From today's L.A. Times: L.A.'s hottest zip codes

Today's LAT has published an article called L.A.'s hottest zip codes. It details the areas with the greatest home price appreciation in 2015.  No surprise: both the east side and the beach areas saw the greatest gains.  Also no surprise: a lot of the home sale price appreciation in these areas reflect prices for smaller homes.  Developers are buying these smaller homes at a premium, tearing them down and putting up much larger homes.  Anyway, re the east side, Lincoln Heights and Elysian Valley (which used to be called Frog Town) saw home sale prices rise 14.6% -- and the median price there is still a relatively low $458,500.  (And by the way, if you're looking for a house on the east side, I can help you.)  Of course, Marina Del Rey's and Manhattan Beach's price have much higher median prices.  Toluca Lake/Studio City was listed as well, with a median price appreciation of 3.2%.

In case you missed the headlines, home prices are up and sales are down

L.A. Times reports today that home prices are up nationwide. In L.A., however, the price rise is 1.3% over last month. Link to the article here.  However, numbers of sales are down.  You knew that -- inventory is ferociously low.  Here's a quote that we all like: "Economists have begun suggesting that the real estate market may have turned the corner for good since tanking in the recession."

Yes, local home prices went up last month and here are the stats

Did it seem to you like local housing prices rose last month? This L.A. Times article says they did; local prices have risen 5.3% in the last year.  Of course, as I've always said, there are lies, damn lies and statistics, but I have seen an overall price uptick in the areas I serve.

From Core Logic: House prices decline, BUT r.e. prices showing signs of stability

This is from our friends at Calculated Risk.  Yes, it's national, not local figures, but please read the whole thing.  It indicates that home prices may be stabilizing. Link: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/04/corelogic-house-prices-declined-27-in.html