Workforce -- or, make that 'Nurseforce' -- housing is spreading in Southern California

Remember those nurses, teachers and firefighters profiled repeatedly during the real estate run-up as zillion-mile commuters who couldn’t afford to live near their jobs in Los Angeles and Orange counties?

Well, some have found spacious homes they can afford, even in today’s challenging market -- near their jobs in Sylmar, Inglewood,  Pomona,  Azusa, Agoura Hills, Long Beach and Anaheim.

And now, Arleta.

A joint venture of Encino-based Montage Development Inc., and CityView, the workforce-housing development company of former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, Laurel Village is adding 69 four- and five-bedroom single-family detached condos for $399,000 and $409,000, respectively, to the north San Fernando Valley, close to a number of hospitals and schools.

The complex is gated and has a pool and play area. Among the occupants of the 47 completed homes either sold or in escrow, 15 are medical workers (including nine nurses) and five are teachers. Forty-seven formerly were renters, 13 already owned a home (mostly nearby) and two lived with their parents until they could afford the condo.

About half of the owners are 30 to 49 years old. Included in every home are granite counter-tops, window coverings, a patio, landscaping and appliances including a washer and dryer. “We don’t want the buyers — many of whom were renters -- to have to pay for what we consider essentials after they move in,” said Montage CEO Stephen Ross.

-- Diane Wedner

Photo: Brad Wilder

Questions? Comments? Email diane.wedner@latimes.com

Comments

[perks]

Granite countertops are "essentials"? Please!

I toured Laurel Village last weekend. The houses are OK, and the yards aren't as dinky as some other homes I've seen (though I'd hardly call the lots "spacious"), but $400K for a crackerbox right off Laurel Canyon in Arleta? No thanks!

There are homes selling for far less than that in my neighborhood, and it's a much better neighborhood than Arleta.

[unomas]

What's a single-family detached condo?

[TakeFive]

So in addition to several paid holidays and minimum days, a retirement plan, medical, dental, spring break, xmas break, summer break, teachers also get a break on buying a home?

Just remember that next time you hear someone going on about how underpaid teachers are.

[Tim K.]

I know TakeFive is being sarcastic, but teachers really are paid quite a bit more than most other professions given the amount of work that they do.

About the only thing teachers get shafted for is the amount of money and time they need to spend on school and get certified. Beyond that, it's actually quite a good deal compared to most corporate jobs.

But about the housing - I do still think even though most teachers have an average salary of $100K and can easily afford a place at 4X salary ($400K), it's still not a good time to buy. This neighborhood really can't support these prices, and so the (relatively) rich teachers probably aren't going to be getting the best deal in this area.

It's a nice gesture, but if I was a teacher making $100K per year, I'd save my money and wait another 3 years when I could get this same house for about $300K.

[Tim K.]

unomas wrote: "What's a single-family detached condo?"

It's exactly what it sounds like. A single-family, detached building strucutre (i.e. a house) which is commonly owned and has a housing association with rules governing it.

There are many of these in Irvine and Santa Clarita. They've been quite popular in areas where people want their streets and common areas to be governed by an HOA, who can set standards and enforce the look of an area.

You're probably used to the term "condo" meaning apartment-style building, where all of the units are under the same roof. (Ob. standup comic rip-off joke: If they are all stuck together, why are they called apartments?)

[mike]

this blog is negative enough that i am considering not reading it anymore.

[Lisa]

"Most teachers have an average salary of $100K"?!! In our dreams!

Sorry hon, but in most places we're making like $50,000-$70,000 -- and that's after years of graduate education (and resultant loans) and quite a few years in the job as well.

It's a pity these look so damn ugly (oh the pastel stucco) because the basic idea is a good one.

[FreedomCM]

Tim K writes:

But about the housing - I do still think even though most teachers have an average salary of $100K and

*************

why not take a second and confirm your biases before you post. salary.com indicates the average elementary school salary in LA is $52k

[I live in L.A., too]

Poor Tim K. So condescending, and then you site errant data. I'm in agreement with Lisa and FreedomCM. Most of my teacher friends make $40k to $60k, with master's degrees and five to 10 years of experience. I think you'd need to be a VP or other administrator to get $100k.

[Wayne]

My these real estate corporations are remarkably charity-minded, aren't they? Good to have some "fair and balanced" perspective of the situation now that the new and improved L.A. Times has sold out the concept objective journalism under the pretense of telling both sides.

Now that the weekend real estate section is gone, is buttering up potential advertisers in L.A. Land just standard procedure, or do they have to pay for these articles by the word?

i

[esp4p3]

What an ignorant comment about teachers making 100k. My wife is a elementary school teacher in the SFV and sure doesn't make that much. She has a masters degree too. Also, if you add in the amount that she has to spend on her class each year because the LA unified doesn't, the salary goes down even more.

[TakeFive]

I don't know about 100K annual salary for teachers, but I'll bet it pushes the equivalent of 80K when you consider the "year" is actually 9 months. If they got a summer job, another 10-12 grand would be possible.

Further, measured against all the time off teachers get, 40K is a considerable sum. And I don't know what the allowance for substitute teacher days are, but some teachers really milk this perk too.

We're quickly fetishizing teachers the way we have police and firemen. Sorry, that’s Public Safety Officials and First Responders. And of course more money goes with a fancy title.

[The Bean]

Our city needs more projects like these. Kudos to the developer and the financing investor for having the vision to plan for an expanding LA.

[sandiegan]

Teachers work just as many hours as the average 52 week worker; they just do it over a shorter stretch of time. They put in a LOT of "prep" time that is not "on the clock".

If teaching was such a kick-back job, then why do 30% leave the profession within 3 years?

I think the dummies who post without knowing the facts about teaching would last all of 7 minutes alone in an urban public school classroom.

[perks]

If only all the teachers made $100K+ per year, while all the lawyers pulled in $40K, the world would be a much better place!

My mother is a school principal with two masters degrees and several decades of experience, and she certainly doesn't pull in six figures. A friend of mine works for El Segundo Unified and could never afford to buy an average house there on his salary.

The teacher-bashing is entirely unfounded. I would argue that we *should* be paying teachers a whopping premium so that the most qualified ones don't leave the field for a more lucrative position elsewhere (thus squeezing out the ones who are less qualified or competent). Published studies have shown that teacher retention is one of the major reasons (though not by any means the only one) that American students fall further and further behind students in other countries as they progress through their education...

[Rich]

It's an interesting concept, but are there any covenants in place to keep these units in the hands of the intended types of public employees? When you sell, can you sell to anybody? If there are covenants, then that would hurt the selling prices considerably and they should go for a lot less, but if there aren't, it will become just general housing in a few years...

[Tim K.]

Sheesh people, I was kidding about the $100K teacher salaries.

For the humor impaired - I was making a point that these homes are clearly NOT going to be affordable to the target audience. There is no way they can make that much money to afford these places - housing has to drop by about 50% for these particular homes to be considered "affordable".

It's good to see a bunch of teacher-apologists do read this board. I was beginning to think class participation was at an all time low! :)

[TakeFive]

Sandiegan wrote:

“If teaching was such a kick-back job, then why do 30% leave the profession within 3 years?”
Simple – they’re ill suited for the job.

I see this in the engineering field. Kids that are good at math take an engineering curriculum in college, get a job in the field, and hate it. Why? They were never technically oriented people to begin with – just good at math.

Teaching is even more prone to this misapplication of skills. If a kid gets a degree in English, what does he do after graduation? Well, there’s always teaching…

I’m not trying to belittle teachers here. I enjoy taking a class from an enthusiastic, well prepared teacher that enjoys the subject, and will pay good money for this service. But like any other job, there are folks that should be doing something else.

[CaptHowdy]

I don't have a problem if a person who is teaching my kids has, as TakeFive puts it, several paid holidays and minimum days, a retirement plan, medical, dental, spring break, xmas break, summer break, plus maybe even a break on buying a home. I also don't have a problem if the person teaching my kids were to max out at around 80K or 100K a year.

Am I "fetishizing" teachers? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd like the people teaching my kids to not be struggling financially, and gasp! to maybe even be doing well and having a nice solid middle class life. Heresy, I know.

Plus, I'd rather fetishize them than fetishize "rock star entrepreneurs" like Angelo Mozilo and Ken Lay. This country has strange priorities when it comes to its role models.

[Ace]

I don't understand why everyone attacks Tim for over estimating the income of teachers. You guys should direct that anger at the LAUSD teachers that are absolutely failing our children.

I am sure that the teachers at private schools that actually teach kids to read and write are pulling down $100k.

[TakeFive]

CaptHowdy wrote:

“Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd like the people teaching my kids to not be struggling financially…”

No argument from me. It’s just the constant woe of hard work and low pay gets really tiresome. You can walk into any office and hear the same complaint. Even Angelo Mozillo recently was complaining about the high cost of college for his kids and other expenses.

Try working some of the really crappy jobs with low pay and no benefits, and that classroom starts to look pretty good. In fairness though, I’ll say the a lot of this complaining is promulgated by the union. Some teachers (after giving the secret handshake) will admit as much. But what can they do – schools are a union shop.

[Wes Boudville]

Ace:

"I am sure that the teachers at private schools that actually teach kids to read and write are pulling down $100".

Don't be so sure of that. I've met teachers at public and private schools. What I've heard is that often, for teachers with similar experience and educational credentials, the private school teacher is paid less. And I've heard this from independent sources.

Apparently, the high private school fees rarely translate into high salaries for the typical teacher at that school.

Given the others on this BB who have commented on teachers' salaries, maybe we can get more feedback on this private versus public?

[perks]

Wes - the private school teachers I know do earn less than comparable public school teachers; for them it's worth it to get out of the crushing bureaucracy of our nation's larger school districts. I will stress that they work for parochial private schools (which aren't substantially better funded than public schools), so I can't speak for teachers at the hoity-toity rich kid schools. Of course, I've been around rich children before, and I think I'd probably demand at least $100K a year if I was going to orient my professional career around them. ;-)

Now, the rub: If I were pulling in $100K a year at a really expensive private school, I'd probably be working in an area that was far less affordable than if I were pulling in $60K a year at a "regular" school. I doubt the Hollywood elite send their kids to school in Arleta...

[Nelcisco]

Lisa, FreedomCM,sandiegan,esp4p3, thanx for bringing some clearity to what teachers go through on a regular basis.
Perks, God bless you too. I wish teachers were the ones making 100k intead of the vermon lawers who instead of deserving 40k a yr. deserve jail times themselves(not all of course)

I'm puting my 7 yr old son in a private school this fall and I've come to realize now as a father, how valueable the profession of teaching really is

[the problemwithcaring]

I'm puting my 7 yr old son in a private school this fall and I've come to realize now as a father, how valueable the profession of teaching really is

Posted by: Nelcisco |

Now imagine what Los Angeles would be like if all residents didn't have to have a vested interest (e.g. a school-aged child) before they cared about the education all children in LAUSD recieve...