If you are looking to live in the greater Los Angeles area, you better have a lot of money. Southern California rents are high and expected to go even higher in the next few years, even though the rate of increase has slowed down for now.
Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, says that slowdown probably reflects a flood of new apartment buildings that have recently opened. But he doesn’t expect the trend to continue. He says the biggest issue involves how Los Angeles is zoned.
“Basically, we’re running out of land. While Los Angeles is one of the 20 largest metropolitan areas in the world, it’s not zoned properly. It’s zoned as a low density area, which means for single family homes, and not multi dwelling buildings. Visit any other large city. You’ll see lots of multi-family dwellings. Lots are scarce are scarce here and that scarcity has been created by the regulatory machine which makes housing very expensive.”
He went on to say that even with rising incomes and an improving economy, prices will continue to rise because there won’t be housing available due to the high cost of construction and lack of land.
Green was a guest on McIntyre in the Morning.
A link to the original article can be found here.