Small Is the New Black: Eagle Rock's Rock Row
Thursday, June 5, 2008, by Dakota
Well, hello Rock Row. Referenced today by the Los Angeles Times,
this is a project brought to you by the Small Lot Subdivision
Ordinance. Start saving up, students. Via the development's web site:
"Fifteen fee-simple townhomes...Priced from $495,000 to $595,000,
Angelenos can now afford sustainable, sizable homes of superior
quality. Located in the historic Eagle Rock neighborhood [Yosemite Dr]
these brand new homes are 40% larger than the typical bungalow home for
competitive prices..." There are five sample floor plans; three are
pictured in the gallery. According to the Times, developers will break ground soon on the project.
· Rock Row [Heyday]
B.Y.O.B
I'll be able to afford one, when it shrinks to the size of my hand-me-down laptop. It is black alright...
Pete McFerrin
I'm sure the locals hate them, but these dwellings are exactly the sort the city needs.
@Pete McFerrin: Not at that price. $500K is laughable. And Eagle Rock is the pits.
#3^... Yeah, and $5.00 gas prices are laughable. Welcome to the real world Mr. Ostritch.
Wake me when they have a $100,000 off sale.
#4 - not sure what increasing gas prices has to do with falling real estate prices.
All through the housing bubble gas stayed in the $2.50 range while houses doubled, tripled and even quadrupled in price in some neighborhoods.
Tomorrow's buyers bought yesterday. Now the high gas prices are just going to result in them becoming foreclosures sooner.
camacho
@#3: My dad can beat up your dad. My LA hood is better than your LA hood. LA is better than SF. The West Coast is better than the East Coast. The US is better than Canada. North America is better than Europe. Earth is better than Mars. The Milky Way is better than Andromeda.
Now that that's settled, allow me to say that Eagle Rock rules, you little weasel. There, I fed the troll.
timquinn
I am not sure these are intended for drunk poets, #1. Maybe you could find a storage space with a dim-witted security guard and live there. Your art needs to come first, right? (urp)
Still $500K is way too high for 'affordable' homes. Is it greed or does it really reflect the cost?
STARCHY®
@camacho: Eagle Rock sucks bigtime.
semprini
I live right down the street and I would love to see these get built. Hell, if they knock about 100k off the price I'll buy one right now. FWIW Pete, people in this part of ER aren't real uptight, there's already a hodge podge of crappy apartment buildings from the dark R3 years in northeast--I think most would see this as a real step forward.
camacho
@STARCHY: sounds like a personal issue.
a similar building in venice is asking nearly triple the price. i bet they'll sell in a heart beat!
Eagle Eyesore Rock, that will be thy name. Corridors of cold concrete cubes and being neu-Pasadena/neo-Glendale Jr. is the last thing this town needs.
STARCHY
STARCHY®
@camacho: Personal issue? I don't have a yeast infection.
STARCHY
I like Eagle Rock. a lot. Be intersting to see what happens with these. Not crazy about the design. Looks very similiar to those units across from Silverlake Library. Views off your neighbor across driveway- everybody has their blinds shut..
now- who is STARCHY@ and why does Curbed (continue to) let this happen?
Richmont Development
It is a shame that so much ground floor space is dedicated to car parking. There isn't much that the developer can do about that, sadly.
The "modern" aesthetic kind of stinks too - the window placement turns the dining area into kind of cave or passageway to the kitchen and bedrooms. All the activiity takes place in a little mini-fortress 2nd floor.
I live in a condo that treats space in a similar way, and it breeds fear of your neighbors and a non-existant social network. Kids playing in the "driveway" are seen as a nuisance rather than a normal part of community life.
If it were me, I'd have shot for a fake craftsman look or a phony brownstone style. Planning requirements probably make those aesthetic approaches impossible.The parking really kills it though.
oc_f1fan
LOL, there's more than 1 Starchy username now!
alex the sea turtle
Starchy - I am talking Mr. Middle Finger, why don't you just post your thoughts with out addressing or worrying about the other Starchys. It will be fine, those of us who read this blog will be more interested in your points of view as the develop over time and we will be able to have the consistent knowledge of knowing they came from one person.
Hey - offtopic a little. What is the story with that giant hillside being held up with pillars on Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock? It looks like they started building a retaining wall and... stopped? Links?
Richmont Development
The "affordable" part of this is the liklehood of someone coming in with 10% of the purchase price, taking a 30-year loan at a low interest rate having to pay a little over $2,000 to $2,300 per month to own the place (that is including property taxes).
$2,000 per month for a two-car garage, two bedroom, two bath, kitchen and dining room, and (small) balconies is an okay price to pay.
Plus, since these are fee-simple, there are no crazy HOA dues. Two working proffessionals can put together that much money every month to buy a house, as long as one of them stops driving a car (in this economy).
So, the "affordable" thing is sort of true.
#19, I live right near there (Eagle Rock's great, btw) and I asked around when the construction seemed to stop a few months ago. Apparently one of the rainstorms back in Feb-March caused a small mud/landslide in the area of the retaining pillars, and so they have to get inspectors back out there. I heard that about a month, 6 weeks ago and they're still stopped.
B.Y.O.B
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/06/small_is_the_ne_1.php?o=5
Check out the right hand bedroom windows from the closet. What shall we call it, "closet case view?"
20: So what happens when you neighbor decides to sells his house and the new owners decide to tear it down and build a new house? Doesn't this sort of ruin the look of your new small lot community? I can't tell from the drawings, but perhaps there are contiguous walls? The homes themselves look very nice. I would be interested if they weren't in ER (just distance involved, I am not saying anything bad about ER). I would prefer an HOA- I don't want my neighbor to paint his/her house or change the exterior. if I am part of a small lot "community".
DT
ALL TOGETHER NOW SCRATCHY ASS SUCKS!!!!!
@guest (#23): Almost all small lot subdivisions have CC&Rs that run with the properties that restrict, to a greater or lesser extent, what people can do with them. The subdivisions themselves usually have maintenance associations that take care of common areas and making sure people don't do crazy things with their buildings, but they are somewhat weaker and a lot less expensive than condo HOAs.
#23,
they probably have some sort of cc&r's like condos, and possibly a
(smaller) home-owner's association fee. But actually I'm all for people
changing their houses individually - makes it more of a neighborhood
and less of a project.
Re. affordability: Notice the ground floor bedrooms have separate
entrances: you could live upstairs, rent the downstairs bedroom and
hardly know someone's there.
ubray where are you getting those numbers? I'm in the market for a house in this price range and I know EXACTLY what the most common programs look like
$495,000 *.9 = $445,500 financed at 6.775% (30yr fixed BOA) = $2,890 plus PMI of 1% = $3050 (Let's say because I'm too lazy to go look up the data) plus property taxes of 1.25% = $3550 plus $50 HOA = $3600 fully amortizing, plus $100/month for insurance = $3700 all in.
$3700 as a front-end ratio (40%) for FHA means $9,250 per month or $111,000 per year income (with no more than $925 going to other debt service, easy). This is very aggressive underwriting, BTW and a "regular" mortgage would require income closer to $12,333 per month or $148,000 per year.
This is all not covering insurance and not considering Interest Only, which would be retarded in the current interest rate environment except possibly the 35-year CalHFA thing (which has the more conservative DTI ratios given above).
I'll even give you the tax savings of say 20% of the interest, which makes the effective payment $2650 (but you still have to qualify on the real payment and that is assuming you have another $10k or so in deductions per year). In my case I don't even get that much since I'm partially self-employed and I'm able to deduct a lot of regular costs making my effective tax rate closer to 10%.
Nowhere near the numbers you quote.
just to add: if I could really buy those for $2200 per month (real cost, not post-tax) with a $40,000 down payment I would sign up tomorrow.
That's not even close to possible.
@alex the sea turtle: He is the fake Starchy! He's opinions are muddy.
They are nice looking, design-ish, and the price is good.
And there are plenty of working professionals who are making good
money who CANNOT afford 800k houses, but who CAN afford 500k houses.
However, they weren't willing to spend 500k on a crappy shack in a bad
neighborhood. These are decent houses, in a decent neighborhood, at a
decent price. Sure, would be great if they are 400k (and maybe they
will), but they are in the range of many upscale working professionals
(with savings) who have NOT been able to buy anything else like this
for a good 5 or 6 years in L.A.
For that 500k you can have an ugly tiny 1-bedroom 60s condo conversion (no pool) in Brentwood - no thanks, so this is breath of fresh air. As are the Maltman Bungalows. It's nice that things like this are happening.
@alex the sea turtle: that isn't starchy, dude.
THE REAL STARCHY
Eagle Rock is great, if you stay at home a lot and don't need to be anywhere soon. There's not much to do and the freeway access sucks.
The 110 should be diverted through Eagle Rock up to the Ventura Freeway, since Pasadena is full of crybabies and will never approve the 110 extension through their city. Route the freeway through Eagle Rock and it'll reduce surface road congestion in Eagle Rock and clear up the streets some.
STARCHY
Can we reserve the Eagle Rock sucks comments to people who actually live in or near Eagle Rock and, therefore, know what they're talking about? Eagle Rock is a great area. Great restaurants. Great freeway access. And as an added plus, dumb-asses like STARCHY think it sucks and stay away.
THE REAL STARCHY
As I said, Eagle Rock is great, there just isn't much to do and it's hard to get anywhere compared with most of LA.
My biggest problem with this development, I think, is its name. 'Rock Row' sounds like a prison compound. Bad move.
STARCHY
Eagle Rock is great! I like that it's not easy to access via freeway, keeps it less congested. It's still too expensive for me, unfortunately, because I barely make six figures.
camacho
Nothing to do? Hard to get anywhere? Not sure what neighborhood you're talking about here, STARCHY.
Last I checked, ER has a lot of fine restaurants and bars, a bowling alley, some coffee shops... not to mention excellent freeway access (dude, it's right in between the 134 and the 110 and close to the 2 and the 101), plus central proximity to Silverlake, Downtown, Hollywood, Pasadena, Burbank, etc, etc.
THE REAL STARCHY
I've noticed that people talk big and say theres so many restaurants in ER, that its so rich with culture, nightlife and entertainment. Yet no one names any names.
Why? Because more and better options could be named for so many other neighborhoods in LA.
STARCHY
camacho
Off the top of my head, I can think of about 10-20 places I could post in response to your assinine statement here (#38, to distinguish it from all the others), but what's the point? Im lazy, and you're a two-bit troll.
semprini
@TRS,
it's the 710 that is supposed to be extended, not the 110. The 710
would hit meet up at the 210/134 interchange. if the 110 were extended
north it would go right through Old Town Pasadena (brilliant f-ing
idea). Eagle Rock is about 4-5 miles west of all of this. Obviously you
know very little about the area. As far as food and drink:
Chalet, Verdugo, Larkins, Oinkster, Cafe Bougolais, Le Petit
Bougolais, Coffee Table, Taco Spot, Swork, Capri, Carmines, Blue Hen,
Lemongrass... are all places I can walk to from my little duplex and
stumble home from.
Stop being such a chode.
camacho
semiprini: good use of the word "chode", spelling bee worthy almost
Eat the view
I recently moved from NELA; I miss Ernie's. Eagle Rock also has some of the better LAUSD elementary schools, a two-story Target and a nice farmer's market. (and a Semprini to boot!)
justaskinman
Can't say for sure, but it looks like this project will reconstruct Loleta Avenue, so that it extends from Oak Grove Drive to Yosemite.
I live a block away. Yosemite is one pretty street--with a canopy of mature trees, a truly beautiful park, rec center and pool, and it's in walking distance to TJ's Fattys, Casa Bianca, and the new place from the Chateau Marmont dude.
... and some pick up trucks on front lawns. But when they're gone, we'll miss them.
For those who are considering mass transit, there's a 180/181 bus stop right next door to Rock Row, which takes you to Pasadena City College, The Paseo, Old Town Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Glendale, The Americana, Los Feliz, Little Armenia, Hollywood & Highland, The Grove and Little Ethiopia. Greatest shopping bus line ever.
Does Starchy have the ovaries to say which neighborhood she's chosen to throw away rent money on? No.
Richmont Development
@27
I assumed that the buyer would bring 10% of the cost of the place to the table in cash.
$600,000 - $60,0000 = $540,000
With a 7% interest rate, over 30 years ... whoops, you're right. I didn't calculate the interest properly!
Sorry - and thanks for catching my error!
Thanks for the info about the C C & R's for small lot developments. The more I look at this place the more I like it (other than the location). These are plenty big enough- 1300 square feet- and it looks liek they will be very nice looking.
DT
I like them a lot, but I'd never in a million years pay that much for one. 300 square feet of living space I can live without (compared to an existing bungalow) but no lot and $100,000 more? No thank you!
I've
been looking for a house for about year. Even with the declining market
it is hard to find anything decent around $500k. Most of these are
bungalows from the 1940s that require at least another 50k to fix up.
If you look at the below$400/square foot cost of these units
there is nothing else comparable. Especially with new construction and
a contemporary aesthetic. Rock on Rock Row.
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