L.A. County’s hottest ZIP Codes in 2008

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Last year’s home sales and prices were particularly hard to slice and dice to come up with definitive lists of the hottest and coldest local markets. That said, the chart shows the ZIPs with the biggest gains last year in median price paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses, courtesy of DMA DataQuick. It’s basically a collection of Westside and beach areas, but South Pasadena made the Top 20, as well as Arcadia.

Part of the apples to oranges to grapefruit problem was the reduced number of sales in 2008. ZIPs had to have 50-plus sales in both years to make the cut for this list, but can be a large difference in number of sales between the two years.

Sales were at record lows in some of the high-end areas with the strongest price trend, noted DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. One possible scenario he suggested is that the jumbo loan problem kept sales low in the low and mid section of those luxury markets and left a higher concentration of sales of the highest-priced abodes,which would push up the median sale price.

Another possibility, at least to my way of thinking, is that folks in the wealthier areas had more staying power and didn’t need to unload at lower prices.

Here’s a look at the price per square foot comparison.

--Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

A newly built five-bedroom, six-bathroom home on Fisher Avenue in Manhattan Beach is listed for $5.59 million and has been on the market for 166 days, according to Redfin.com. Credit: Scott Mayoral