Scheduled Foreclosures – Where are the continuing problems in L.A.?

Back in January, I did a breakdown by zip code of where the foreclosures were happening – and where they weren’t. At that time, the numbers clearly showed that while many areas of Los Angeles were drowning in foreclosures, the area broadly defined as L.A.’s Westside was not hit as hard with foreclosures as other parts of Los Angeles. Since then, there’s been a number of reports talking about how the Westside has generally weathered the housing market decline better than elsewhere. This is not to say that the Westside has not seen declines. It has. In some areas, the declines have been significant. But overall, the drops in housing prices on the Westside have not been dramatic as elsewhere in Los Angeles.


So where are things going from here?

Well, we know that there are still plenty more mortgage resets coming yet this year. So we’re definitely not out of the woods yet. The nasty subprime resets peak later this year, so we may begin to see some relief later this year. But we also have many loan recasts of those nasty option ARM loans remaining. (Yuck!).

But still, these are likely to be more of a problem in some areas than others. The reason is that in some areas – like the Westside – where housing prices have held most of their ground, where there’s still a relatively low supply, and there’s still decent demand, it will be easier for people to get out of their predicaments by selling. You see, the prices and the foreclosures are symbiotic. So, we still need to look at foreclosures by neighborhood. And even though zip codes are too big of an area to truly be considered one neighborhood, it’s as close as we’ll get from the available data.

So this time I’ve decided to look forward a bit. The following are the numbers of scheduled foreclosure auctions between April 22^nd and May 22^nd for each zip code. The source is propertyshark.com:

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

• Woodland Hills (91364, 91367) – 13
• Tarzana (91356) – 8
• Encino (91316, 91436) – 7
• North Hollywood (91601) – 5
• Sherman Oaks (91403, 91423) – 4
• Valley Village (91607) – 3
• Studio City (91604, 91602) – 1

LOS ANGELES

• West Hollywood (90046, 90069) – 12
• Echo Park (90026) – 4
• Silver Lake (90039) – 4
• Hollywood Hills (90068) – 2
• Miracle Mile (90036, 90048) -- 3
• Los Feliz (90027) – 1

PLATINUM TRIANGLE

• Beverly Hills (90210, 90211, 90212) – 2
• Brentwood (90049) -- 1
• Bel Air/Holmby Hills – 0

WESTSIDE

• Sawtelle/West L.A. (90025) – 1
• Westwood (90024) – 1
• Cheviot Hills/Rancho Park (90064) – 1
• Pacific Palisades (90272) – 0
• Venice (90291) – 0
• All of Santa Monica (90401, 90402, 90403, 90404, 90405) – 3

See what I mean. It’s not like this is La Puente (42), Inglewood (28), Norwalk (27) or West Covina (20).

Capitalize on the Hollywood boom

Right now, many homebuyers are sitting on the sidelines. They are rightfully watching to see what will happen with the real estate market as homebuilders report record losses and foreclosures increase.

But if you are thinking of buying a house in Hollywood to capitalize on the boom of urban construction, do not wait.

That's right. I'm here to tell you that if you wait, you will look back at this day and say, gosh, I could have bought much cheaper.

Why? Hollywood redevelopment is coming in a big way and there are neighborhoods near the redevelopment that have not yet benefitted in their housing prices from all the activity.

Here's a great rundown from the L.A. Times of all the Hollywood redevelopment: HOLLYWOOD'S LATEST STAR

There is really no smarter buy right now than a character home that needs fixing up in one of the depressed neighborhoods near all this Hollywood redevelopment. Interest rates are still low. Lenders have tightened standards some but are likely to tighten more. And prices are still low on blocks that stand to benefit from this redevelopment.

Very soon, that won't be the case.

See also: URBANISTS