There goes the neighborhood

120 Florence Road, smack in heart of NoPo, sold to a builder last June for $1.280 million (ask was $1.025), and now he’s put it up while its still being built – if he’s even started yet — for $4.195 million. He’ll probably get it, but it’s interesting to see the transformation of this 1963 development that was put up just down the hill from the 1950s Havemeyer Park. I’ve had a number of friends who lived in the original homes, and it’s a nice neighborhood and generally — this one was an estate sale* — well maintained. But that was then, and the market has moved onward, and, obviously, upward.

* A very nice obituary of the owner, who died this past January at age 95, can be found here. Nothing spectacular about her life in the sense of fame and fortune, but a loving woman who was loved in return by her husband, her children and grandchildren. There are still some very nice people in Riverside (I assume), but the days when a school cafeteria worker could afford a house and raise a family here are long gone. Hell, even mid-level bankers and lawyers were priced out decades ago, but those weren’t much of a loss.