New Market Touchstones (Part 2)

Conservatism is the chief characteristic of the new market, and condition isn't the only consideration (see Part 1). Neighborhoods (or more broadly, 'locations') are increasingly vetted too.

Certainly location has always been amongst the chief considerations, but when transaction volume was at its fever pitch, more aspiring home buyers were willing to invest in transition adjacent areas and destinations with less marketplace notoriety. Buyers could see and sense the turnover, the onset of demographic diversity, and the improvement rush fueled by equity line wildcatters. It was easier to project change of an appealing and immediate sort.

Those changes may be ongoing, but a greater number of buyers now are looking for security in numbers, clusters. Dividing lines have become Maginot Lines, with consumers foregoing traditional lures like square footage to stay South of, or East of, or next to.

Intra neighborhood differences are even emerging--or intensifying, with some blocks or tracts gaining additional prestige.

The most fluid market continues to be downtown. For the first time in many decades a value--fueled by cultural offerings and mushrooming amenities--has become attached to being downtown adjacent, an endowment likely to enhance the real estate fortunes of places like Angelino Heights (see images), Elysian Heights, the University Park madhouse, and Adams-Normandie.

Downtown which may have siphoned buyers from other core neighborhoods, promises soon to repay, as first generation lofters, looking for a lifestyle change or a more conventional family model, matriculate to the neighborhoods of Central City West and East.