Real Estate Recovery Hinges on Job Growth: Silicon Beach and the LA Job Market

Last fall, experts from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) released their Emerging Trends in Real Estate report. This report highlighted a number of housing trends we can expect to see playing out over the next few years, based on surveys and interviews with real estate developers, investors, lenders, and builders.

Job growth is one of the trends that has an affect on the housing recovery. Real estate recovery hinges on job growth. Many cities in the Bay Area and in Texas have seen strong housing recoveries based on the strength of their economy. Stephen Blank, ULI senior resident fellow for finance, says that “places with low unemployment can expect better recoveries next year, while places still haunted by economic issues won’t.”

The Los Angeles job market is experiencing lots of growth, thanks in part to “Silicon Beach“. If you thought that the Silicon Valley is the only place amazing technology is born, think again! Here in the Los Angeles area hundreds of new tech start ups call “Silicon Beach” their home. This 3 mile section of beach runs from Venice to Santa Monica and is giving Palo Alto based companies a run for their money.

June 18 through the 21st, tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs will converge on Santa Monica for Silicon Beach Fest.

If Silicon Beach Fest was any indication, the Los Angeles area is poised to be one of the most important cities in the world when it comes to tech and tech career opportunities. Even Google has taken up offices in Los Angeles. On their website’s jobs page they say, “We’re helping the second-largest city in the United States become a veritable tech center.” coastal Santa Monica and Venice deep into downtown L.A., Hollywood, Culver City and as far north as Pasadena. Startup Genome recently ranked the area third among the world’s leading startup ecosystems, behind Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv.

What are some reasons this area is so appealing to start-ups? Many of these new companies focus on the intersection of commerce and celebrity, something we have a lot of around L.A. For example, Kim Kardashian is a co-founder of ShoeDazzle and Mary Kate and Ashley Olson lend their names to BeachMint, two of the earliest ventures to set up shop here.  

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It’s also a nice place to live. James Citron, CEO of Venice-based Mogreet, a mobile entertainment marketing company says, “There’s a creative energy to Venice. A better quality of life. You can go surfing in the morning, code by day … and the weather’s better than Palo Alto.” And in addition to the weather being better, the cost of living in is much more affordable than the Bay area.

Jobs, growth and cutting edge technology. Just a few more reasons we love Los Angeles.

The result of this growth? A seller’s market in the Los Angleles area, with properties spending less time on the market and going for top dollar. In the market for a home in the Los Angeles area? Be sure to check out my Current Listings!