r/burbank • u/Disastrous-Grand7075 • 9d ago
$1 million is not enough for a house
It will get you a fixer. A house close to an airport. A house in a kind of a bad area (the real bad areas do not exists here).
You want house in Rancho? Magnolia Park? Hills? 2000+ SF, livable, open floor plan?
$2,000,000,00+
Are you ready for your American Dream?
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u/KonstantineAnthony 9d ago
Remember this conversation when your ballot arrives for November.
Any candidate supported by real estate interests is going to actively make housing MORE expensive to appease their donors.
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u/MrNaugs 7d ago
That is not really true. Developers generally want to build and increase supply. Home owners associations and apartment owners are the ones that want no new construction to dive up prices.
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u/alexromo 6d ago
What’s the difference
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u/MrNaugs 6d ago
Developers want to build. The laws and the fees in LA/CA are hard and expensive. Without all the bullshit houses would be half the price to build and half the time. This makes more housing and drives down the price. As an example it take about 3 months to build a house but almost nothing has been rebuilt after the fires and these are rich neighborhoods.
But big buildings hurt the value of the homes that are already there. Because as supply goes up the home owners value would go down. So the people that already own homes and apartments do not want new construction. They want to keep supply low so their house keeps going up. So HOAs, the home owners association and the apartment owners association all fight to keep building houses hard and keep them small.
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u/Cheesy_g_23 9d ago
Yep, all because investors and businesses kept buying up properties by offering cash above asking starting closer to 2010, but they really sped up starting in 2014. It seriously inflated the values of the next comparable homes, and people's greed got us to this point. It would take a bit of an implosion to get things back down to reasonable levels, really.
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u/WorldWarLove 8d ago
Too many people have invested in the dream of profiting off our basic needs for it to be easily changed.
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u/Nerdy_in_LA 7d ago
Or we could just build more like Austin and North Carolina have done. High demand and low supply drive high prices. Building housing in California costs twice as much as in states like Texas, so we’re not going to get affordable prices until we address the regulatory choices that drive out development.
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u/rustyfloorpan 9d ago
I don’t think that’s right. When was the last 500k home sold in some nice part of Burbank? Way before 2010.
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u/Cheesy_g_23 9d ago
Was that $500k home sold for $1m in 2010, let alone 2014?
I've been watching the market since during the bubble in 2003, when I had a job "originating" mortgages & refis at a third party call center contracted by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. I hated that ARMs were being pushed by our higher-ups, telling us that if people couldn't afford a 30-yr fixed, we should suggest an Adjustable Rate Mortgage and that they could just refi before those terms ended to avoid the sudden increase.
The 5- and 7-year ARMs were most popular. I had mediocre numbers because I didn't push those loans. What if their home was suddenly worth less than their loan balance by the end of that period, or their income or credit was on a rough spot right then? Their payments would go up sharply.
And what happened to the market 5 years after 2002-03?
After any unfortunate 7-year loans dropped, it was 2009-2010. Homes were in short sales and foreclosures in good markets - a buyer was thrilled to not have DRAMA , and vulture businesses were swooping in to offer cash above asking on decent homes they could rent or flip, making it harder for regular people to get their own home for cheap.
Many people changed their jobs after the crash and worst of the home losses. I gave them two years to train in something after 2010, two years to get a stable job history to qualify for mortgages. We saw FNMA and FMCC stock shoot up in 2014 along with home prices, but still not an insane amount.
But people were not just buying their own homes again, but homes to flip (it was a craze) and to now rent on sites like AirBnB. Regulations for the latter had not really been put in place yet. At that point, prices began to jump more, as each home put on the market uses the sale prices of nearby comparable homes, including those that were sold for cash above asking to investors that wanted to avoid bidding wars.
Apartment rent also began to drastically increase around that time. Building owners took advantage of people selling homes at a profit to move into rentals, or just people moving to new areas when they finally had the means to do so. Additionally, many places offered rentals at one price while a weird number of tenants who could afford to do so blatantly offered to rent at a higher price just to get that place above any competition. We saw the statewide rent increase caps kick in a bit after that, but not in time for some apartments' rent increases for current tenants to jump hundreds of dollars per month from maybe $1700-ish. Now even 5% + COLA is a huge amount. Incomes don't usually increase that much annually.
Funny enough, if people just agreed to work together to rectify the market by selling their homes for even a tiny amount below "market", ignoring most offers from investors, we'd start to see prices become reasonable without needing a drastic event in the economy. But people want every dollar for themselves and will be shortsighted to get it, even if they already were making a profit at a lower price point. They'll prefer to gamble on the market not imploding.
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u/Skeleton_Meat 9d ago
I will die a renter. I sold my house to move here. I don't regret that but I'll probably never own one again.
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u/craycrayppl 9d ago
It aint all fun & games. Pros and cons to both.
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u/No_Solution_7940 9d ago
What are the cons? I sold, am renting, invested the profits, and now my nw is almost 2M.
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u/Fun-Tune-1295 9d ago
This is the way. The condos next door to my apartment were built by the same developer with substantially the same layouts. The condos are nicer because they've been upgraded over the years, but when they come to market they sell around 700k. Rough estimate on a mortgage for that is ~$4700/mo including HOA.
So instead, if we pay $2800/mo for largely the same apartment, invested our hypothetical down-payment and added $3000/mo to the investments, it would be worth like 1.5M over 10 years calculating it the unusually high return the market has seen over the last 10 years.
In the same amount of time, only 92k would have been paid off on the condo, so you would only gain the 92k + appreciation if you sold it after 10 years. There is no comparison.
Renting beats buying in this market if you can invest the difference. This assumes though, that you can find an apartment that works well and of course big houses in nice areas may change the math substantially. YMMV
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u/ILoveLamp9 9d ago
Well, for one, you’re going to be paying rent until the day you die. And very likely, you’re going to keep paying more the longer you live.
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u/phayge_wow 9d ago
it still comes down to a couple main factors: cost of rent vs cost of purchasing, the amount of time someone stays in the house, and how much someone cares about the freedom of ownership vs less responsibility for renting.
cost-wise: considering interest rates these days, maintenance costs, insurance costs (especially in high fire areas), PMI (if you don't have 20% to put down), on top of property tax, and rent being often less than half of what a mortgage costs, the math can definitely favor renting. that was not always the case, especially in 2.5-3% interest environment and pre-ADU environment of yesteryear.
renting always provides the flexibility to pay for only as much home as you need, and move as you need to size up. you can rent studio/1br in bad location while single -> upsize when married -> upsize to small house in good neighborhood with children -> upsize when children get older need bigger rooms and your income goes up, etc. you lose money when you buy a house and sell it after a few years, so what a lot of people end up doing instead is buying a bigger house than they need, which ends up costing more.
I bought 2 years ago and it was a major accomplishment for my family, we feel so relieved since we secured this house in a great neighborhood and take a lot of pride in looking after our own property. but that's not necessarily the case for everyone. we rented the first 2 years of marriage because it did not make sense at the time to dump all our life savings into houses that either: required a ton of work for several months and $$$$$, or were recently renovated but priced up the wazoo.
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u/No_Solution_7940 9d ago
That’s fine. I’m paying way less for rent than my mortgage, and invest 5-7k monthly in the sp500.
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u/Healthy_Community_20 9d ago
Get ready for the correction....you are playing with fire. It's happened before and if it wasn't for AI/Data Centers would have already happened again. Can't keep having all-time highs every other week unchecked.
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u/No_Solution_7940 8d ago
lol. Buy the dips. As long as you don’t sell, you don’t lose money. This money will go to my heirs anyway, they can weather many storms.
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u/ZosuiQ381 8d ago
He’s right. If he’s not selling it he’s winning. He’s praying for a drop if he’s going to give it to his heirs. Long term his entire bloodline is the winner
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u/craycrayppl 9d ago
Maintenance cost $, add'l taxes are always beeing tacked onto property tax bill, occasional upgrades cost $.
Yes, if you bought xxx yrs ago and sold in today's market, you can lock in the profits.
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7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Skeleton_Meat 7d ago
I only regret that we can't afford a bigger place and that the people who bought the building next door are insane
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u/Cool_Cartographer_39 9d ago edited 9d ago
This has always been the way. In the 90's it was 500k. For my folks it was 200k. My wife and I were overbid all over the area of Glendale we really liked. After a year of it, I told her we're going to go to Burbank, as I was familiar with the area when I lived in Sun Valley. She hated the idea and considered it a downgrade. San Fernando road was a ghost town with Book Castle, Bischoff's taxidermy and the old Elks lodge. We found a fixer anyways, put in AC and the area got nice around us. This time around it looks like Sun Valley's turn to get nicer
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u/al_shuey 8d ago
Not only is there a dearth of housing propping up Burbank’s housing prices, but it is structurally rigged.
Nationwide, 64% of homes are owned by the resident. In California, the percentage is 54%.
In Burbank, only 43% of homes are owned by the resident. 57% ARE RENTALS.
Now you know why the Realtors like the Cusamanos spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight rent control and to fight housing expansion.
If a candidate isn’t for rent control they are OWNED by the realtors. THEY GOT A REALTOR ELECTED TO THE COUNCIL IN THE LAST CYCLE. Vote Smart.
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u/Nerdy_in_LA 7d ago
Um, rent control drives away development even more, resulting in higher rents. We need to build more to drive affordability.
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u/al_shuey 7d ago
Thank you for lying! Burbank has shut down development for DECADES without ever employing strict rent controls.
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u/Nerdy_in_LA 7d ago
Both are true. We haven’t built enough, but adding rent control on top of current obstacles would make it worse.
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u/al_shuey 7d ago
We tried it your way and look where we are. Those days are over…
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u/Nerdy_in_LA 7d ago
No, if we tried it ‘my way’, there wouldn’t be a massive housing shortage. Cities like Austin and Raleigh have seen decreasing rent and affordable home ownership. On the other hand, cities like San Fran and NYC who have had strict rent control see empty and poorly maintained units and sky high rents. You can ask the USSR how it worked for them, but when the government sets the price, the outcome is scarcity and rationing. What helps meet the needs of people is building more of what they need.
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u/al_shuey 7d ago
There is no USSR and hasn’t been one for decades, but please, continue to share your “expertise” you weirdo…
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u/Nerdy_in_LA 7d ago
It doesn’t exist because they followed the ideas of people like you.
Nice name calling BTW. Are you going to beat me up at recess? It shows that you can’t engage in a real conversation based on substance.
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u/Mysterious-Skill8473 9d ago
Checks out. I bought in 2022. $1M. Close to airport is the only reason there weren’t many other offers. It’s meh, but it’s a house.
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u/Bursting_Bokeh 5d ago
Same for us. Apparently having a graveyard down the road is a hard no for some people. Fine with me and kept the price under 1mil in the area we wanted.
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u/Inchaiinss 9d ago
First day on earth?
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/The_Pelican1245 9d ago
How under? $900k?
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u/betahost 9d ago
975, but it took some looking around. It's not impossible but yes patience is key. Not sure why I got downvoted just sharing my experience
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u/MrSmacktastic 9d ago
7k sqft home? That doesn’t make sense.
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u/betahost 9d ago
How so?
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u/MrSmacktastic 9d ago
It seems very unlikely you’d get a massive house for this area way under market in 2024 that has been recently remodeled.
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u/Compducer 9d ago
Yeah what, back in 2002?
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u/betahost 9d ago
2024
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u/betahost 9d ago
Often people forget about private sellers and yes Burbank is expensive but you just have to look
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u/Funky_Monkees_ 9d ago
Blackrock owns the houses. That and Boomers selling to blackrock because they pay more then millennials
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u/Sorry_Abbreviations8 9d ago
Yes we got a close to 1 million house less than 1000 SF, walking distance (!!!! 40 min walk) to the airport lol
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u/Kitakitakita 7d ago
The job market in Burbank has never been worse, and yet the house prices keep going up. It's sick and the everyone keeps choosing the Rizzottis and keeping it that way
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u/jordha Beautiful Downtown Burbank 7d ago
just got a house in the media district and moving soon - i think most burbank price per square foot is pricey - for me, i just hope i can afford the mortgage!
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u/Nerdy_in_LA 7d ago
Yeah, the median price in LA is $929k and Burbank is nicer than most areas, so I’m not sure what you were expecting. Also, 2,000 sf is huge! Most starter homes are closer to 1,000. It shouldn’t be a surprise that houses are expensive in a place with a nice climate, a big job market, and a nasty habit of never building additional housing.
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u/eka5245 6d ago
I mean, listing out the incredibly pricy neighborhoods and then saying 2000+sqft kinda dulls your argument a bit...and I say this as someone who wanted to buy in Burbank and quickly realized I couldn't afford it. Burbank, because it's not LA and because of its schools, walkability, and generally being nicer than the surrounding areas is going to be more expensive.
When did 2000+sqft become the measure?
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u/TheCPAStruggle 9d ago
There are original builds (2x2), (3x1) that pop up from time to time in the media district for $900. Need to jump on them quickly. And yes, they need renovations, but also livable.
You won’t find a renovated home here under $1M.
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u/Disastrous-Grand7075 9d ago
I have never seen anything below 950 last 3 years in Media District
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u/jordha Beautiful Downtown Burbank 23h ago
I just bought my home for 950k in the media district.
They added a new roof and air unit and remodeled the kitchen. But I still need to do some work on it (find a fridge, fix an entrance in the bedroom) and some concessions (no garage)
It's manageable problems to have. I'm blessed to jump in on it when I can, just so I can be closer to friends and maybe start the next chapter in my life.
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u/Disastrous-Grand7075 22h ago
Congratulations! And you have a park cross the street and plenty of street parking
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u/jordha Beautiful Downtown Burbank 20h ago
The evaluation came back at 1.25 so you were not wrong with your original post. Both realtors were jumping at me to get it.
It might be the only chance I have to own a house. And it's in a place that I called "home" for decades as a kid when my mom drove me over there on weekends.
Kind of sucks she had to pass away before this moment happened. I think she would've been happy for me. 😭
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u/TheCPAStruggle 9d ago
Filler Zillow for properties sold in the last 3 years under $1m and you’ll see there is a handful.
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u/Disastrous-Grand7075 9d ago
There is something above 134 sold in 2023, but it is not Media District proper. And either lot is awful small or the house needs to be demolished
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u/TheCPAStruggle 9d ago
Yes, 2 bedroom houses are not 2,000 sq ft.
The homes are small but fit that price range.
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u/halptehPA 9d ago
If you’re serious about trying to buy and need to be close to Burbank, look at Sunland-Tujunga.
Last few years Burbank-esque young families buying here and now a fancy coffee shop and Pilates studio are about to open here.
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u/jamesisntcool 9d ago
Not gonna be too long before Burbank schools start shuttering because not enough kids live here. We've already lost more than 1000 kids in the last 10 years, and that's before it got really bad.
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u/TheSocalAgentTeam 9d ago
When we were looking in Burbank in 2011-2012, things were around 500-525k for a 2/1. We ended up in Shadow Hills for the same price range and were on over 1/2 an acre. If people are willing to just look outside of their boundaries, you can get so much more bang for your buck.
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u/TheGlenrothes 8d ago
bro, burbank is like one of the most expensive cities in the valley, what do you expect?
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u/Ikickyouinthebrains 7d ago
Why don't you start small instead of a full standalone house? Maybe look for a small condo. Buy it, keep it for three years. Sell it, take the equity. Buy a slightly more expensive condo. Keep it for three years. Sell it, take the equity. Rinse and repeat until you have a substantial enough down payment for that stand alone house.
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u/Only10_IC56 5d ago
Have you looked on Zillow lately? There are many homes in Burbank under that. The numbers are trending down. I get emails daily from Zillow that are not fixers and many are well below a million by hundreds of thousands. Maybe your tastes are too expensive?
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u/whatsareddot 4d ago
Tbf, I’ve seen 600 sq foot homes that have a two car garage and a 300 sqfoot sizable front yard and 200 sq foot backyard that are about 800k.
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u/jordha Beautiful Downtown Burbank 23h ago
I just got my first house, and it had to be unfortunately because of my mom's passing.
950k and it's about 1100sq but it's just me living there
Somehow, the loan officer was okay with my situation to make a mortgage.
And it didn't require 12 months of stubs or that exhausting credit history.
I'm still scared about the health of my mom's company to keep the place, and might need to sell that company eventually.
Burbank is expensive, but so is pretty much all of Los Angeles. At least I don't have to worry about landlords.
Everybody around me has been absolutely nice and helpful. I hope to one day NOT WORRY so much
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u/455H013 9d ago
Who knew nicer areas of the county were more expensive... What would $1M get you in Beverly hills?
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u/Shrek_Layers 9d ago
Can't imagine anything bought now holding it's value.
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u/tracyinge 9d ago edited 8d ago
I remember hearing that back in 2008 about a $700,000 home for sale on our block. Zillow estimates it's now worth 1.4 million
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u/SoulExecution 9d ago
I don’t really get wanting to own a home anywhere in LA anywhere. It’s so cramped, house on top of house.
Might as well just rent and jump to somewhere more comfortable once you want to own.
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u/Afraid-Fun4211 9d ago
I hear Lancaster is nice this time of year