UCLA Real Estate Wire

Which Way LA: "Building Along LA River Spurs Gentrification Fears"

"The move to restore the Los Angeles River is living up to the best of expectations — with camp-outs, pop-up picnics and performances of live music. But when that kind of cultural energy appears, developers are never far behind and, sure enough, there are now fears of gentrification. Will current residents be priced out of a hip neighborhood that's downtown adjacent?..."

[Which Way LA 8/4/15]

LA Times: "Southern California Home Sales Soar in June; Prices Climb 5.7%"

"The Southern California housing market, known for its dramatic swings, is settling into a more normal, healthy pattern. Home sales are up. All-cash and investor purchases are down. And home prices are rising at a more sustainable pace than in the last few years. Economists said those factors put the regional housing market on a path for growth that won't wash away in a tsunami of foreclosures and ruined credit scores. “The healing continues,” said Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate..."

[LA Times 7/16/15]

The Wall Street Journal: "The Ranch House, Reinvented"

"The ranch house, a single-story home typically with low ceilings and overhanging roof lines became “prototypical of suburban development in the 1960s and ’70s,” especially in the West, said Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at the University of California, Los Angeles. It later fell out of favor, as buyers eschewed its association with mass-produced tract housing and higher land costs made it uneconomical for developers...."

[WSJ 7/16/15]

The Hollywood Reporter: "Watch Out! The Westside Train Is About to Arrive in L.A.; Here's All You Need to Know"

"The $1.5 billion, 19-station route will run 15.2 miles — an estimated 45-minute trip from its origin at Seventh Street to the final stop, kitty-corner to the Bloomingdale’s at Santa Monica Place. The track follows a long-inactive Southern Pacific Railroad pathway, first opened in 1875, that increasingly has become an engine of mixed-use development. “About four-fifths of the people working in that part of the Westside don’t live there, which creates serious congestion,” says Paul Habibi, a lecturer at UCLA’s Ziman Center for Real Estate. “With this line, that’s going to change.”..."

[The Hollywood Reporter 6/19/15]

Los Angeles Business Journal: "Big Leap. Developers Hop In, Hype Frogtown as Hip Hot Spot"

"In an April report for Century City business advocacy group Los Angeles Business Council, Paul Habibi, a lecturer at the Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA, recommended residential development along the river as part of the solution to L.A.’s housing shortage..."

[Los Angeles Business Journal 6/15/15]

Los Angeles Business Journal: "Creating Space"

"DEVELOPMENT: Meta Housing paints new affordable units as artists colony in bid to boost San Pedro district. Paul Habibi, a lecturer at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, said any kind of workforce or affordable housing in Los Angeles, whether it is for artists or not, is both scarce and necessary. And while the Space District is flush with galleries, theaters and market-price live-work spaces, San Pedro has a hard time attracting businesses to the areas just outside the district’s borders, especially on Pacific Avenue. Habibi said that San Pedro might not be as hot as other coastal markets, but that is bound to change..."

[Los Angeles Business Journal 5/25/15]

LA’s Next Frontier: Capturing Opportunities for New Housing, Economic Growth, and Sustainable Development in LA River Communities

In the April 2015 UCLA Economic Letter, UCLA Ziman Center and UCLA Anderson Lecturer Paul Habibi discusses how to realize healthy, sustainable development along the Los Angeles River.  Read more...

LA Times Opinion: "Raise The Minimum Wage, But Don't Forget About The Cost of Housing"

"One of the best reasons to raise L.A.’s minimum wage is the region’s incredibly high cost of housing. Metropolitan Los Angeles is ranked the least affordable rental market in the nation because the city has a dual problem -- low incomes and high costs. Rosalie Ray with UCLA’s Center for the Study of Inequality made the same point last year during a Westside Urban Forum discussion on the rental rate crisis in L.A. She was a coauthor of a study that said Los Angeles is least affordable rental market in the nation and that the solution was to increase renter earnings and the supply of affordable housing..."

[LA Times Opinion 3/30/15]

LA Downtown News: "As Downtown Grows, The Big-Money Developers Rush In"

"Perhaps most compelling is that global developers will sometimes back big projects that others shy
away from. After all, Metropolis was first announced two decades ago, and Figueroa Central has
foundered for years. “Asian investors seem to be patient investors these days, with an affinity for land and a longer-term thought process,” observed Eric Sussman, a senior lecturer and real estate expert at UCLA’s Ziman Center for Real Estate..."

[LADN 3/11/14]

LA Times: "AEG, Falling Behind In Fight For NFL Stadium, Takes The Gloves Off"

"Last month, Carson Mayor Jim Dear took a call from a top executive at sports and entertainment giant AEG. Ted Fikre, the company's vice chairman, wanted to talk about the stadium that the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders plan to build in the South Bay city. "It sounds like the AEG folks are just throwing stuff against the wall and hoping something sticks," said Eric Sussman, a developer who teaches real estate at UCLA..."

[LA Times 3/9/15]