L.A. Real Estate Rebound! Wild Buying Spree Hits Westside

From the beach to Beverly Hills, a surging stock market and lower prices have inflamed bidding wars, revitalized sales and sparked activity not seen in years.

This story originally appeared in the April 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter.

To get a sense of the state of the high-end housing market on the Westside, consider the fevered recent sale of an A. Quincy Jones-designed residence in Beverly Hills. The five-bedroom post-and-beam Modernist property hit the market March 7 at $6.499 million. It immediately attracted seven offers and was under contract eight days later at $6.625 million. The deal wrapped up March 20, with architectural property collector and producer Michael LaFetra (Night Train, Kevorkian) acquiring the North Foothill Road residence. Such aggressive sales processes have been nearly nonexistent during the past half-decade or so, when the market crashed during the economic meltdown and then floundered. "It's probably been four years since we've had seven offers on one property -- we are no longer bumping along the bottom," says Berkshire Hathaway HomeService's Cristie St. James, who along with husband Markus Canter represented the seller, a local businessman.

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