST affected by foreclosures. For each zip code the number of new foreclosures in August would represent 2% or less of the total housing inventory:

LEAST AFFECTED "PRIME" LOS ANGELES FORECLOSURE AREAS

1. 90401 - Santa Monica - New Auctions = 0% of Housing Inventory
2. 90402 - Santa Monica (N. of Montana) - 0%
3. 90212 - Beverly Hills (SW) 0%
4. 90272 - Pacific Palisades - 1%
5. 90077 - Bel Air/Holmby Hills - 1%
6. 90064 - Cheviot Hills/Rancho Park - 1%
7. 90048 - Beverly Center/Grove/W. Hollywood - 1%
8. 90265 - Malibu - 1%
9. 90403 - Santa Monica (Wilshire to Montana) - 2%
10. 90024 - Westwood - 2%
11. 90049 - Brentwood - 2%
12. 90210 - Beverly Hills - 2%
13. 90027 - Los Feliz - 2%
14. 90211 - Beverly Hills -2%

Two caveats: One, some of these areas, while seeing few foreclosures, are experiencing downward price pressure from a bloated housing inventory, most notably on this list: Malibu. Second, this is just one month's foreclosure numbers. I'm going to look at this list again in coming days with other foreclosure numbers.

Now, below are the nine areas MOST affected by foreclosures. Each area's foreclosure auctions in August would represent 7% or more of the current inventory:

MOST AFFECTED "PRIME" LOS ANGELES FORECLOSURE AREAS

1. 90026 - Echo Park - 29%
2. 90039 - Silver Lake - 18%
3. 90038 - Hollywood - 13%
4. 90029 - Hollywood - 11%
5. 91607 - Valley Village - 10%
6. 91316 - Encino - 7%
7. 90004 - Hancock Park - 7%
8. 91403 - Sherman Oaks - 7%
9. 90036 - Miracle Mile - 7%

OK, so this generally means these areas saw a significant spike in foreclosures in August relative to the number of homes already on the market. Again, this only tells part of the story. Some of these areas -- most notably Hollywood and Hancock Park -- have a relatively low housing inventory right now compared with other areas.

To see the entire chart of foreclosure auctions relative to inventory: CLICK HERE.