Silver Lake-Echo Park Home Market Mid-2010: Reservoir-Side Mid-Century Cool Sells Alongside Hillside Bungalow REO Shacks; 25% of Sales Foreclosures or Short Sales

Silver Lake-Echo Park is one of the most eclectic neighborhoods in Los Angeles, with properties ranging from vintage $1 million + Mid-Century and Spanish homes with views of the Silver Lake Reservoir, to shacks (and we mean shacks) on stair streets in the Echo Park hills with no parking (and virtually no home and no land.) 

What Silver Lake-Echo Park offers is a character neighborhoods with a wide range of property types, a funky vibe, and some of the best views and vistas (and twisty, winding streets) in the city. 

What has also characterized Silver Lake - Echo Park in the past 6 months is a "hot" market and an abundance of distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales), most selling under $500,000.

On the higher end (the top 25% of sales, homes selling at $715,000 and above), the average days on the market was 27.  This is by any standard is considered a highly competitive market in which buyers are forced to view and then write offers on homes without a long consideration period.

A full 25% of sales in the past six months have been distressed properties, presenting a "clearing" of bank inventory and homes owned by delinquent buyers.  This market seems to have reached a capitulation point where many sub-prime loans which owners could not afford have now been voided from the market, offering dramatically lower prices for these B- and C-quality properties.

But the A-quality properties are very much in demand, with five homes selling for more than $1 million during the period.

The highest priced sale was 2503 Silver Lake Terrace, adjacent to the Silver Lake Reservoir, which sold for $1,400,000, over its asking price, after 17 days on the market.  This 1939 home was updated in 2005 and has 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2,659 sq ft of living area, an 11,325 sq ft lot, and a 900 sq ft remodeled studio.

Across the Reservoir, in the Moreno Highlands, 2214 Panorama Terrace sold for $1,150,000.  This 3 bedroom, 3 bath mid-century home has 2,478 sq ft of living area, a 5,000 sq ft lot, and a pool.  It sold after 33 days on the market.

 

One of the fastest sales was just down the road at 2143 Panorama Terrace.  This ultra-cool 1953 mid-century sold for $1,136,750 after only 7 days on the market.  This home has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 5,170 sq ft of living area and a pool.

Another 7 day sale was 2081 Balmer Avenue, also in the Moreno Highlands, which sold for $1,079,996.  It has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,032 sq ft of living area and a 6,490 sq ft lot.

Now, let's take a detour to other parts hither and thither in the diverse Silver Lake-Echo Park neighborhood.  2122 Vestal Avenue in Echo Park, a remodeled cottage of sorts, has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 870 sq ft of living area and a 2,760 sq ft lot.  After 5 days on the market, a buyer paid $501,000 for this home, amounting to an astonishing $576/sq ft.

Finally, our grand prix winner for "best buy" goes to 2112 Loma Vista Place in Echo Park.  Located on a "step street" (yes, accessible by a stairway and not by road, and we mean a long stairway), this cute 1914 1 bedroom, 1 bath bungalow (with heaps of deferred maintenance) on a 2,680 sq ft lot sold as a foreclosure for $200,000.  It's interesting to note that the home sold for $195,000 in April 2002.  After the recent real estate bubble, we consider this a "reversion to the mean."