If you think you’ve seen more apartments cropping up in downtown Los Angeles, you’re right.
A new report from RENTCafe.com shows that the downtown area added the second highest number of new apartments in the nation between 2010 and 2016.
How many, you ask?
Try 7,551. They were dispersed among 35 apartment buildings and they now account for 63 percent of the total units in the city’s inner core, according to the nationwide apartment search website.
That’s a pretty big influx of new units and it represents a rebirth of the downtown area. The downtown region had been vibrant at the turn of the 20th Century. But over time, it lost its glow and was in deep decline at the start of the new millennium.
But thanks to local efforts to revive the downtown area, lots of new buildings went up over the last decade. This plays squarely into a trend that has seen many millennials holding back on buying a home. Marty Rodriguez, owner of the Century 21 Marty Rodriguez office in Glendora, put it this way:
“Some just don’t want the responsibility of homeownership,” she said. “It’s really a combination of home prices being high and people not wanting the responsibility of a house. They’re OK with renting. Meanwhile, home prices are going up.”
And therein lies the dilemma because apartments rents are rising as well.
Los Angeles is the most expensive city for renters in California. In April, the median rental price for a two-bedroom unit in L.A. was $2,750, while a one-bedroom apartment cost $1,930. Irvine has the second highest rents. A two-bedroom unit there had a median rent of $2,650 in April and a one-bedroom was $1,970.
I don’t know what those newer apartments in downtown L.A. are renting for, but I’m guessing they’re not cheap.
And getting back to the home situation, a recent survey from ApartmentList.com reveals that millennials in many of the nation’s large metro areas will need at least a decade to save enough money for the 20 percent down payment on a condominium. The situation is even worse in the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose and Austin. Based on their current rate of monthly savings, millennials in those cities each face a wait of at least 19 years.
In Los Angeles it’s nearly 21 years!
Newly released income limits from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have made the housing issue even more demoralizing for millennials. Under the agency’s new guidelines, a person living in Los Angeles County who earns $50,500 a year would qualify for low-income housing.
I grew up in a small town in Ohio and I distinctly remember my first apartment — which was obviously far cheaper than anything you’d find out here these days. It consisted of three rooms that were strung out in a line. You entered in the living room which had a bathroom off to the side. Then there was a kitchen, and finally a bedroom.
Here’s a memory that still stands out in my mind. I had just seen “The Exorcist” at a local theater and after the movie I went back home to my apartment. The way the apartment was configured, it wound around so there was very little light that would bleed from one room to the next. And the only light in the bedroom was a small hanging light right over the head of the bed, and it was off when I returned home.
So I made my way to the far end of the bedroom in near total darkness to pull the chain on the light over the bed.
But before I pulled it, I had the overwhelming sense that when the light came on I would find Regan (the demon-possessed girl from “The Exorcist”) tied to the bed and staring up at me.
As it turned out, Regan wasn’t there. But thinking back … she may have been hiding in the closet.
