They says one man's misfortune is another man's gain, and this might hold true per a new Department of Recreation and Parks initiative. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a plan last week to inject more green into L.A.'s urban 'hoods by building 50 new "pocket parks" throughout L.A. by March 2012. Of the 50 parks, 10 will spruce up the sites of foreclosed homes. more ›

If you are a renter, and looking to move in the coming months, some encouraging news: Rents between now and the end of next year are expected to decline by an estimate 3.2 percent, according to the 2011 USC Casden Multifamily Forecast, a report released today by the school's Lusk Center. more ›

Details of new audit today released by City Controller Wendy Greuel show that the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) "does a very good job helping to build housing," but "they’re not good at collecting money," according to a release issued by the City Controller's office. Greuel's audit, part of an ongoing series of audits aimed at ensuring the city's funds are properly administered, looked at how more than $43 million in Special Revenue Funds are managed at the LAHD. more ›

The news isn't so surprising for a state that saw a housing boom like no other, only to see it crumble with the recession. And with the national foreclosure rate up 25% since August 2009, some are saying the worst has yet to come, according to ABC News, which today released a list of the top 10 foreclosure cities. more ›

Despite following in the footsteps of Los Angeles and other cities by boycotting doing business with Arizona, Santa Monica officials tonight will be faced with possibly breaking their own rules. An Arizona company's bid to replace 20 "manufactured homes" at the city-owned Mountain View Mobile Home Park, which is part of Santa Monica's affordable housing program, is the best deal according to a staff report. more ›

Having a smoke on an apartment or condo patio or balcony in Santa Monica will soon be verboten under city law. The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday voted to ban people from smoking "within 25-feet of a door or window in any multi-unit residential building," according to the Santa Monica Daily Press. more ›

In addition to voting on a sales tax increase that would raise it to 10.25%, Santa Monica voters will be asked on the November ballot about tenant rights. Approved Thursday by the city council, the measure would extend some rights... more ›

It looks like the developers behind a major housing and retail project next to the Sherman Oaks Galleria are gearing up to take their case to the public. On a newly launched Facebook fan page, proponents ask viewers to imagine something -- anything! -- in place of a large dirt field currently found between the corner of Sepulveda and Camarillo and the 405/101 freeway interchange. more ›

Hector Becerra at the LA Times this weekend shared the home and musings of Bamboo Charlie, a homeless man who has built a home away from homelessness amid four freeways along the L.A. River and train tracks in Boyle Heights. more ›

While Santa Monica has some strong rent-control laws, the city said it has fallen behind in protecting renters of regular apartments and other types of units. Last week, the council voted on some restrictions for landlords and may place some measures on the November ballot to let voters decide on some issues, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press. more ›

Want to rent this place? Then you'll have to declaw your cat and devocalize your dog. That's what some Californians face when looking for rentals and it's something Assemblyman Pedro Nava wants to put a stop to. His bill, AB 2743, seeks to prohibit landlords and property managers from requiring cat declawing and dog debarking procedures as a condition of rent. However, the bill only applies to rentals that allow pets in the first place -- if a place has a no pets policy, then the subject is null. more ›

Today the Los Angeles City Council could place a one-year moratorium on annual rent increases to the city's stock of 630,000 rent-controlled apartments [Update: the motion under consideration today would only do it for four-months]. Based on a study by the city's housing department last year, landlords have been raising rents even when the Consumer Price Index was considerably low. more ›

Located at 3200-3300 E. Olympic Blvd. in Boyle Heights, The Estrada Courts is a low-income housing project known for its colorful murals depicting the Chicano experience. The housing was built in the early 1940s in response to the housing crisis in Southern California that took place due to the boom in World War II-era industry work, "followed by the return of servicemen to the region and the Bracero program," according to Wikipedia. more ›

Think it's more expensive to rent a place to live in New York than here in Los Angeles? Think again--at least according to national rankings released this week by the Center for Housing Policy. more ›

It looks like Nadya Suleman--aka "Octomom"--is very behind on her mortgage payments, according to TMZ and various other sources. If so, that means it's another adventure in moving for her and her 14 children because of a $450,000 lapse in a balloon payment due on the house bought just a year ago in La Habra for $565,000. more ›

That's according to this map posted to Chicagoist via The Real Deal. California may have "recorded its fourth consecutive month of year-to-year increases after more two years of declines," according to the Associated Press, but full recovery in L.A. County might not be seen until sometime between 2020 and 2029, says data collected for the above map from Moody's, Firstserve and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. more ›

Despite various studies about how unhealthy it is to live directly next to a freeway, L.A. officials keep approving dense residential buildings that way. Now LA Weekly is blowing the whistle: "Today, in fact, the Department of City Planning chief Gail Goldberg and the Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa concede to L.A. Weekly that nobody in City Hall is tracking, or can even estimate, the number of children who have moved into housing erected within 500 feet of freeways since scientists documented the chilling health effects. Los Angeles lawmakers are making no effort to measure the human health costs of such housing. And with the shattered L.A. housing market now showing the first few signs of recovery, City Hall is set, once again, to embrace freeway-adjacent housing that's marketed to families." more ›

Tenants who enjoy puffing away in Santa Monica may soon have to butt out if Santa Monicans for Non-Smoking Renters Rights has their way. Local self-proclaimed "tree hugger" Jerry Rubin is leading the call to put in place "what would arguably be the country's tightest restrictions on smoking -- a ban on the practice in apartments, condos, duplexes and any 'multi-family units' in the city," according to the LA Weekly. Rubin and the renters' rights group believe that tenants shouldn't suffer the effects of "third-hand smoke" and are endorsing the kind of ban first proposed in SaMo by Santa Monica Rent Control Board member Robert Kronovet; they don't govern such legalities, however, and it remains to be seen how far Rubin and the Non-Smoking Renters will get with the city council, who do. more ›

A two-year study between the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and USC's Center for Community Health Studies and Housing found that housing the homeless is about $80,000 cheaper than leaving them on the streets. The survey found that taxpayers spent $187,288 a year those living on the streets because of their use of hospitals, jails and clinics. Putting people in permanent housing costs $107,032. more ›

Dwell on Design officially started today with design, architecture and other industry folks visiting the convention center today. Come tomorrow and Sunday the public will be attending the large event full of booths, speaking events (read LAist's picks here) and a great mobile food event tomorrow evening at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. more ›

Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton were apparently spotted touring a "privately-sited $8 million 4-bed, 4.5-bath compound with a detached guest house, 4-car garage and beautiful ocean view." That particular home has already been sold, but there are plenty of other high class homes fit for a Prince in town. Before her death, his mother Princess Diana reportedly paid a deposit on a home in Paradise Cove. more ›

After some of them spent two nights in a Red Cross shelter, the 18 residents of an earthquake damaged apartment building in Long Beach will return home today. more ›

If you live in an apartment and you don't appreciate your neighbors' cigarette smoke drifting in from common areas into your area, is there anything you can do besides close your window? Or move? In Long Beach, landlords and tenants interested in finding out their options plan to meet this afternoon for the "Smoke Free Apartments Community Forum" hosted by the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, explains the Press-Telegram. more ›

The folks over at Forbes are taking their cues these days from the late rap icon Tupac Shakur as they explain why they selected Los Angeles as their top pick of America's Most Overpriced Cities. But it's not the cost of pimping your gas-guzzling ride, decking yourself out in bling for a red carpet event, or bathing in champagne that makes life here so expensive. It's actually, well, just plain ol' life here that's overpriced, with our "bloated housing prices, lofty living costs and unemployment rates among the highest in the nation." more ›

With the market so down, some are jumping into the ownership game. Via wire reports printed in the Daily Breeze: "A total of 4,590 homes sold in February, up from 3,468 for February 2008, while the median price of a home in Los Angeles County last month was $299,000, down from $460,000 in the same month a year ago, according to La Jolla-based MDA DataQuick. In Orange County, the median home price was $375,000, down 27.9 percent from the February 2008 median of $520,000, according to DataQuick. A total of 1,879 homes were sold in the county last month, up 27.7 percent from the 1,471 home sales in February 2008." more ›

Hollywood's Cherokee Studios is poised to re-emerge as an innovative LEED-certified work/live space this year. The site itself is steeped in local music history; recording artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to David Bowie laid down tracks inside the walls, and before that it was home to movie's Republic Studios. After over 30 years of proprietorship, the Robb brothers closed the doors to the legendary studios in 2007, but now the REthink Development team is finalizing work on the space, which will now be called the Cherokee Lofts and will hopefully be legendary in its own time. more ›

Last week Wednesday, the city demolished a single family home in the Northeast neighborhood of Glassell Park. 3304 Drew Street, known as the "Satellite House," was the center of gang activity and drug trade in the neighborhood for the Avenues gang. more ›

Of the 79 units being auctioned off last night at the Rowan Lofts in Downtown Los Angeles, 63 of those found new potential owners, finds Curbed LA who was there: "The most expensive unit sold today was a penthouse that was originally priced at $785,000--it sold for $534,000. The minimum bid on that unit was $490,000. The three least expensive units sold for $207,000--two were originally priced at $335,000 and one at $317,900, respectively, and had minimum bids of $195,000." The 63 number could change as some people may drop out of the process. more ›

Talk about disturbing: "Broadcrest Foothill Apartment Homes claims Alicia Ortiz broke her lease on an Upland apartment when she and her 17-year-old son were killed by her sister's disgruntled ex-husband. The landlord informed her former husband, Carlos Ortiz, that she gave 'insufficient notice to vacate.' The company says it is owed $2,821 in rent and penalties," reports the Associated Press today. And it's not just some oversight or a situation where they didn't know what happened, finds the Daily News. Worst of all, the property manager and the company won't even comment. more ›

Fire officials have no idea what caused the front of a Harvard Heights apartment building to collapse last night shortly before 11 p.m., but it is believed that the building's age and construction may have been a contributing factor. Twenty to thirty people were inside, but only one woman was injured with non-life threatening wounds. Another 20-year-old man was trapped in the rubble, but after being rescued by firefighters, he refused to go the hospital. The four affected units and the other eight were evacuated until the structure would be cleared. more ›