Inglewood market catches fire as prices soar, projects bloom.

A rising tide of home prices and scarce developable land has brought homebuilders to Inglewood, where the median home price has risen at twice the countywide average.

For the first time in more than a decade, Inglewood is attracting large commercial and residential developments, mostly on the streets surrounding Hollywood Park.

Homebuilder John Laing Homes has begun construction on the city's first subdivision in 18 years and its largest in almost four decades. The developer has nearly completed the first phase of a project that will ultimately have 375 homes on 37 acres near the Coliseum on 90th Street between Prairie Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard.

The development will also have a pool, tennis courts and parks. Once complete, the homes will be priced from the high-$300,000 to the mid-$500,000 range.

"The market in Inglewood is on fire," said Phil Phillips, a Century 21 Universal broker.

And it's not just homebuilding. Haagen Co. LLC has received approvals to build a $35 million mall on Century Boulevard between Club Drive and Woodworth Avenue that will have 193,000 square feet for shops and restaurants.

Imperial Partners LLC is planning a large development that could contain a 140,000-square-foot medical office building and surgical center. On adjacent land the company has also tentatively proposed a 300-room hotel, a 10-story parking garage and a 120,000-square-foot shopping mall on the site. Combined, Imperial has said its projects could total $100 million.

The median home price in Inglewood of $380,000 remains well below the $475,000 price of an existing home in L.A. County, as tracked by the California Association of Realtors, which cited escrows closed in January. Still, Inglewood home prices rose by 55.9 percent in January from a year earlier, while countywide prices rose 22.7 percent from the year-earlier period.

The numbers coincide with other reports that show housing activity and price increases picking up in moderate-income areas.

That's because there are more households that can afford a $400,000 house than there are those that can buy a $2 million home, according to Robert Kleinhenz, deputy chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.

"Entry level and midrange markets have generally shown faster rates of appreciation than higher end markets," Kleinhenz said.

Boosters say that Inglewood, located 13 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, is also attracting interest because of the city's proximity to the South Bay, Los Angeles International Airport and the San Diego (405) and Century (105) freeways.

"This is really what we should be doing more of in L.A.," said Bill Rattazzi, president of John Laing's Los Angeles and Ventura divisions. "We need to reinvest in communities such as Inglewood."

Waiting list

Already, the homes have attracted a waiting list of more than 350 potential buyers, many of whom are currently going through the approvals process, Rattazzi said.

The land underneath was once part of a large oil field. The contaminated parcel was brought up to Environmental Protection Agency standards in 1987 and used as a feed and equipment storage area for Hollywood Park.

In the mid-1990s, Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., owner of Hollywood Park, began talking with Santa Monica-based homebuilder Ray Watt about developing the parcel.

Watt is chairman of John Laing Homes, as well as a large stockholder, and brought the company into the project to masterplan the community.

Some brokers say that the development's homes could be priced even higher than what John Laing is asking. Several homes in Inglewood on the Multiple Listing Service were going for well above $500,000.

Larry Springs, a real estate agent with Century 21 The Service Co., has a listing for a 3,000-square-foot home at 9630 S. Third Ave. for $685,000 that's been on the market for seven days and already four offers have been made.

"It's a super-looking house," Springs said. "We'll probably have it in escrow within a couple days."

Inglewood's good housing stock and lower prices have played a role in its recent success. Like other middle-class communities in Southern California, Inglewood has seen more interest from homebuyers as prices have locked people out of other neighborhoods.

But the city has had image problems over the years, with a history of high crime rates. These days, City Councilman Curren D. Price calls that a "bad rap," citing California Department of Justice figures that show a 14 percent drop in overall crime from 2003 to 2004.

"We got lumped in with South L.A. and some of the bad things that can happen in urban areas," he said. "But Inglewood is a strong community that has avoided many of those things."

Still, the perception--incorrect or otherwise--remains. The John Laing development, for example, advertises itself as a gated community with other built-in security measures.

But Phillips, the Century 21 Universal broker, said that perception will continue to change as more professionals move into the community and improve their neighborhoods. "Every city is going to have an area where crime flourishes," Phillips said, "but where homes are selling for $400,000, there's no crime there."