You ever see the show on HGTV where they go around to different cities and tell you what you can buy for $100,000, $400,000 or say $1,000,000? Well today I present our spinoff of what you get in downtown LA for $75,000 but first a little background to our story.
The first place we lived back in Chicago was a condo building where we rented a whopping 500 square feet. It’s a really nice building in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and had two of the best deals in the area.
- Laundry was 50 cents to wash and 25 cents to dry. The laundry room was big and had more than enough full size washers and dryers so other than having in-unit laundry this was the next best thing.
- Parking was $90 a month. If you owned a unit there was an opportunity to get on the wait list and get an actual spot, usually a year long wait. In the mean time your $90 got you valet parking. That’s right, we would drive into the garage and get out of the car. People in the neighborhood were easily paying double, maybe triple the price for indoor parking so it was just one more great deal in the building.
When H and I first started to look for a condo of our own to purchase we peeked around the Lincoln Park area. A number of buildings were being converted and prices weren’t too outrageous at that point. Because of the denseness of the Lincoln Park neighborhood there usually weren’t enough parking spaces for each unit so they were sold separately and deeded to you. In other words you not only owned your condo unit but you owned the spot itself. Asking prices 5 years ago in the most expensive area of downtown Chicago? $35,000.
If you own a car in Chicago and live in Lincoln Park you could always park on the street. If you really wanted a spot of your own you could purchase it. Unlike Los Angeles where almost everyone has a car there are a great number of people in Chicago who live in the city and don’t own a vehicle. If you had the money you could have bought the spot and rented it out. Not only would your little piece of concrete been providing rental income but it’s a tangible asset you could have sold at any time.
Fast forward to the present day and our building is currently constructing a parking garage next door. Apparently it was supposed to be done this past fall but you know how developers work … Anyhow, one parking space is provided with each unit and why shouldn’t it be if you’re paying $500-700k.
This week I was getting the mail and noticed papers stacked near the mailboxes. Upon closer inspection I saw a cheap mail merge document with the merge fields showing but more importantly it was about the new parking garage. Take a look …
I’ve deleted the name of the developer (to protect the guilty/greedy)
Aside from the fact they are going to deliver the garage more than 13 months later than promised, how about the price?
I suppose $175 a month to park downtown isn’t terrible if you have two cars and need another space. The flip side is that’s $9,000 a year just to park your car.
What really caught my eye was the price if you wish to purchase an additional spot: $75,000. Maybe you thought I was joking so I will write out the price: seventy-five thousand dollars. US dollars! Not only is an additional space $75k but you have to pay some HOA (Home Owners Association) fees for the common areas of the garage, aside from the tax obligation of the space.
I know for some people $75,000 is nothing. You know what I say to those people? Good for you.
For the rest of us … $75,000 for a parking space.
$75,000 for a small piece of concrete, organized with two decorative white lines on the ground to tell you what belongs to you and what belongs to your neighbor. For $75,000 I’d like some kind of invisible shield to stop people from dinging/scratching our doors (which has happened to both sides of our car since moving here – never once in Chicago somehow).
So you move to downtown LA, drop say $650,000 on what … 900-1,000 square feet … and if you have more than one car it will cost you an additional $75,000, more than 10% of the total cost of your home.
If things start to go bad for us while we are here in LA … it might be a better investment just to buy a space and live in the garage.
In the words of John Wayne, “That’s ri-goddamn-diculous!”
They are smoking crack. In this economy, no one is going to pay $75K for a parking space. P.S., no one is paying $650K for a downtown condo either.
It’s good to know I’m not the only one who thinks this offering is insane.
hahaha..really wow that sucks..i know its even more in NYC..Manhattan.
The only type of person that would think that this is a “good deal” is someone that has a yearly income of over $1 million dollars.
it is not logical,rational or practical to own a parking space here in LA at those prices for us (average income) people.
You can drive a car and live in it as well…but you can’t drive a home lol.
Once again this confirms and justifies my decision (in the beginning it wasn’t) to stop driving and getting rid of the car.
In 2009 i will celebrate 5 years car-free
- dont miss the insurance cost,maintenance,gas or car washes!
- Im trying to get my boyfriend -m2m couple here:) to downsize from having 3 cars to 1 (hes too much of a guido in this respect)
LOL. Very few people will buy one of these spaces and the price will come waaaay down. The developer was hoping to be able to get those prices in order to justify the construction costs of the garage — which was set in motion at the very height of the construction-cost and housing bubbles.
In the end, the developer will get hosed and the cost will come down.
Here in the Historic Core, we’re paying $140 per month to park on Skid Row. At the end of February we’re ending our parking contract and moving the car one block west, which makes ALL the difference as far as safety. Still, the cost goes up to $175 per month.
My issue is, there are a number of parking lots in the neighborhood that close at 6:00pm…. WHY?
It’s funny you mention the lots closing at a certain time Rich … There is a lot over by the old Crash Mansion that has a closing time … There’s also one we park at all the time when we take Carter for a bath or if we drive to The Nickel. It’s a block away and the guy always tells us the lot closes at 5:30 or 6 or something like that and I’m thinking “Why does the lot close? Why is my time downtown constrained around the lots schedule?”
Taking it to another level … We ate at Ma Petit the other day and the meter rates are either 3 or 4 an hour. Even worse is the fact you can’t stay at a spot for more than one hour, regardless of whether or not you feed the meter. I wonder how many businesses are losing patrons because of the parking rates not only now but in the future.
There are a few things the city can do to fix the parking problem. I’m very much a supply-and-demand kind of guy, though. $3 or $4 per hour is just fine if the meters are actually being used; otherwise they need to be lowered.
But parking restrictions on streets like Spring, which are one-way and NEVER have bad traffic (barring construction, events, closures etc), should have parking available all the time, without those rush-hour exemptions.
Businesses need to continue to focus on pedestrian and bike traffic, which some do beautifully and others not so much.
I think the area around Ma Petit will do much better once the LAPD building opens. They sure aren’t getting much business from the Tribune-owned LA Times — but then again, no one is.
Some of our exact thoughts as we inserted a millions dimes into the parking meter, getting 2 minutes per dime.
I see a lot of unused meters around and you wonder why when they are charging $3-4 a hour. For us lately it’s been much easier to find a cheap lot and park without the hassle. One such lot on Spring is $3 for the day on the weekend. I know it’s just $3 but that’s $3 the city isn’t getting from me and everyone else that would park at ‘my meter’ during the entire time I’m downtown.
I think rush-hour restrictions are a good idea but like you point out, only on streets where it will make a difference.