Hollywood Hills: Strike While the Iron is Hot!

The nicest amenities in Southern California were traditionally reserved for the cream of the financial elite, actresses and celebrities who lived in Hollywood Hills. Then, 20 years ago, new Hollywood homes began springing up left and right, a trend that continues to this day. The combined result of this steady market expansion and the recent year long downswing in the national real estate market is that now is the perfect time to begin your new opulent lifestyle on Hollywood’s back porch.

Bigger, higher end homes are hitting the market at an astounding rate that completely overshadows anything that has happened here before. With the recessional real estate sector suffering from a long influx of new homes being built accompanied by slow sales and poor returns on mortgages, homes and properties that were previously way out of range for most consumers are drawing wider attention with their depressed values. With 2009’s $20,000 drop in average Hollywood Hills home values, a few million dollars could be your ticket to a home that would have put you in the red ten years ago.

Houses that were put on the market even as recently as 2008 have gone up for sale again for 75% of their original costs, as sellers try to cope with the fact that they’re dealing with some new competition that they are wholly unaccustomed to. Although some believe that this will help them weather through the storm of cheap Hollywood Hills real estate, they shouldn’t hold their breaths, as smart buyers are jumping at this opportunity.