Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Housing Cituation
Housing in Los Angeles is becoming expensive to the point that you have to live in a house with 5 other people just to be able to pay rent, bills and stay afloat. I have been keeping tabs on the housing market because I don't have a home of my own, yet. Since March of this year I have been "crashing" at a friends house and eventually even though they are doing you a favor by helping you out and you yourself helping were ever you can, eventually you'll over stay your welcome. However before that I started looking around eye balling places,checking out prices and figuring out how the hell I'm going to get a place of my own when people are asking 900 $ for a single room apartment while still asking for the first and last months rents. Things only get more complicated when you add a dog to the equation, a 1oo lb Labrador to be exact. For as long as I remember the housing market in central areas like Watts, Boyle Heights and Compton have always been high. Maybe it's because the landlords know they can ask for more money in those kinda ethnic areas without worries of people calling the city or complaining, but not in Downtown. Back in the day all the lofts that are going for half a million dollars now use to be cheap, dirt cheap and space up the ass. You basically had an entire floor to yourself for 300$ a month, plus utilities. To think that now you can't a no bedroom studio apartment for no less than 700$. Ever since I was riding the buses with my mom and sisters I had a dream of living in downtown in a loft. The idea of living in the central hub for one of the best cities in the entire U.S. To this day that dream is still there but apparently I wasn't alone and now other's are making that dream harder to reach by making everything so expensive and making it trendy. no offense to all the Gavachos out there but when you go to Downtown all you see is La Raza working or taking a bus to work. To think that now the lofts are renting for 1,200 a month and include a roof top pool, gym, Internet room, cable and dsl connections and a whole bunch of other crap like marble table tops and oak hardwood floors all so you can live as if you were in the suburbs. Back in the day all the upcoming artist and musicians lived in those lofts, but as soon as the properties were being bought up and remodeled, they all moved to echo park, the new artist hub. Echo park is the new place to be specially with all the families there which can be seen at the lake on Glendale Ave. Echo park has always been the plan B of dream places to live, but even now more and more celebs are buying up properties for themselves forcing out all the families how had rent controlled housing. Not to mention that all those old houses are finally being fixed or renovated all in the name of higher rent. Finding a place to live is extremely tuff specially when your on a tight budget, but now a days who isn't right ? For me it's even harder because of legal reasons and because i don't make enough money to live own my own. This is why Mexican families always have so many brothers and sisters living together because only by living together can they all afford to live comfortably. It's not that we don't wanna leave and get a place of our own, it's just cheaper and easier to live at home when you know you'll have home cooked meal, clean clothes, and a clean house to come home to.