Monday Morning Quarterback

For decades, the Stahl House in the Hollywood Hills has been a rarity — a globally known icon of Midcentury Modernism and Los Angeles glamour, still in the hands of the family who commissioned it in 1959. But now it’s for sale. The asking price is $25 million, which might seem a startling figure for a two-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home on a slopping lot overlooking the city. But that figure might not surprise lovers of modernist architecture who know it as Case Study House #22. In 1960, it was designed for the Stahl family by architect Pierre Koenig, captured on black-and-white film by photographer Julius Shulman and has been admired worldwide ever since. The Architect’s Newspaper called it “one of the world’s most famous buildings.” Los Angeles magazine called Shulman’s image “perhaps the most famous picture ever taken of Los Angeles.” The Stahls purchased the lot in 1954 for $13,500 and built the house for another $37,000. They enlisted Koenig to design the house after other architects were daunted by the slope of the lot. Koenig’s solution was a cantilevered L-shaped structure with walls of steel and glass, a pool and a free-standing stone-faced fireplace between the living and dining areas. Shortly after the home’s completion, photographer Julius Shulman took a black-and-white photograph that became emblematic of the era. It shows the home at night, with two young women sitting inside in a cantilevered corner, its floor-to-ceiling windows revealing the lights of the L.A. Basin glittering in the background. To bring up the lights, Shulman later told Los Angeles magazine, he used a seven-minute exposure. The resulting image, along with others Shulman made of the house, is now owned by the Getty Research Institute. In nominating it for the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, Amanda Stewart of the Los Angeles Conservancy called it “perhaps the most iconic house constructed in the Case Study House Program.” That program, sponsored by John Entenza’s Arts & Architecture magazine from 1945 to 1966, yielded 25 completed homes, today considered top exemplars of Midcentury home design. The Stahl home stands on Woods Drive just north of West Hollywood’s city limit, about a quarter of a mile from Chateau Marmont. Tours of Case Study House #22 will continue for the time being, but they are booked out through February. In other real estate news, lets get under the hood…

High-Rise Hong Kong Fire Leaves At Least 128 Dead And 200 Reported Missing. Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in years burned through the night last Wednesday, leaving at least 128 people dead (and counting) and 200 reported still missing with rescuers pulling residents from eight blazing high-rise apartment buildings into the morning. Several local media outlets reported that police have arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the fire that began in a housing complex in Tai Po district, a suburb in the New Territories. Tai Po is a suburban area in the New Territories, in the northern part of Hong Kong and near the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen. Over the weekend the fire was yet to be put out and rescues continued. Hundreds of residents were evacuated as the fire spread across seven of the eight buildings in the complex. At least 29 others remained hospitalized. Bright flames and smoke shot out of windows as night fell. Officials said the fire started on the external scaffolding of one of the buildings, a 32-story tower, and later spread to inside the building and then to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions. What can we learn from the Hong Kong high-rise fire? Authorities said that investigators would be looking into factors including whether material on the exterior walls of high-rise buildings met fire resistance standards, as the rapid spread of the fire was unusual. Director of Fire Services Andy Yeung said officers had found foam sheets that are highly flammable covering the windows. As the foam sheets caught fire the heat cracked the windows, sending the flames into the interiors of apartments, flames rising floor by floor. The housing complex consists of eight buildings with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 residents, including many elderly people. At this point, thousands of people are homeless and have lost all of their possessions. It was built in the 1980s and had recently been undergoing a major renovation. Fire chiefs said high temperatures at the scene made it difficult for crews to mount rescue operations. A column of flames and thick smoke rose as the blaze spread quickly on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that had been set up around the exterior of the buildings. About 900 people were evacuated to temporary shelters. The blaze, which started midafternoon, was upgraded to a Level 5 alarm (the highest level of severity) as night fell. Authorities said that conditions remained very challenging for firefighters. Firefighters deployed about 200 fire trucks and more than 100 ambulances to the scene, according to RTHK, the local public broadcasting service. The fire is the deadliest in Hong Kong in years.

Existing Home Sales Increased in October. Existing home sales posted a modest gain in October (November not available yet) to hit an eight-month high, though activity continues to trudge along at a disappointing pace. The current rate of 4.100 million remains near the lowest since the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis, and well below the roughly 5.250 million annual pace that existed pre-COVID (let alone the 6.500 million pace during COVID). That said, affordability has been improving in several notable ways. First, 30-year mortgage rates have been trending lower since May and now sit around 6.3%, near the lowest rate since 2023. Meanwhile, the median price of an existing home is up just 2.1% versus a year ago. It looks like the inventory of existing homes rising 10.9% in the past year has helped put a lid on prices as more options become available for buyers. That has helped push up the month’s supply of homes (how long it would take to sell existing inventory at the current very slow sales pace) to 4.4 in October, a considerable improvement versus the past few years, though still below the benchmark of 5.0 months that the National Association of Realtors uses to denote a normal market. One last positive to note is that aggregate wage growth (hourly earnings plus hours worked) has begun to consistently outpace median home price gains over the past year for the first time since 2023, which improves affordability. That said, some challenges remain. Many existing homeowners remain reluctant to sell due to a “mortgage lock-in” phenomenon, after buying or refinancing at much lower rates before 2022. This remains an impediment to activity by limiting future existing sales (and inventories). Existing home sales also face significant competition from new homes, where in many cases developers are buying down mortgage rates to compete and move inventory (when interest rates are higher, firms, including homebuilders, forego more potential earnings by holding onto inventories). Despite these cross currents, underlying fundamentals have improved recently, which should contribute to a modest rebound in sales.

$10-Billion One Beverly Hills Project Finally Gets Off the Ground. The work to erect the two tallest towers in Beverly Hills started over the weekend with an overnight continuous pour of 3,800 cubic yards of concrete, the equivalent of 41,000 wheelbarrows full. It was the first of multiple foundation pours that will take place over the next 12 months. The project just west of the intersection of Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards broke ground early last year and has so far included demolition, drilling geothermal wells, installing utility lines and digging a deep hole to house underground parking. “One Beverly Hills” will be anchored by the Aman Beverly Hills, a 78-room, all-suite hotel that will be the brand’s first West Coast property. The tower residences will also be branded and serviced by Aman (a Swiss company owned by Russian-born real estate developer Vlad Doronin), which Forbes describes as “the world’s most preeminent resort brand,” and attracts affluent guests such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and George and Amal Clooney. The two towers (28 and 31 stories) will have a total of fewer than 200 luxury condos. Interspersed among the property will be as many as 45 stores and restaurants, including a Dolce & Gabbana boutique, Los Mochis restaurant and Casa Tua Cucina restaurant and marketplace. One Beverly Hills by all estimates is one of the largest real estate developments by cost under construction in North America. It is valued at $10 billion upon completion. It was conceived by London-based architect Foster + Partners. The firm is led by Norman Foster, an English lord perhaps best known for designing the hoop-shaped Apple Inc. headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. City officials agreed to let the developers build by far the two tallest towers in Beverly Hills with the understanding that stacking the condominiums high would leave more open space for 8.5 acres of gardens on the 17.5-acre site. As a result, One Beverly Hills will feature botanical gardens that reflect the diverse landscape of Southern California, with drought-resistant native plants fed solely on recycled water, including rainfall and the runoff from residents’ sinks and showers. The gardens are designed to have more than 200 species of plants and trees, including palms, oaks, sycamores, succulents and olives.

The Fastest Shrinking Cities In The U.S. As of April 2025, the U.S. population stands at 360,341,000 with 81 percent of that number living in cities or suburbs. Even though America's urban population has been increasing in recent years, at least 23 metropolitan areas have seen a population decline. Farmington, New Mexico, is the fastest-shrinking city in the country, having experienced a population decline of 8.76 percent between 2010 and 2024. It is known for having low-income levels along with a violent crime rate in excess of the national average.

Over One Billion People Live in Slums. From shrinking cities to expanding slums. Each year, the first Monday marks “World Habitat Day,” which aims to reflect on the state of towns and cities, and on the right of all to adequate shelter. The share of people living in urban areas is expected to continue growing in the coming decades: according to United Nations estimates, 57% of the world's population now lives in cities, but this figure could rise to 68% by 2050, driven by continued urbanization in Asia and Africa. However, in these regions of the world, urban growth is often forced and unplanned, with inadequate or failing infrastructure. As a result, much of the urban expansion takes place in slums, areas of self-built, unsanitary housing where extreme poverty is rife. As a result, over the past 20 years, the United Nations estimates that the number of people living in slums has risen from 895 million to 1.1 billion. The regions where city dwellers are most exposed to these harmful living conditions are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where it is estimated that around 50% of the urban population lived in slums in 2022 (compared to 23% globally). This rate rises to more than two out of three city dwellers in countries such as South Sudan (94.2%), Mali (92.5%) or Afghanistan (71.6%). The share of the urban population living in slums was higher than 50% in Pakistan and Laos. In India, around 41.5% of the urban population lived in slums in 2022, down from 55% since 2002.

Basic Training Investing Boot Camp. Saturday, December 13, 2025, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, will be our semi-annual Basic Training Boot Camp. Everything you ever wanted to know about real estate investing but were afraid to ask. Iman Cultural Center, South Hall, 3376 Motor Avenue (between National and Palms), Los Angeles, 90034.The cost of the Boot Camp is $149.00 per person if paid before December 6, 2025. Thereafter the prices increases to $249.00. (Gold Members and former Boot Campers can attend for FREE, but still need to register.) So don’t wait to register. Plus free parking. Please register at our website: LaRealEstateInvestors.com.

For further information, comments, and questions:

Lloyd Segal

President

Los Angeles County Real Estate Investors Association

Lloyd@LARealEstateInvestors.com

www.LARealEstateInvestors.com

310-792-6404