Silver Lake: LA’s Most Competitive Housing Market

Home to award-winning architect Barbara Bestor and pioneer Richard Neutra’s VDL Research House, Silver Lake pairs a rich architectural history with an au courant attitude, qualities that have created a high demand for housing in the hip enclave. According to Redfin, Silver Lake was the most competitive housing market in 2014, with more than 50% of homes selling for above asking price. Amidst 1930s Spanish Mediterranean and contemporary, new construction are mid-century modern gems by renowned innovators including Rudolph M. Schindler, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Lautner and more. Silver Lake’s growth is driven most visibly by a creative class of designers, musicians and artists—in 2012, Silver Lake topped Forbes’ 2012 list of “America’s Best Hipster Neighborhoods.” These features and more make Silver Lake highly desirable, and, in the coolest neighborhood in LA, the housing market shows no signs of cooling off.

The hilly, verdant terrain and curving, narrow streets are arranged around Silver Lake reservoir—the perimeter of which has been manicured to create park space for picnickers, joggers, walkers, cyclists and dog lovers—and the main, organizing arteries of Sunset and Silver Lake Boulevards. Winding, ascendant roads offer classic Los Angeles vistas, including views of the Hollywood sign or Griffith Park Observatory, if perched upon the right balcony or backyard.

Bed-headed hipsters, haute bohemians and informed foodies go to lower ground to grab their coffee from Intelligentsia at the Sunset Junction or fresh casual eats at Jessica Koslow’s Sqirl, whose cult following forms long lines out the door of the small café. Imports from neighboring Hollywood can be seen and heard taking meetings in the luxe but comfortable interiors of Lamill Coffee.

Music mogul Moby, who relocated from New York to Los Angeles several years ago, continues to lay the grounds for a quintessential eastside, hipster Angeleno lifestyle with a home in the hills and his vegan restaurant Little Pine in Silver Lake. In May of 2015, The New York Times detailed the visible trend of New Yorkers being lured to Los Angeles by its obvious sunshine and warmth, as well as its “booming creative class.” Read more the New York Times article. Moby’s move demonstrates why the competition is so stiff: it’s not just local Angelenos vying for a spot in Silver Lake.