Los Angeles, Property, Racism, Classism

On the LA Times website, there is a blog that covers the property market. It is usually informative and interesting.

The crowd that reads and comments on the blog are, IMHO, a bit racist and classist. In fact, the only time the white man allows his racism flag to truly fly is when talking about property and schools, because in that context is isn't about racism, it is about "good schools" and "good investments".

A day on the blog LA Land usually goes like this. Peter links to an article. Twenty people comment that the market will continue to crash. Twenty people say that the only neighborhoods to live in are X, Y and Z (usually Palisades or Manhattan Beach). Twenty people say that there is no place for middle class in LA and they should just move to some other state.

So one typical response was on a posting about softening in the nicer neighborhoods.

Turnover in many neighborhoods is very very low. All I know is that I’ve been looking for a decent house in South Paz and San Marino for 6 months and the inventory of decent houses has gone from really really really pitiful to just really really pitiful. The one change I’m seeing is that bad houses in bad locations even in good neighborhoods will sit forever. But if you have a turnkey house on a quiet street, it will sell.

As for your situation, I feel for you. I would not want to be a first time homebuyer in SoCal. $225K dual income household is not that uncommon in SoCal and you have a lot of families to compete with. If you are looking for safe and good schools I would not even look in LA. Irvine, Cypress, Walnut, Simi, Valencia are all safe, family friendly and have good schools. Don’t be in a hurry because I’m not as kooky as most people make me out to be, I do think prices will go down further. Good luck.

To which I responded with something so over the top that I though that it would be instantaly apparent that it is a joke.

Palisades, Malibu, South Paz, are you kidding me? The SAT scores for kids from those high schools is well below 1600 and falling fast. Crime is way up with murder rates surging. The acceptance rate to Yale and Harvard are pitiful. I wouldn't go there at night without a bulletproof car and a security detail. I've seen graffitti, which means that gangs and drugs can't be far behind.

If you want to live in a decent neighborhood, really your only option is upper north-western Malibu Hills. We are fortunate in that we can send our staff to city when we need something, so we don't have to risk it ourselves, or get it off Amazon.com.

Our kids are homeschooled by ex-Oxford professors so we don't have to face the nightmare that is Harvard-Westlake.

Really we're just a hardworking middle-class family trying to get by.

C'mon. Isn't the irony apparent in that?

Two responses to my message demonstrated that the irony was not apparent.

One,

Mike G: why is Harvard-Westlake a nightmare for you? The commute from malibu would be a killer... is that the issue?

Two,

Mike, what are babbling about? Nowhere is a great neighborhood with good schools outside of some remote sector of Malibu? Thanks for the laugh. You're almost as funny as that Sean from San Marino guy who drones on about saving "face" and "manhood" as his rationale for people of his ilk stretching to buy house to placate some long lost ancestor.

Everywhere Puckhead lists has very good schools, including La Crescenta. I would differ with Walnut a tad, they have dropped off a bit in recent years and the housing stock is mediocre. But you can't go wrong in any of the other areas in the SGV shown or in the Manhattan Beach area or PV. So keep paying for your Oxford nannies or whatever and let us peons send our kids to "gang-infested" areas like San Marino or La Canada. Clearly you've never been anywhere near here if that is your take.

C'mon. They can dish out insults to neighborhoods all day long, but, they can't take it when somebody criticizes them.

Westsiders. Gah!