'A Good Steady Market'

In case you missed the announcement today in Real Estate, because of reductions in staff and space, the Sunday Real Estate section has printed its final edition.

Real estate coverage will continue to appear online throughout the week. Hot Property, Neighborly Advice and the occasional Pardon Our Dust remodeling tale will appear in print as part of the new Saturday Home section. Home of the Week, Southland home-price charts and other features will appear in Sunday Business. Real estate articles will appear in both sections.

There's a journalism term for finishing an edition's work: You put the section to bed. When I started as a part-timer in this department 28 1/2 years ago under then-editor Dick Turpin, I never dreamed that one day I'd be putting the section to bed for good.

It has been an honor and a joy to serve readers for the last eight years as editor of a section that started in 1901, according to The Times official chronology. Under the headline, "A Good Steady Market," the tone then was optimistic:

"While there is nothing that could even by courtesy be called a boom in real estate just now, yet 10 years ago we should certainly have characterized the present condition of the market by that name."

Ah, for a good, steady market.

If you'd like to share your views, contact readers.rep@latimes.com; call (877) 554-4000 or fax (213) 237-3535.

-- Lauren Beale, Real Estate editor

Photo: Real Estate editor Dick Turpin oversees fledgling reporter Lauren Beale, the current Times Real Estate editor, in 1982. At right, the late Lou Desser, news and makeup editor.

Comments

[Steve]

How sad I was raised on the LA Times and the RE section was one of the best and unique. I have great respect for Zell, yet this is going too far. I am very sorry to say, but the LA Times may go the way of the Harold Examiner, BK.

[dilbert dogbert]

Good By and Good Luck

[Allan]

Peter:
Is your L.A. Land Blog going to continue online? I find that it is better than the R.E. section.

[CD]

The real estate section was the worst part of the LA Times
Obnoxious, pretentious, out of touch and pandering to the realtards.... The people woke up way before the LA Times did and that is what caused its demise. That and Sam Zell
the destroyer,who's only business all along was to turn the LA Times into deluxe condos. The Chandlers sold what was,at one point a long long time ago ,a great paper , to the DEVIL !!!!!

[Pat]

For the love of journalism. Mr. Zell, please sell the LA Times to local billionaires who can afford to subsidize it as a civic treasure!

[phyllis harb]

I think this is short sighted. I am a Times subscriber primarily for the Sunday edition. The Sunday edition seems to have something for everyone; I only (always) read the Real Estate and Travel sections.

I wonder how many other readers subscribe to the paper for the Real Estate Section, I wonder how many will cancel their subscriptions.

[Scott McIntosh]

R.I.P Real Estate Section.

http://www.thewestwoodblog.com

[Michelle Minch]

What a pity that they are getting rid of the Sunday Real Estate Section. It was the main reason I subscribed to the LA Times as I think is true with many Sunday subscribers. I will wait to see how it is folded into the Home section and the Business section, but I may rethink being an LA Times subscriber.

[JK]

I don't care about the LA Times real estate section going away Peter, but please tell me your blog will still be around. I have learned so much from the posters here.

[desmo]

How sad that the Times RE section missed the housing demise either purposely or by sheer stupidity. They could have helped many people avoid situations that they are in now with actual hard hitting journalism that went beyond just cheerleading. Lauren Beale has only herself to blame.

[It All Happens on the Margin]

What is the big deal?

RE is no longer a separate section, it is getting merged on Sundays with Business. AND?

The Sunday business section is always thin, and there is frequent overlap with the RE section anyhow (case in point: today's excellent twin articles on living downtown).

OC Register has done it this way for years, and it works very well.

[xtine]

On a separate note...

I need the help of some of the smart folks on this blog.

A friend of mine is in trouble (this is not a cover for me. I still rent.)

She is in her 50s. She is a LAUSD schoolteacher and her husband works with at-risk teens. They bought a townhouse in Montrose, and there the trouble begins.

Their ARM just reset.

They have no debt outside their mortgage. They have a mid 90s era car. They pay cash for everything and do not have any of the toys or goodies associated with people usually in this kind of trouble.

My friend has gone to every bank in LA and do you know what they tell her? They tell her to stop paying her mortgage and go into foreclosure. They tell her to walk away. They tell her to get herself a credit card and max it out. She does not want to do that. She thinks it's wrong.

Now, let's get a few things out of the way...she's a smart lady who used to be in banking. She should have known. She should have seen it coming a mile away. If you can't afford the reset you can't afford the house. Yes yes and yes. All that is right.

But...

If any of you all know of any refinance resources for people who are NOT in foreclosure, and who want to avoid it, and who have the spine and ethics to keep themselves out of consumer debt, couldja let me know?

And I may repost this during the week. Try not to get too irritated with me.

[l.a.guy]

With apologies to Bob Dylan-- the Times (LA, NY, etc), they are a-changin'

I'm more of a news/business/sports guy, so I didn't read the RE section. But I am disturbed by the prospect of some of our big city papers being dramatically down sized or going away. The internets are great a distributing other peoples content, but not so much at originating it. A lot of the MSM can rightly be accused of catering to the lowest common denominator and dumbing down our news, but papers like the LA Times, imperfect though they may be, still frequently play an important role in keeping our other institutions honest. I think if they stop playing that role we'll all be worse off for it.

[Rob Dawg]

Nothing but lies for years about the real estate market and industry so why not lie about why the section is being closed?

[Jack]

I hope this blog sticks around. It's addictive!

[Fred]

The RE section failed the people of this city for the past 7 years. Good riddance.

[Tailspining]

So long Times. While all the haters out there may not have liked the section, it was informative (plenty of Q&A columns for renters, condo and home owners), presented the facts, and provided some entertainment. Not much like that in the rest of the paper. Every Sunday I'd grab the Business, Travel, and Real Estate sections and head down to drink a cup of coffee or get the car washed. Never really made it to the other 2 sections, but Real Estate always got read first. With the disappearance of this and Thursday's Guide, I'm sadly going to cancel my delivery this week in protest. Don't know what else to do really. It seems like the guy only cares about money, so they only way he'll listen is if we hit him where it hurts....just sell it back to someone local Mr. Zell....

[E]

We want Pete!

[Jorge]

The RE section catered to people looking for expensive housing. 800k+ properties, celebrity sales, etc. Peter Viles found a better vehicle with this blog. Real people talking about real issues. The industry needs to wake up, stop plastering the RE classifieds with 1.2 MM properties. Start profiling the 500k SFRs in Glendale, and watch interest perk up.

[peter]

I'm a subsciber of the Sunday edition and I too, like that it has something for everyone. But I'm probably not going to miss the RE section. The only thing I ever read in the RE section was the story of how some self absorbed celebrity is selling his mansion for 10 million dollars, which was always curiously 8 million dollars more than similar sized homes in the same area . But I was never able to finished a single article because I would only read until I threw up in my mouth.

[MG]

Xtine:

Short sale the house.
Next time they should read and understand their contract/loan agreement/purchase agreement. If they do not understand it, they need to hire a Real Estate attorney to explain the terms to them.

MG

[NevadaGal]

Xtine
Sorry to say, but there is no way out for them. Many others have found them in that position....I am good for my debts but this debt is too big for me to handle.

Banks want to insure that someone is truly in need of a refinancing so they insist that they be behind in payments and maxed out all alternative ways to raise cash.

Tell them to stop paying the mortgage and save the difference. Prepare to move.

[KateNonymous]

There was something in the print RE section other than celebrity purchases and sales?

[TakeFive]

Posted by: xtine -

"I need the help of some of the smart folks on this blog. A friend of mine is in trouble"

Call the loan servicer NOW and request a loan modification package. Things are changing fast, so there may be additional opportunities available. But first prepare:

1. Put on a pot of coffee.

2. Get a speakerphone (and a cordless for bathroom breaks). Program the numbers into speed dial since you will be frequently disconnected.

3. Get some busywork to occupy the hold time (balance the checkbook perhaps?).

4. Make a poster that says this will take six months and be extremely frustrating but don't give up.

5. Keep a call log - date, time, contact, extension, points of discussion.

Ultimately, mortage payments may need to be stopped in order to get the attention of the lender. Sad fact is, if you're current, they have no reason to help you out.

Either way, prepare for a fight.

[carter]

The real estate section was always so fluffy, even under Dick Turpin, as it only focused on the residential area. If you want to discuss remodeling, etc., then that aspect should be part of a home section, which it is.
What percentage of the entire real estate business is residential, vs. all others? Then why not include the others?
They could do a great service by combining the business of commercial, industrial, yes, residential, etc. into the business section as they are doing, and actually making the Sunday business section something worth reading, which it has not been for many years.
In fact, the entire business section regardless of day is a sad commentary in general.