Where Are All the Artists Moving To?

This is a question that has been posed to me by several of my long-term investor clients. The once affordable Arts District now has properties that often sell for close to $1MM. You can hardly find a 1-bedroom 850sf studio for under $500k. Aside from perhaps the 9th & Broadway intersection, the Arts District has seen some of the quickest and most significant changes since the revitalization of DTLA as a whole. So where are the resident artists who can no longer afford the huge loft spaces moving to? Many are moving to Lincoln Heights, where you can still get random warehouse spaces for a fraction of what you'd pay just a few miles south. The Brewery, the largest arts colony in the world, is another exclusive compound for many artists. Another area that is being eyed is the pocket between the Arts District and the City of Vernon, where it's mostly warehouse structures, but no-man's land after 6pm. It's an interesting time to be witnessing the spread of what has begun in DTLA, and realizing that soon DTLA may become the center of it all, as it once was back in the day.