Author: cgilles

Like no where else, the South Bay area of Los Angeles contains some of the most unique and defined residential neighborhoods. From Hawthorne, to Torrance, to Manhattan Beach you can find some of the most outstanding places to live, no matter what your favorite home or area style may be. Even the prices will vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. Start in the city of Hawthorne for example and look at the types of nice neighborhoods that exist today and offer outstanding values in real estate. The older, more traditional area which had it's beginnings in the 1940s was the central area located from Imperial Hwy on the north, to Rosecrans on the south, Inglewood Avenue on the west side to Prairie on the east. The vast majority of the houses in this central part of town were built during the WWII era, and mainly for the population working at the new aircraft plants like Northrop, North American Aviation and Lockheed. The city gradually expanded west with new homes and schools reaching over to Aviation Blvd. During the 80s, the city changed somewhat with many new apartment complexes being developed in the southeastern part of the main city, near Crenshaw and Rosecrans. One of the oldest cities in the South Bay is Inglewood, where older more traditional type homes were built during the World War I and II years. These original homes were priced just a little higher than those located south of the city in Hawthore, Lennox or Lawndale. The city offered even more "high end" homes in the hills surrounding Centinella Park, north of the large Inglewood Park Cemetary, and eventually developed the hills on it's east side, called Morning Side Park, with many upgraded single family homes, strip malls and churches. Gated, private communities were made available east of the cemetary and Hollywood Park and were also unique to the city at the time. Torrance is probably one of the biggest cities in all of the Los Angeles area, offering many different style neighborhoods. The oldest of these is the "old downtown area" where spanish style homes are mixed in with traditional style homes built in the 1940s and 50s. One of the unique signatures of old town Torrance neighborhoods are the huge trees that line all of the streets of the neighborhoods, shading the entire street from curb to curb. This is one of the big draws of this part of Torrance. Torrance neighborhoods expanded heavily during the late 1950 and 1960s with new developments to the north, west and south of the original city. To the east was Del Amo Woods with many new and updated single family homes. Many Wilson developments that proved to be some of the most successful and popular housing developments ever built in the South Bay, came into being during the Aerospace boom of the 1960s and 70s. The homes in those many different neighborhoods are still proving to be highly sought after and popular today. Manhattan Beach is still one of the highly sought after living areas of Southern California with its many neighborhoods offering every type of residential option available anywhere. The hill section, gas light light section, tree section, Strand section, and the Village homes are still popular with homes still popular that sell almost as fast as they become available on the market. The beach homes in Manhattan Beach are still some of the highest priced homes of anywhere in the country and are always in high demand, no matter the price. Read More