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Homes By Famous Architects Also Victims of Market Slump
Ennis House (Photo by Troy Holden via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
It's not just average homes that aren't selling here in Southern California, but also high-profile homes by some of the world's most prominent architects, according to an AP report published by cbs.com.Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and Rudolph Schindler are all names that appear in pretty much any basic guide to 20th Century American architecture, and they all designed homes, offices, apartments, and other buildings that still stand--and are known by sight--here in Los Angeles. But no one is buying them.
A 1937 Neutra condo unit, a 1949 Lautner home in the Verdugo Hills, Schindler's Silver Lake How House, and two well-known homes by Lloyd Wright (the Ennis House and the Millard House) are all waiting for buyers, and have seen their asking prices dropped, often dramatically, since they were first listed.
Some prices are being slashed by breathtaking margins: The Ennis House, for example, is now on the market for $7.5 million, half of its initial asking price of $15. You've seen the house in dozens of movies, including Blade Runner. The 1924 concrete block home is magnificent, but needs repair. The foundation that currently runs it was hoping they could keep it a public space and raise money for repairs, but in 2008 opted to sell it to a potential private owner.
Similar tales of real estate market woes afflict other architecturally significant landmark homes in Los Angeles, but we aren't the only city with this problem: " High-priced homes by brand-name architects don't seem to be selling any better in other parts of the country."
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