When we think of Los Angeles, our thoughts often go to glamour. The heart of the movie industry, with its beautiful beaches and Malibu mansions, L.A has long been one of America’s glitziest cities, a place where people go to chase dreams.
While this image won’t live up to the reality of the city for everyone, there is no question that L.A County has some of the most luxurious, expensive, and desirable real estate in the entire country. While COVID has done a number on the market as a whole, Los Angeles’ luxury real estate market is still just as attractive as it has ever been.
“…a lot of wealthy people are looking to move out of the New York area, with Los Angeles and Miami being big-time beneficiaries…”
According to the L.A Business Journal, desire for a high-end home in Los Angeles is extremely high right now, with people willing to spend huge sums of money. The Journal claims that a lot of wealthy people are looking to move out of the New York area, with Los Angeles and Miami being big-time beneficiaries. The reasons for this are quite simple: weather and space.
While Los Angeles is by no means a cheap city to live in, your dollar will take you further when it comes to real estate than New York. Los Angeles is a city with a lot of space, so New York buyers would be attracted to that. And the weather is obvious, with Los Angeles lacking the winters that Americans in the North have grown accustomed to.
According to a Forbes interview with Los Angeles realtor Jason Nash, one of the primary beneficiaries of the influx of interest in luxury homes in the Malibu area. Nash claims that buyers can’t get enough of Malibu’s more rural feel. According to Redfin’s statistics, this is backed up by the numbers.
In December of 2020, 33 homes were sold in Malibu, which was a 73.7% year over year increase. The median price of these sales was $2.8 million, which was a 34.6% increase year over year. Even with more homes being sold, and at an increased price, the time on the market was down, with the median days on the market down 52.7% year over year. These stats all show that Malibu’s luxury homes are thriving.
In an L.A Business Journal interview, top realtor Sally Forster Jones discussed how luxury prices have dropped from more aspirational pre-pandemic pricing. She says that prices are no longer overpriced with the expectation of buyers coming in and negotiating.
Sellers and buyers are now on the same page, with sellers being reasonable and buyers being quick to jump on property. Realtors agree that more realistic pricing helps property be sold much quicker.
Los Angeles has some of the most expensive real estate areas in the entire world. Places like Beverly Hills and Bel Air have homes with price tags that boggle the mind. Just in 2020 alone, in the midst of a pandemic, billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Jeffrey Katzenberg all bought or sold homes in the L.A area.
Despite many people in the lower socio-economic classes being hard hit by the pandemic, this hasn’t impacted the luxury real estate in L.A, as most of the country’s richest have only seen their wealth grow in 2020.
