By Jeffery Marino
In Los Angeles, where housing is in critically short supply, there are more questions than answers about how and where to build. But one developer in Highland Park has come up with a solution, creating two homes (one remodeled and one new construction) on a single lot and proving in the process that increased density can be both profitable and livable.
The first picture in the slideshow is the property as it stood in 2019: a two-bed, two-bath bungalow set way back on a 5,200+ square-foot lot. The developer paid $640,000 for it in 2018 and proceeded to renovate the bungalow inside and out, while keeping its good bones.
Then the developer built a new, stylish two-bed, three-bath, two-story contemporary on the front half of the lot. Both homes have dedicated parking and front and back yards.
In September, the bungalow sold for $775,000 and the house sold for $907,000. The sale prices were over the asking prices but each house went for well under the $1.125 million median sale price for a home in NELA in September. Sounds like a win-win to me.
