Straight Outta Compton real estate: Looking to buy a church? How about some affordable real estate?
Many people are familiar with N.W.A. especially if they have been in the L.A. area for two decades or more. I would imagine the Taco Tuesday hipster crowd would be familiar with this at least. It is interesting that there is this resurgence on reviving the old and trying to make it into the new. Trying to bring back the past in a new light. Since the movie Straight Outta Compton is getting a ton of press and certainly is going to highlight the city, let us take a look at Compton for some real estate deals.  The herd mentality is always strong with some people. They say you need a few prerequisites for high prices: weather, location to city hubs, and of course the forever gentrifying trend. Yet when you bring up a place like Compton, a place that meets these prerequisites, suddenly it is a no go. They’ll then throw in schools (well there are many hipster hoods that have crappy schools and prices are still going up). In the end, it is lemming like behavior that has forgotten the recent past (we are talking 2005 to 2009). Let us see what we can find in Compton since I’m sure the movie is going to generate some buzz.
Compton buzz
I love the Hollywood spin machine. It was hard to believe that a few people were e-mailing me saying that the Straight Outta Compton movie was going to push prices higher. Have these people seen the movie? It isn’t exactly a glowing endorsement of the city unless you are planning on starting out with a rap career. I had a few people mention that Eminem’s 8 Mile was going to boost Detroit when it came out many years ago. How did that go? I fact, movies can have the exact opposite impact depending on how an area is portrayed.
Yet Compton is an affordable option for people in the L.A. County area. You are close to major business hubs, you have the weather, and relatively cheap real estate. For hipsters not planning on having kids, who cares about schools? Before looking at some single family homes, are you interested in buying a church?
1913 N Wilmington Ave,
Compton, CA 90222
The ad for this property gets straight to the point:
“Amazing opportunity. This is a great church for a congregation. A definite MUST SEE.â€
This is the first time I see a church for sale in L.A. County come through my MLS feed. This place is ready to go:
Ready to make a bid? The current list price is $550,000.
Okay, let us now move on to some single family homes:
620 S Poinsettia Ave,
Compton, CA 90221
4 beds, 1 bath, 2,270 square feet
This place is in better condition than some of the million dollar crap shacks out in Venice. The place has 4 bedrooms and is listed at 2,270 square feet. This is a good sized property. What is the current list price? $299,000. Your principal and interest on this place with 20 percent down is $1,100. Try getting 4 bedrooms anywhere in L.A. County for $1,100 a month.
This place sold in the Straight Outta Compton days for $137,000. It then sold in 2001 for $157,000. And of course, for the L.A. financial amnesia crowd, it sold for $534,000 in 2006. It was listed back in April of this year for $349,000. They dropped the price to $299,000 back in May. $50,000 off in one month. Just like that! Apparently the gentrification memo isn’t hitting Compton.
Maybe the film will motivate some hipsters to buy here. The average adjusted income for a household in this zip code is $26,624. So even at what seems to be a “cheap†L.A. County price, it is still selling for 10 times the typical household income of the area. And then people wonder why Bernie Sanders is getting 27,000 attendees at his crowds in L.A.:
His message is hitting the working class and the quickly disappearing California middle class. You have your ear plug wearing folks that have full on blinders thinking that as long as their little block is fine and they continue to water their lawn, the 10,000,000 residents of L.A. County will just quietly sit back and let their quality of life slip down the drain. Then you have Trump as the anti-mainstream media candidate. Isn’t it interesting that the two candidates with the most polar opposite views are getting the most traction? Amusingly Bill Clinton Ronald Reagan was President during the Straight Outta Compton days. True fact for all you young hipsters.
You just have to love the SoCal spin.
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53 Responses to “Straight Outta Compton real estate: Looking to buy a church? How about some affordable real estate?”
Straight out of Compton came out in 1988. I don’t think Bill Clinton was president then.
Hello Doc. are there any readers on this site that are seriously considering Compton…. I doubt it.
Rather, methinks there are readers who are considering purchasing a home in LA, more specifically towards the Westside but not able to afford a home in SM, Venice, WLA, Mar Vista, Culver City, etc.
For those readers, they should consider West Adams and Baldwin Vista and even into Crenshaw District. That is, if you want to be 15min from SM beach on a Saturday / Sunday morning.
Recent development projects slated for these areas:
http://www.vdare.com/posts/white-gentrification-of-south-central-la-begins
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/07/jefferson_la_cienega_expo_line_development.php
http://urbanize.la/post/two-crenshaw-boulevard-game-changers-one-shot-0
Of course I will hear from lurkers, who will claim ‘it is not a good time to buy’ … that may be true… but will SM, Venice, WLA, Mar Vista, Del Rey, Beverlywood, Culver City,,,ever return to sane prices… NO.
Why would anyone want to live in Del Rey?
Hilariously the shilling for your neighborhood apparently knows no boundaries. If it’s such a great deal can’t it speak for itself without all of this advertising or are you doing a charitable deed by letting everyone else in on the secret conveniently after you put your eggs in that basket?
“For those readers, they should consider West Adams and Baldwin Vista and even into Crenshaw District. That is, if you want to be 15min from SM beach on a Saturday / Sunday morning.”
Every place you mentioned above is a absolute sh$thole riddled with crime, drug abuse, gang activity, and horrible schools. If that is what you want, you might as well move to Ferguson and save yourself some $$$. You can move the ghetto out of the home, but you can’t move the home out of the ghetto. I will take MANY MANY years if ever for these area to gentrify significantly. Cracks me up when I see flips in Mid-City, West Adams, Crenshaw, etc, asking $400+ per a sq. ft for some dilapidated crapshack with lipstick on it. Have you been to these neighborhoods at night, or even on a weekend? You would have to put up a barbed wire fence and guard towers just to sleep at night.
http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/baldwin-hillscrenshaw/crime/#latest
BTW, if you think opening a Kohl’s, Ross, & Target on Crenshaw are the gateway to gentrification, you in for a rude awakening.
We could fix this place pretty quickly if only Trump were to start buying property and building hotels and golf courses in Compton. A win-win.
” Isn’t it interesting that the two candidates with the most polar opposite views are getting the most traction?”
Anything other than another Bush or Clinton for president. Heck, mickey mouse is sounding pretty good at the moment.
Actually Trump and Sanders are shockingly on similar pages with regards to trade and the shafting working people have been getting for the past 3 decades. Of course you never know how much of their rhetoric can be taken at value.
Judging by what I’m certain is coming, I hope Hillary wins narrowly. Would love to see her endure the shit storm that is headed our way.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Screw Shillary. Corpratism and pandering to the 1% is what we’ll get with another Clinton. Same story with Suckabee, Lil’ Lord Bush, and I dare to say the fake penury of Rando the Rant and the mean lil’ Koch sucker Walker.
Eat the rich or at least tax them into submission on their income and cap gains for anyone over 10 million a year.
Bring it Bernie.
anyone voting for Hilary I let murders happen on my watch while using my own email server Clinton needs to check into an insane asylum….Sheeple
Sheeple of America are everywhere, the bush and clinton monarchy has done nothing for citizens of this country except take them down a path to serfdom….
The doctor is surprised to see a church on the MLS? A few months ago, I saw a decommissioned fire station on the MLS. It was located on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill.
They were selling it as a possible hipster house. The “front door” was a large, pull-down garage door. (Big enough for fire engines.) The station still had the fire poles and lockers. Multiple stalls in the bathroom. Cafeteria style kitchen.
I suppose some hipster might think it cool. In some big cities, hipsters are known for living in lofts, garages, and former factories.
Years ago, I saw some TV show about “strangest houses.” One couple was living in a decommissioned missile silo out in the desert. Apparently, the Pentagon was selling some of these concrete holes in the ground, and some people were buying.
Churches make great condo conversions. Several in Chicago have been redeveloped as condo developments, and people love them because they have rooms with unusual shapes and dimensions, with no two units in a development having the same configuration. If you are fortunate, you’ll score a unit with an immense gothic stained glass window.
An imaginative architect could carve out four spectacular units with immense arched windows in the church featured in this post. If what I’ve seen of SoCal prices, even in slummy areas, is true, then each unit in this place could easily fetch $500K if done well, maybe more. In fact, the development of this building could start a wave of gentrification in the area, especially if more units were developed in surrounding buildings, and appropriate retail put into place.
I’ve seen even less promising neighborhoods in smaller cities turned around by the rehab of just a few great-looking buildings. Go for it.
A $500k condo in Compton? Really? Condos in nice areas won’t even go for that.
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Seal-Beach/12400-Montecito-Rd-90740/unit-409/home/5412380
Sadly Laura – and not against you – but your comment is a reflection of the declining state of morality in our nation – Profit and purse over investing in the souls of the lost.
Well, I’m a happy atheist, and I’d personally love the irony of converting an old, beautiful church into my personal dwelling. Maybe that’s what I’ll start looking.
Sorry, hon, but I know too many churchgoers to believe that religion ever did anything for anybody’s “soul”.
The best thing you can say about the places is that they are often stunningly beautiful, and have been the sites of the ceremonies and events that are truly sacred- our family commemorations of marriages, births, and deaths, and that they are also one place you can socialize without expecting a payoff.
But the religion per se? Can’t think how it ever conduced to “morality”.
There would be more morality in converting them to homeless housing. Works matter more than faith.
EZ E. Straight Up baby!
I am right there with you. Come on hipsters and gentrify. Just don’t forget the AKs.
Man, I just found a church in my Midwestern hometown for only a couple of hundred grand. Maybe I’ll buy the thing!
I would love to live in a church or fire station that was built with masonry 200 years ago.
But I would never live in same that was built with stucco post WW2.
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, lived in a converted church in London in his early days.
Perfect Weather!!! http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/08/los_angeles_free_air_conditioning.php
From the good doctor’s 5/4/15 post on Compton crap:
*523 N. Wilmington was listed at $199K on 3/29/15. Redfin says it sold on 6/30/15 for $200K.
*2230 E. Piru Street was listed at $169K on 3/22/15. Redfin indicates an offer is now in and set for a court probate hearing on 9/8/15. You could own the crap if you bid $197,900 or above.
Somebody sure savors the smell of and is buying this crap, but exactly who, and what do they know, that we don’t? Please advise.
*523 N. Wilmington was sold on 08/31/05 for $196K.
Somebody sure savored the smell of and was buying this crap, but exactly who, and what did they know, that we didn’t?
Somebody also savors the smell of cash and is selling this crap, but exactly who, and what do they know, that we don’t?
Please advise.
The monthly cost of owning a 200K crap shack is slightly over $1000 per month. Figure you can house 2 or 3 families in said crap shack and run your “neighborhood” auto body shop out of the back yard. Try doing this in a 2 bedroom apartment. That’s who is buying these places!
Compton always has been one of the poorest neighborhoods in LA and the most crime ridden. If anything it has only gotten worse over the years as the chasm between rich and poor get larger every day. Aren’t realtors supposed to disclose information when asked about crime any more? Anyone looking to invest in this impoverished neighborhood better so some research, rather than listen to the BS, before they plunk down $300k
I asked a realtor about crime in Pasadena, north of the 210. She advised me to go to the police dept’s website and check the stats.
Realtors are taught not to give subjective evaluations/opinions of neighborhood schools crime rates, and demographics to prospective buyers. Too much potential exposure to “steering”
I have to admit I don’t think Compton will ever be a nice hipster place to live but 25 years ago everyone would have agreed with that sentiment when discussing Venice.
There was no way anyone would go down W Washington Blvd or Abbot Kinney without shotguns and bodyguards. It was seriously a ‘hood. Today, of course, you need North of $1M to be taken seriously.
I guess the real question is where is the next Venice? My guess is that it’s not Compton. Now if we could just run all the cracksters out and take over…..
That is what I was thinking. If enough people plunk down $300k, which seems like a bargain price for LA from what I read on this blog, the area will become too expensive for high crime people to live there? You would have to have a decent job to get a $300k mortgagte. Just thinking out loud.
At one time NY Times Square was a crime ridden, sleazy place too. LOL
People spending $300K are not going to want to live there, unless they have a serious subprime loan. Gangs are way too entrenched and the LAPD has written the area off, other than ghetto-birds patrolling at night.
http://Www.westsideremeltdown.blogspot.com
No, because Prop 13 et al.
Venice always had a chance because it is on the ocean. Water levels are rising faster than expected. Soon Venice will be under water and Compton will be on the beach.
Comptons reputation is worse then reality. If someone gave me free house there I would live in it. A lot of other places in la county you couldn’t pay me enough to live there.
1363 Bannock St
Beaumont, CA 92222
Brand new house in major new development dropping from 292 to 287800 in just one month.
Get the List, Find Your Home, Live the Dream
DR Horton is currently offering a sale on new homes for a limited time. bahahaha
Until the next one where they will be cheaper.
The Red Tag Event is on! Click on the drop down below to find the area closest to you with featured available homes. This event runs for a limited time only, so be sure to get your home listing today – these homes will be going fast!
Anyone buying now will lose their shirt. Lets see if all these people buying houses with 3% down continue to pay their mortgage when they are underwater. I doubt it.
I am a teacher in the IE and literally see houses being built less than 60 feet from my classroom. Being interesting to see how long they stay vacant. Unless the builder becomes a landlord I am guessing quite a while.
I am officially calling a peak in the market in the inland empire as supply is rapidly catching up to demand.
How low can they go? 🙂 I think pretty far as the builder can make money building houses for way way less.
IMO Eastvale will be the tip of the foreclosure spear very soon. That place is nuts.
Any thoughts?
WOW! A $4,200 decrease in just one month!?!?!?! The bubble has burst & the sky is falling!
Give me a break.
Hunan go out and buy than.
You should no that builders don’t like to cut prices ever as it screws their comps for other homes.
Calling a top not that the bubble is bursting for the record.
Beaumont is in the middle of Nowheresville and half way to Whogivesaf%ck. You can’t use this as a comp for anything. That’s why the house is so cheap, cuz no one wants to live there. For 300K you can’t buy a outhouse in any desirable area of Southern Cali.
Hunan I can see you don’t like the inland empire. Riverside is the fastest growing county in the state so it would seam many people disagree with you. You should also know that the builders charge mello roos for houses so they have double taxes so they cost more to own.
See this home from same builder pretty equivalent.
1287 Tulip Cir W
Beaumont, CA 92223
Active $347,061″
Selling in the new development for less than old.
Would show KB is cutting prices too but they don’t show their prices on the mls.
Just offering a “Red tag” sale right now.
Believe what you want Hunan.
What ever happened to common sense and logic? Rationale thinking alone should tell us that L.A.,the most unaffordable city in the country, will have to face reality at some point. Common sense also says that those desirable neighborhoods will still be desirable, just not at quite such high prices, and that those marginal neighborhoods will have lots of ‘boat anchors’, homes that owners can’t unload without taking a huge loss! And, those landlords, will see their net returns fall off and in a number of cases, turn negative. So far, no one has been able to defy the laws of gravity forever … what goes up, must come back down!
No kidding. I don’t think any of us think it will ever be cheap to live in SoCal, but it’s so out of control now that it really doesn’t make sense to live here for the large majority of us.
In the early ’90s, my dad had the option of transferring our family from a medium sized city in Indiana to Anaheim. He’d get paid more, but we’d downgrade from a 3600 sq ft home worth $160K to a 2200 sq ft home with a pool worth $210K. Anaheim was certainly more expensive than Indiana, but the houses were just a little smaller and cost little more money. We still decided that it wasn’t worth the extra money and stayed in Indiana.
Now, comparing those same two houses would show about a $700K difference between the two, and the option of moving wouldn’t even be on the table. The affordability of SoCal has gone from “a bit pricey” to “it only makes sense to live here as a millionaire.”
Interesting trend this week on my purchase appraisal, all of them have been from owners who bought from 2011 to 2013 and are now selling, the majority bought in 2013.
I wouldn’t crow about a 4 K drop in Beaumont. It’s so far from the LA and OC jobs.
I lived in Riverside in 76 and commuted the 91 FWY to job in Santa Ana.
Not too bad then. I hear it is a parking lot today.
Same is true here in the Bay area. Bubble prices out the 580 to Livermore and the Altamont pass. Go over the pass to Tracy and everything drops by 300 K. Why? The commute is a killer, just like the 91. As long as we have anything goes immigration to the USA, even the Beaumont houses will sell. Smart people will buy them either to live in or as rentals, Too many people, not enough houses. But plenty of houses in Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento, and Redding. Two different California housing markets, the coast and the valley.
Hey, has anyone looked at the Compton demographics from the 2010 census? 65% Hispanic or Latino! Who says Compton isn’t changing? My daughter’s In-Laws moved from Compton in the late ’40s early ’50s when it was mostly White, like Weird Al’s Lynwood. The ’80s Ghetto is now the ’10s Barrio. When the Blacks are completely squeezed out of Compton, things might be different? Maybe, maybe not.
I got the latest Harry Dent graph of the wages of newly created jobs for July. Again, the middle range sucks, with growth at the lowest and highest wage sectors.
https://dentresearch.s3.amazonaws.com/Press_Release/images/080715_PR.gif
I cannot understand why the black demographic continues to vote Democrat without questioning Dems lack of concern with illegal immigration/support of sanctuary cities. Illegals are filling many blue collar jobs once held by blacks, and pushing blacks out of neighborhoods that were once their strongholds. I’ve never heard any LA black leaders question/complain about these issues; unbelievable to me.
I guess the same could be said for IT workers in NorCal. Unquestioning support for politicians and leaders and want more HB1 workers. Living in a shipping container/tent/garage, cheerfully applauding the boss when he/she demands more HB1 workers. Required to train their HB1 replacements. Insane.
It’s the same reason that so many blue collar and poor whites vote Republican, despite it also being against their best financial interest. Emotional ideals, like religion and racism, sway many people more than financial pragmatism.
Blue collar and poor whites are even stupider to vote for Democrats when that party is filled with radical leftist Marxists, radical gays, and black racists who all hate white folks.
It’s simple WeDontMakeThoseDrinksNoMore. The culture of the Republican party is not exactly fitting for their needs. Politicians like Reagan and Guiliani are not exactly people they look up to. There is a segment that are gun-toting, Confederate flag waving, and don’t even get me started on the Tea Party crazies questioning Obama’s birth place. There’s just too many people that judge people by how long they’ve been in the sun, and not their character. What’s really funny is that they have no problem with a black rabbit, horse, dog, etc. Soon as they see a different color human being…err, I’m so mad they exist. completely stupid.
As for seismic, you should look up the definition of racism. One can’t be racist without power. People react to what’s being done to them. Is that too hard of a concept to understand? So if you push someone, and they get mad and push you back, do you get mad? LOL The low intelligence of some people. It’s not “radical” to be wanted to be treated fairly.
My buddy works for the LA County Sheriff’s office and he works in Compton. He has tons of stories to tell about all of the gangs and drugs in the city. He loves the action and says Compton keeps him on his toes. I keep saying someday I will go on a ride-along with him. Never been there and doubt I ever will.
Speaking of churches, here’s an idea of what can be done to convert a church to residential: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Ventura/896-E-Main-St-93001/home/11928426
What a great church conversion. I love that it was restored completely, with all the beautiful mill work and stained glass intact. Also like the collection of whimsical furniture there.
Given SoCal and Venice prices, this is a spectacular deal for the money, though you must factor in the large operating costs.
The better buy is south of 91 in north Long Beach. Not as ‘gansta’ and just as cheap. There’s even a Starbucks & Lee’s Sandwiches LOL
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