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Flipping Is Back and moving into High End Markets

Flipping is back and it’s more insane than ever. Unlike the pre-recession years, when amateurs ruled the scene, today it’s professional investors snapping up all the houses and driving up prices. Listing site Redfin found that Los Angeles had the highest number of flips in 2013 and 2014 (so far) combined. (RealtyTrac previously found Los Angeles had the third most flips between April 2013 and March 2014.) And these aren’t just little shacks in crappy neighborhoods—there are so few cheap houses in LA these days that flippers have started moving into the higher-end of the market and it’s paying off with huge gains. The average flip in 2013 made $126,100; that’s the sixth highest market in the US (following Bay Area cities, Long Island, and Boston) and far above the nationwide average of $90,200.

Redfin also broke out the flip markets with the highest returns in the country in 2013—up-and-coming Mid-City and Mt. Washington were number four and five, respectively. Ever-gentrifying Highland Park of course made the list at number 12 and Leimert Park, a great but often overlooked neighborhood that happened to find out last year that it’d be getting a light rail stop, was at 24.

Silver Lake Los Feliz