Vancouver’s soaring real estate market is only part of a West Coast phenomenon. The wealthy elite is going bonkers in its demand for new and bigger houses. Los Angeles is seeing its luxury housing market go into a supersize mode never seen before. Always an enclave for the rich, the neighbourhood of Bel-Air is seeing good houses that are 15,000 to 20,000 square feet in area torn down and replaced with houses that are a whopping 60,000 to 70,000 square feet.
L.A. Councilman Paul Koretz’s district includes Bel-Air and Hollywood. He says in all his years on council, it never would have occurred to him that people would need homes three times bigger than the original.
“It’s being driven by a lot of international wealth,” he says. “A lot of different economies are coming up, and they all think they should have a home in the U.S., and if they can have one, it’s going to be Bel-Air.
