A Fabulous House on a Very Busy Street
One of the requirements for anyplace I live is a quiet street. I want to open my windows and not hear cars whizzing by. I want to walk out my door and not see traffic. I can compromise on many things, but a peaceful street is not one of them.
Today I visited this new listing at 610 Crescent Heights Blvd., Los Angeles. It caught my eye because the property had been purchased only a year ago for $900,000. It was now being offered as a brand-new five-bedroom, 5.5 bath home, priced at $2,295,000.
When I got there, I ran into the architect/builder, an older gentleman with a full head of red named Andre, who said he’d torn down the old home and built a new one from scratch. He let me in and encouraged me to take pictures.
The place shows beautifully. It was staged to the nines by a firm called Meridith Baer and Associates, and it was magnificent. Each bedroom has its own private bathroom, and the design stayed true to the high-ceiling California Mission style. It looked like a beautifully restored classic home, not a teardown.
But if you could afford a $2.3 million house, would you buy on a street like Crescent Heights Boulevard — one of the main routes between L.A. and Laurel Canyon and the Valley? Even at 10:30 a.m., the traffic was considerable, and it’s relentless at rush hour.
I’m sure there are people out there who don’t care about busy streets, because plenty of people live on them. What do you think? If you loved the house, would the busy street make any difference?
Besides the street, the other worrysome factor is the comparable sales. The only nearby homes that have sold in this price range in the last six months are multifamily dwellings. As for active listings, there’s a five-bedroom, 4.5 bath at 531 N. La Jolla Ave., priced at $2,299,000, that’s been on the market for about six months. There’s also a 4,000-square-foot 5+4.5 at 725 N. Stanley Ave. for $1,789,000, on the market 37 days and already reduced $100,000. Both are on much quieter streets.
