South Bay Rent Hikes Are Inevitable Due to Apartment Shortage

According to a recent study, a very tight apartment market will allow building owners to increase asking rents by 5 percent this year in the South Bay real estate and Long Beach real estate areas.

A recent real estate report by Marcus & Millichap concluded that proprietors will be able to ask for rents that average $1,249 per month.

According to a senior associate at Marcus & Millichap, Rick Raymundo, rent keeps rising because of California’s strong economy, high traffic of immigrants, and high home prices that make ownership difficult for residents.

A study shows that the South Bay increase in rental prices are still below the countywide expectance of 5.9% this year.

Raymundo reputed that one reason for the South Bay’s lower predicted rental increase is that much of the South Bay does not fall under rent control laws.
Accordingly, Raymundo said, when an apartment in a rent abstinence area becomes available, the landlord may be able to benefit from a higher upside to raise rents.
In most of the South Bay, proprietors already have discovered that upside because of the need for rent control.

A recent study shows that countywide, the vacancy rate also will end the year at 3%. Also a report says that the Minimal construction of apartment units will keep the availability rate at 3% in the South Bay and Long Beach for the rest of this year.
West Torrance, at 1.8%, has the minimum availability rate of any other county market, with efficient rents of $ 1,337 monthly. Effective rents refer to rents after taking into account landlord concessions.

North Torrance and Hawthorne are the fifth amiable market with a 2.3% vacancy rate and an active rent of $893 a month.

San Pedro and Carson had the 12th lowest vacancy rate at almost 3.0%. While El Segundo and Hermosa Beach were eighth on the list with a rate of 2.5%.
The all-time vacancy rate was 12.6% for downtown Los Angeles real estate. South Bay apartments owned and managed by Beach Front Realty Services saw rents raised by 5-7% this year. CEO of the Long Beach-based realty firm, Kyle Kazan said, “ We just raised rents pretty much across the board.”

According to Kazan a Palos Verdes Resident, “The rents (increases) for tenants… have outpaced the U.S. inflation rate, probably double it since roughly ’98, ’99.

Since apartments vacancies are so low, said Kazan, his apartments rent very quickly.
According to Kazan, “This is a wonderful time to be a landlord… It’s not a fun time to be a tenant.” With all that’s going on for the tenants, like gas prices rising and all else, it’s pretty tough, and they also don’t really have that many choices.

Though the high rents, said Kazan it’s better to rent than buy a house now since prices of homes have increased so much through the past couple of years.

“ I think the market is bound for improvement. When it happens, it will change the house market strongly,” Kazan said. “It will give renters options to buy."

Hermosa Beach Land Assessments Jump

Leading the South Bay cities in the value of its assess property was Hermosa Beach based on its 12.3 percent spike last year.
Overall across the county of Los Angeles properties ballooned in value totaling $950 billion which was a $94 billion increase from last year.
From 2004-2005 there was a 9.6 percent increase, however, from 2005-2006 there was an even bigger bump of 11 percent. Experts say that this large increase attributes to a solid market for real estate sales and reassessments required by Prop 13.
These huge numbers invite the county to continue on its track to break the trillion-dollar mark by next year despite the strong opinions and evidence that there could be a plateau in the real estate market.
These great increases are mostly created because of the high profit margin of sold single-family residences. These are driven by various factors such as a low supply of lower and medium priced houses as well as by low interest rates on loans.
In addition to Hermosa Beach real estate, the other South Bay cities with the greatest increases in property values include Lawndale real estate at 11.6 percent, Hawthorne real estate at 11.2 percent, and Redondo Beach real estate at 11 percent.
The home prices in South Bay continue to rise for the obvious reasons which are that people want to live near the beach and that housing supply is limited.

Manhattan Beach is Sport's Stars Home Turf

In Los Angeles all the fans eventually go home from a day or night of cheering their favorite local teams and heroes, whether Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers, or Kings. But, where do the sports stars go home to after a stunning victory or a tough loss? Many on the rosters of the L.A. sports teams call Manhattan Beach their home, where their children love to play in the sand and surf and where the neighbors greet them with a “hello.”
L.A. Kings captain “Matty” Norstrom settled in Manhattan Beach 7 years ago, after asking his teammates (as do most professional athletes) with an interest in the best local real estate for his family. Norstrom said, “It’s a really family-oriented area. A lot of the wives get together with the kids.” According to the Kings spokesman, everyone on the team’s current roster except one live in Manhattan Beach. Also, there are at the least 4 Dodgers and 6 Lakers living in the Manhattan Beach real estate area as well.
The attraction of these local sports stars to Manhattan Beach is no secret since it is conveniently located 2 miles to the south of both the Lakers’ and Kings’ practice facilities in El Segundo and approximately 20 miles away from Dodger Stadium and Staples Center. It is also 3 miles from LAX allowing a quick drive home for athletes after a long road trip or late game. Being less than four square miles, Manhattan Beach offers a real sense of community to its approximate 34,000 inhabitants. As mentioned above, many of the sports stars love Manhattan Beach because of its family-oriented atmosphere with its delightful parks and beaches, providing many options for children. Manhattan Beach has been well known for its top-notch school system with many schools with high marks in the Academic Performance Index. Still others love Manhattan Beach for its atmosphere accustomed for casual attire.
Norstrom’s teammate of the Kings Trent Klatt, immediately noticed a major change in housing prices when comparing those of his native state of Minnesota. Klatt said, “The housing market here in Manhattan Beach is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. In Minnesota, I could buy three houses for this price. It’s quite an eye-opener.”Historically, Manhattan Beach homes were single-family homes, beach bungalows, and some apartments. However, during the past 30 to 40 years, these older structures have given way for new condos, townhomes, and single-family homes. Lot sizes are generally small, especially toward the waterfront. In September of 2005, there were available for sale 76 single-family homes, 25 townhomes, and no condominiums in Manhattan Beach. The median asking price was $2,189,000 for the single-family homes and $1,399,000 for those townhomes.