It is no secret that Los Angeles has been undergoing a real estate boom: the latest Zillow “Real Estate Market Report” puts the median price for Los Angeles and O.C. home at $604,400, a rise of 6 percent compared with last year. Meanwhile, the New York Times California Today edition this morning cites a new report from data company CoreLogic  of $1 million homes in the state in the first part of the year have risen, while sales for less than $500,000 were at an all-time low.

The good news is is that is that while the market is at a high point, it is also quite stable. A case in point is this Q&A with Robert Sulentic, chief executive of Fortune 500 CBRE Group over at LAtimes, a nice overview of the state of affairs that hits all the main points of why LA’s market position is stable and confident. Reason one: Los Angeles, unlike SF and San Jose, has strong job growth. Secondly, a city with historic neighbourhoods, scenic mountains and beaches, Los Angeles is also quite expansive, making it an attractive place to tech industry that’s feeling the lack of office space in Silicon Valley. LA’s emissions program is another big draw, particularly for millennials that are looking to move to a cleaner and more environmentally friendly city.

Sulentic goes on to say that he expects that the economy will sustain growth into next year and describes the market at its most organized that he had ever seen in his long career: “The industry is capitalized and managed more transparently and thoughtfully than it has been historically, with less easy money floating around. Banks got smarter, equity sources got smarter and developers got smarter and more conservative. Compared to 25 years ago, the business is more transparent, professional and institutional. That makes a crash less likely.” And, might we add, the interest rates are low, so this remains a great time to become a home owner. The market will prove challenging to navigate without guidance, so do reach out if you are thinking of buying or selling- we are just a message (or a phone call) away.

Delighted to see the wonderful neighbourhood of The Glen LA Homes, Valley Glen, profiled in the Los Angeles Times. A great overview of its rich history and a forecast that we couldn’t agree more with – indeed, Valley Glen is “really starting to take off” with new home construction, restaurants and retailers on the way. We are so proud to take part of this great neighbourhood’s growth – contact us to learn more about the new The Glen LA Homes at info@theglenla.com and visit http://www.theglenla.com/ for more information.

It’s  always a special pleasure to read books set in Los Angeles and realize, time and time and again, how lucky we are to live in this mythical and storied city. The 1960’s and 70’s LA in particular has a special aura about it, an atmosphere that Eve Babitz, whose work was recently reissued by New York Review Books Classics, captured so well. The tomes in question are “Eve’s Hollywood”, first published in 1974 is a fictional memoir, and the essay collection “Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.,” which originally saw light in 1977.  Both books draw on Babitz’s  glittering  coming of age in the post-war Los Angeles: born in 1943 to a musician father and an artist mother and with a Igor Stravinsky as a godfather, Eve was the muse that inspired Jim Morrison to write LA Woman , a romantic interest of Ed Ruscha and a belle de jour that gained notoriety when photographed while playing chess with Marcel Duchamp au naturel at Duchamp’s retrospective at the Pasadena Museum of Art in 1963. Babitz’s prose is brilliant and cool –  get a taste of it over at the Curbed LA’s amazing “Eve Babitz’s guide to Los Angeles” , which they describe as a “tour of the writer’s sexy, smoggy city of the 1960s and ’70s”.

Two of the most trusted names in LA home sales are joining forces at Compass. We look forward to hearing from you, and telling you more about our exciting new partnership.

Liz, Edith & Tracy