LALand is defunct

My favorite real estate blog, The L.A. Times' real estate blog, LaLand, is no more. It is moving in with Money & Co., the Times' economic blog. I'm sorry to see it go, but I guess we all should have suspected this would happen -- everybody knows LAT is cutting itself down to the bone.

Peter Viles was the original editor of the blog, then Peter Hong, then Lauren Beale. They all had really good grasps on our local market and its various permutations. Yes, LALand's posters were infuriating more often than not, and I was occasionally a poster target for my perceived pro-real-estate market, anti-bubble posts. But it was stimulating, to say the least.

At least we still have L.A. Curbed.

Home inventory drops as sales rise, as if we didn't know

California Association of Realtors is reporting that the supply of available homes for sale is diminishing as sales increase. Oh, really? Gosh, how long has that been happening? Thanks to LALand, the LATimes real estate blog, for picking up this story, as I am never particularly interested in what CAR says.

Say it ain't so, Pete!

Those of you who already read LALand know this already -- blog host Peter Viles will be leaving at the end of the week. Peter has been great for the LA Times, great for blogging (I have been a frequent commenter), and great for the local dialogue about real estate (well...lots of bitter dialogue, anyway). Good luck, Peter! You'll be missed.