“I focus on 12 zip codes in the mid-city and south regions of Los Angeles.  There are numerous forces impacting our local market that have lead to extremely low inventory levels.  Low prices & interest rates making it attractive for homeowners to buy, large financial institutions buying large volume of inventory for long term rentals (removing inventory from the marketplace for indefinite periods), a slowdown in the amount of foreclosures and abuse of use of short sales as a “live-in-my-house-for-free” strategy by unscrupulous homeowners and real estate agents. Continue reading →