LA Gets the Luxury Condo Bug

What's bad for luxury developers is good for buyers

(NEWSER) - Standing tall in some of the most moneyed neighborhoods in America, condos once symbolized a seemingly bottomless housing boom. Now that the housing market has cratered, the luxury real estate sector is providing would-be buyers with the biggest opportunities, Forbes says. Lake Tahoe, Calif., Key Biscayne, Fl., and New York’s Upper West Side have all seen condos sit on the market for months, and prices could dip further. More»

Compound including Dude's pad offered for $2.3M

(NEWSER) - The Dude's abode is for sale—rug not included. The one-bedroom bungalow featured in The Big Lebowski is on the block as part of a six-home compound in the Venice district of Los Angeles with a very un-Dude total price tag of $2,295,000, Gawker reports. The realtors are holding an open house at the compound today, and Jeff Bridges has been invited to stop by. More»

The Bay Line, aka Bay Bridge to Nowhere, is catching on

(NEWSER) - With the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge due to go out of commission when its replacement is completed (current ETA: 2013), a campaign is amping up in the blogosphere to keep it around as a pimped-out version of New York’s popular High Line. The Bay Line—or, as one blogger dubs it, the Bay Bridge to Nowhere—would include condos, parks, swimming pools and other amenities normally found on land. More»

(NEWSER) - The mansion that late producer Aaron Spelling built in 1991 is on sale for $150 million, making it the most expensive home for sale in the US, the AP reports. The 56,500-square-foot home, the largest in Los Angeles County, sits on 4.7 acres near the Playboy Mansion. Neither the broker nor widow Candy knows exactly how many rooms the manse has, though it’s thought to be more than 100. More»

(NEWSER) - The recession hit Southern California earlier and harder than almost any other part of the country—and it’s likely to linger a lot longer too, Steve Pearlstein writes in the Washington Post. The area played a “central role in the Bubble Economy,” and now, being the “capital of conspicuous consumption” is a bad gig. The entertainment industry looks unsustainable, and real estate is obviously moribund. More»