Changes

===Housing Boom and Bust===

===Housing Boom and Bust===

[[Image:La-2000map.jpg|thumb|400px]]

[[Image:La-2000map.jpg|thumb|400px]]

After 2001 housing prices soared in LA and throughout California. New construction began at a furious pace, and many new shopping centers and office building were built. Today many stand empty. Millions of people refinanced their homes and pocketed the "profits", while speculators bought houses and condominiums they did not intend to live in, but planned to sell at a huge profit.  Bankers gave out mortgages with very low initial payments expecting that the houses would be resold at a higher price before the higher rates kicked in. They gave mortgages to people who they knew could never afford the full payments. The boom collapsed after summer 2007, with home prices falling 50% and the bankers caught with hundreds of billions of dollars of "toxic" mortgages of uncertain value. The average price of a house or condominium in the region peaked in July 2007 at $505,000; may people refinanced and spent the extra cash. By spring 2009 prices had fallen in half to $250,000, and perhaps have stabilized at that level.<ref>"Southern California home prices may be stabilizing," [http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-homes16-2009apr16,0,6899533.story ''Los Angeles Times'' Paril 15, 2009] </ref>  The [[housing bubble]] was a major cause of the [[Financial Crisis of 2008]] and helped start the [[Recession of 2008]], which in spring 2009 continues to hit the LA region very hard.

After 2001 housing prices soared in LA and throughout California. New construction began at a furious pace, and many new shopping centers and office building were built. Today many stand empty{{fact}}. Millions of people refinanced their homes and pocketed the "profits", while speculators bought houses and condominiums they did not intend to live in, but planned to sell at a huge profit.  Bankers gave out mortgages with very low initial payments expecting that the houses would be resold at a higher price before the higher rates kicked in. They gave mortgages to people who they knew could never afford the full payments. The boom collapsed after summer 2007, with home prices falling 40%<ref>http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/los-angeles/</ref> and the bankers caught with hundreds of billions of dollars of "toxic" mortgages of uncertain value. The average price of a house or condominium in the region peaked in April 2006 at $580,000; by spring 2011 prices had fallen to less than half of this number- $230,000<ref>"http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/los-angeles/</ref>  The [[housing bubble]] was a major cause of the [[Financial Crisis of 2008]] and helped start the [[Recession of 2008]], which in 2011 continues to hit the LA region very hard.

==Images==

==Images==