Tracking L.A. prices: $700K range is slipping, slowly

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Because so many of you are interested in what is happening to housing prices in more established and more expensive neighborhoods, I ran through a bunch of pricier ZIP codes last month, in a post titled ‘Sherman Oaks, Your Slip is Showing’ (Prices were down 35% in the 91423 area of Sherman Oaks in July).

Today I re-ran the August numbers for the same 14 ZIPs, and calculated overall median price, and overall median price decline for the entire set of 14.

Area/ZIP July median/% change from ’07 Aug. median/% change from ’08
Sherman Oaks/91423 $750,000 / -34.8% $968,000 / +8.2%
West Hollywood/90046 $940,000 / -28.4% $765,000 / -36.3%
Stevenson Ranch/91381 $650,000 / -23.5% $717,000 / -23.5%
Northridge/91326 $625,000 / -18.8% $566,000 / -25.5%
La Crescenta/91214 $619,000 / -15.3% $599,000 / -14.1%
Agoura Hills/91301 $870,000 / -12.5% $735,000 / -18.4%
Arcadia/91006 $698,000 / -11.6% $775,000 / -6.3%
Torrance/90503 $693,000 / -10.6% $608,000 / -21.1%
L.A./Mar Vista/90066 $810,000 / -8.7% $697,000 / -16.5%
Pasadena/91104 $621,000 / -6.5% $585,000 / -10.0%
L.A./Westchester/90045 $693,000 / -5.8% $700,000 / -6.5%
Woodland Hills/91364 $726,000 / -3.2% $593,000 / -23.4%
Redondo Beach/90278 $755,000 / +4.6% $620,000 / -22.3%
Arcadia/91007 $930,000 / +3.6% $848,000 / +13.5%

Median $710,000 / -11.1% $698,000 / -17.4%

As you can see, the median of these medians is lower in August. I’m fairly certain this is not a particularly valid statistical analysis, but I throw it out there nonetheless for your discussion. Many of you have suggested I drop these median home prices in this kind of analysis, and switch to price per square foot -- which has certain advantages, and certain disadvantages. Thoughts on that?

--Peter Viles