If you're looking anywhere near the East Los Angeles neighborhoods, you're going to see a common thread through a lot of them. You'll actually see the same trends going on almost everywhere in the city, but certain areas more than others. In this case, Echo Park Los Angeles is another story of money moving into an otherwise working-class community. When this happens, the neighborhood generally starts to become safer, but can lose a tiny bit of its flair in favor of the same fancy coffee shops and grocery stores edging out the bodegas and markets.
Echo Park is on its way up and still managing to maintain its patchwork cultural influences (at least for now), however you have to remember there's always a chance of a crash too. This can be said about anywhere you may choose to live, but especially in Los Angeles where fads have a tendency to come and go faster than the more stable cities.
This is backed up heavily by the numbers where despite the fact that the average education level in this area is a high school diploma or less (74%) the median house price is currently at $659,000. Keep in mind that 52% of the people make less than $30,000 a year living here. The distribution of ages is pretty even (children, young adults, middle-aged and mature) with a slightly larger concentration between 25 to 39. Only about a third of the people here identify as Caucasian with a 19% Asian population and the other half from various places (likely Central America and Mexico).
Unlike other communities in LA, most residents actually skew toward single professionals (either living alone or with friends and roommates) or single parents, with about 38% of people who are married (either with kids or without.) Burglary and theft makes up the largest amount of the crimes with aggravated assault at about 4%. All that being said, living here could prove to be an extremely wise investment as well as open you up to new experiences in one of the most exciting cities in the world.
As mentioned in the first paragraph, this neighborhood is climbing the ranks to be seen as a 'trendy' rather than 'trashy' place to live. The large cities in California continue to attract more and more people and while Southern California may not bring in the money Silicon Valley does, that doesn't mean there isn't a tons of cash to be made in real estate. Developers buy and flip as fast as they can get their hands on new places that open up, and they often offer far above asking for that opportunity if there's any type of bidding war. Also, the city of Los Angeles doesn't exactly make it easy to build low-cost housing with the fees and taxes it imposes, so the construction and reconstruction that goes on is almost always for high priced houses, condos and apartment buildings. It often raises the property values (and taxes) of everything surrounding it as well as the nature of the stores and daily living expenses.
Echo Park is just 10 minutes from fashionable Los Feliz, Atwater Village and (sometimes less fashionable) downtown Los Angeles. Downtown can be great, but it's fairly inconsistent in terms of safe and unsafe areas. It's fun to head to when you have a specific destination, but you wouldn't want to just wander there. You're 25 minutes from Santa Monica, making the beach a good day trip on those scorching summer days and nights. Echo Park itself has fountains, greenery and trails, making it one of the nice places to run that doesn't involve the mountains.
However, if you do want more of a challenge then Griffith Park is right around the corner in Los Feliz and Runyon Canyon is a mere 15 minutes away. Be prepared at Runyon, because you're extremely likely to see either shirtless celebrities or shirtless celebrity wannabes there and professional make-up jobs and designer sports bras on the girls. Keep in mind, it's one of the most grueling hikes you can do if you take the stairs, so it's a bit of fun to watch all the people who are hoping to get 'discovered.'
Source: flickr.com
You can get great food in any area of Los Angeles, but some places you'd have to search for bad cuisine. One thing you'll never have a lack of anywhere near Echo Park are choices. Living here means you're going to get authentic Mexican, Asian fusion and bars for foodies all practically outside your door. Southern California seems to up its game every week when it comes to the level of competition. If you're looking to be a major consumer here, you're going to get the best of what all the members can bring to the table from every country. It's a touchy subject when you think about how gentrification has touched lives, but it's not something best left ignored. These areas are going through major change and with the change, the crime rates are coming down and the overall quality of life has come up.
The appeal of Southern California with its scenery and weather plus its proximity to Mexico means that this expansion is likely to continue. It doesn't just mean that all the area will be left with are 15 Whole Foods in a mile radius and the inability to find a normal cup of coffee. The area may go through some growing pains, but overall its entirely possible to keep the cultural influences that made it trendy to begin with. The threat of uniformity is there, but LA thrives on diversity and it seems unlikely that Echo Park's personality will be stamped out because of it. If you're a person who enjoys being on the cutting edge of culture mixing in a highly charged atmosphere, then this could be an exciting place for you to live. It could also prove to be an excellent investment as the home prices may only continue to climb.
