A new address for LA Land

A personal note: This week I began full-time work at the Los Angeles Times as a senior producer at LATimes.com.  I'm excited to be joining one of the best news organizations in the country, where my main assignment will be redesigning the Real Estate page on LATimes.com, and working with the newspaper and website staffs to produce compelling stories and features about housing and the real estate market.  I welcome your thoughts and advice on that project.

Meantime, I'll continue to write and edit this blog, and I hope to recruit some LA Times staffers to contribute as well.  It's my hope the blog will keep its independent voice and outlook, and will continue to generate spirited and insightful conversation.  Thanks to all of you who read and comment, and please keep the comments coming.

Relatedly, I'm dropping the use of the royal "we" in posts.  When I offer an opinion, or engage in bloviation, or declare that Matt Ryan of Boston College should win the Heisman, I don't want to give the impression I'm speaking for the newspaper. I'm not. 

Lastly, the email address is changing. Email story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.

Comments

[Just call me Maria]

We can still be friends, right?

[Cal]

Congrats, best of luck with the new assignment.

[Matt]

Congrats Peter-

This is one of my best resources for info on the market and its great to hear other peoples opinions and its really nice to know that I am not the only one out there that can read what is going on.

Keep this thing rolling and I do look forward to the new designed real estate page.

Blog soon!!!!!

Matt

[brettdl]

Congratulations!

[Dr. JwB]

I assume this was all part of your plan. "Sure I'll blog for you . . . bwahahaha".

You are truly an Evil Genius. I hope you asked for a salary of 100 BILLION dollars.

[RichW]

Congratulations ! Glad you will be staying around for a while.

[James Thomlin]

So glad you've been put in charge of updating the Times real estate page as it is truly awful!

A long time NY Times reader, as I'm a former New Yorker, I've always wished this page would take some inspiration from its NY counterpart as it is well thought out and full of interesting articles.

I wish you the best of luck with it!

[Maggie Knowles]

I'm looking forward to the new real estate section, it needs attention. Congratulations on your full-time status!

[Pat]

Congratulations. Recession averted (at least for you). We just need a few hundred thousand more notices like this and we'll have our soft landing.

BTW, something really bad happened to this post on the main page.

[A glad to be former Realtor]

Pete, having just executed my one year plan to exit the RE biz, I can tell you I've had all my clients reading your blog since last spring. I think it best captured the facts and psychology of this year's local market. Since I can not recommend either buying or selling to ordinary people, I'm out, but will still be reading. Good luck in your new responsibilities.

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Location, location, location!

I understand at your new address, salary always goes up.

[Tim K.]

Fantastic work Peter, and it's a testament to the great job you've done here on the blog that the mother ship thinks you can drive the Real Estate section.

I do hope you find a way to make that section more objective than it has been in the past. I believe the Times is doing its readership a grave disservice by being an effective mouthpiece and advertising arm for the home builders and real estate agents. The blog serves as a good foil, but stories penned by LA Times writers need more skepticism. Not that you're going to get that level of control, but I suspect if you play your cards right you very well might! :)

Again, congratulations on a job well done and I'm glad to hear the blog will live on!

[Horizontal Translation]

Mazal Tov!

.... and then there's the book deal, and the lecture circuit, and a place on the board at Goldman Sachs. :)

[Brock Harris]

Congratulations! SUGGESTION: Modify the LA times Real Estate RSS feed to actually pick up real estate stories all week...not just Sunday. Thanks!

[Martin]

Good for you, Peter. Look at this way. Your days as a renter are numbered. Prices are falling and your income is going up, up, up!
Good things come to talented people.

Does that mean you now have to drive the Santa Monica Freeway to get to the office everyday? Consider moving to a downtown L.A. loft. I hear the prices are dropping faster than you can say "the sky is falling."

[Ragnar]

Congrats, Peter! Now please send one of your new minions to figure out what happened to that house that sat on the 101 for a week. It would make a fun follow-up story.

[appraiser1]

Peter-
Thanks for your great job on this blog. It has grown into a classy and informative forum where experts and newbies teach and learn.

Good luck on your new assignment!

[GDC]

Congratulations, Peter. It's well deserved. This blog is infinitely more informative than the Times' Real Estate section, which is a joke. I stopped reading it months ago; it cuts and pastes national data (which is mostly irrelevant for Angelenos), has biased reports from the NAR and promotes/advertises lenders who lie about the mortgage rates they offer. Everyone right now is interested in the state of the market whether you are a current homeowner or a prospective one. It should contain real data, case stories of homes, ideas for remodeling, school districts, etc.

[FM71]

Congratulations, Peter!!! Great things happen to those who are determined to go after them!!!

I can't help though to feel a bit sad. Sniff, sniff... Our little boy is all grown up now, left home for the big corner office. Don't let those big corporate guys change you Peter. Don't forget to write home every now and then.

[Michael Snyder]

Congratulations Peter!! This blog is the one thing that makes the LA Times worth opening up. The repartee here is both entertaining and educational. The other “blogmisters” on the Times staff should follow your lead in fermenting discussion and allowing the thread to go its' own way. Your willingness to allow folks full and free expression has been instrumental to your success. Keep up the good work!

[Kathy]

Congratulations, and best of luck in your new position. You certainly have your work cut out for you with the current state of the LAT RE section. I'm sure that I and many others are hopeful that under your leadership, it will turn away from the RE advertisers advocacy position and become an objective source of RE news.

[RadioManTodd]

Peter-

Congrats on the gig. You're much too talented to only be blogging for us schmucks here. Share your talents with all the world to see!

Don't forget about us little people... mmmmmkay?

[Jason]

You deserve the new job, congrats!

[Problemwithcaring]

I hate change.

Congrats Pete!

[xtine]

Congratulations!

No matter how much you make now -- don't buy until 2009.

[lynn]

Congratulations Peter. I look forward to reading this blog daily. Your success is well deserved. The Times was smart to hire you before someone else did.

Looking forward to the improved real estate section !

[toby]

congrats.

You know what I love, stats by zip codes. 20 years would be AWESOME (price tracking wise) but any metadata by zip would be sweet, and extremely helpful.

Zip codes tend to be a really helpful for micro-analysis.

[are they crazy]

Congratulations Peter. I hope you will now have time to do some real investigative reporting on the demise of the housing bubble. Please ask the staff to start questioning and researching the sob stories - find out if they refied and spent like there was no tomorrow and now cry the blues. Ask to see documents - see if they lied about income or if they lied about it being a primary residence. See if the docs back up their claims they didn't know it was an ARM, didn't know it would reset, didn't know the sun would rise the next day. Question the NAR PR machine when they keep saying it's a great time to buy, knowing the market will slip further. Please educate the public about how to determine affordability, price to income ratios. Educate the public that real estate agents and mortgage brokers are not friends trying to help them - the are business people trying to make a living for themselves. Make the real estate section relate to average folks and stop all the celebrity stories. Educate the public about planning and zoning and environmental issues like living a wall away from the freeway. Best of luck to you.

[JK]

Congrats Peter! You've done such a great job here, I must admit that my first selfish thoughts were that I hope you would still edit the blog. I haven't read the LA Times Real Estate in years because it is boring! Please do stories that us average Joe Schmoes can relate to and not on how some Hollywood movie star just spent $1 million dollars on a playhouse for thier kid!

[tew]

Congratulations.

However I hope that the pressures of working inside do not force you to dial back the honesty. Unfortunately, we all know that the advertisers pay the bills, and the various players in the real estate industry are ad space buyers. Nobody that does detailed analysis or criticisms of real estate abuses is advertising except mayby a lawyer or two. IMO the real estate section is almost entirely fluff with the exception of the little Q&As (sometimes) and that could be hard to change.

[Kate]

I can't wait for the new Real Estate section! This is very exciting.

:-)

[L.Y.]

As per our deal with the previous Senior Real Estate Producer, an envelope of unmarked bills will appear on your doorstep every Tuesday evening. All we ask for is fair and unbiased reporting of this excellent Real Estate market!