...Los Angeles is becoming a more vertical area at all income levels as land for development becomes less plentiful and traffic congestion, and now high gas prices, steer more people to cluster around mass transit stations and more community-like sections, like downtown and West Los Angeles, said Delores A. Conway, director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast at the University of Southern California. For 2006 and 2007 in Los Angeles County, condos sold better than single family homes, even as the market was dipping, real estate data shows, although sales above $5 million are still few. Last year, 59 percent of new home sales were condos.
"The city is becoming more interconnected and growing up," Ms. Conway said. "It's a major change in the landscape of Los Angeles."...
