Neighborhood Spotlight: Hyde Park, affordable and transit-bound, is on the move again

One of the enduring foundational narratives of Los Angeles is that of an avaricious, almost malevolent, municipality that bided its time before unleashing a wave of annexation, devouring countless small towns in its mad dash to spread itself across all the land between City Hall and the sea.

This particular tale does get at some of the essential characteristics of Los Angeles: the restlessness, the ambition and, always, the profit motive of real estate developers. But in truth, the city annexed fewer than 10 independent towns, all of which voted to join Los Angeles on its march into a grand future.

One of those towns was Hyde Park, an agricultural settlement on the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad line that ran from downtown to the harbor.

Founded during the land boom of the 1880s, along with dozens of other subdivisions of old Spanish land grants that went bust before a single home could be built, Hyde Park leveraged its freight depot to carve out a niche as a shipping hub for nearby farmers.

A trolley extension in the 1900s helped the settlement lure home buyers by promising suburban living just 35 minutes from the city — an eternal L.A. real estate come-on that has lost none of its potency over the years.

By the 1920s, Los Angeles was beginning to encircle Hyde Park, and old-timers fearful of being absorbed voted the community into city-hood. The new municipality would prove to be short-lived, voting itself out of existence just two years later in order to avail itself of cheaper water, power and transit, courtesy of its patient suitor, the city of Los Angeles.

In the post-World War II years, Hyde Park became a popular home-buying destination for black Angelenos, many of whom were employed in the thriving South L.A. manufacturing belt. Unfortunately, the deindustrialization of the Southland, which began in the late 1960s, led to severe economic dislocation.

Today, Hyde Park is being connected with downtown, the airport and the new NFL stadium via the under-construction Metro Crenshaw Line, providing access to jobs for area residents. And the dream of finding affordable homes in the city is drawing new home buyers to invest in the neighborhood.

Neighborhood highlights

Affordable vintage homes: Craftsman bungalows and tidy Spanish Colonial tract homes can be found for less than $500,000.

In the heart of South L.A.: Adjacent to bustling Leimert Park, Exposition Park and a resurgent Inglewood, Hyde Park is centrally located, near culture, shopping and entertainment destinations.

A new wave of investment: Metro is building a light-rail line with a stop in the neighborhood, and the city is reimagining busy Crenshaw Boulevard as a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare, ending years of neglect.

Neighborhood challenges

Managing the pace of change: As the real estate market in Hyde Park continues to pick up, the challenge will be to encourage much-needed investment without displacing long-time residents.

Lingering economic and social woes: Decades later, lost manufacturing jobs have not yet been replaced, and crime is still a persistent problem affecting Hyde Park residents.

Expert insight

Redfin agent Simone Poingsett calls Hyde Park an up-and-coming neighborhood and a nice alternative to surrounding areas where home prices have increased.

“In View Park-Windsor Hills, prices have gone way up the last few years,” said Poingsett. “People are now starting to shift to Hyde Park.”

Besides lower home prices, Poingsett points to transit development and location as Hyde Park’s biggest draws.

“If public transportation is something that a buyer is looking for, Hyde Park, being near Crenshaw Boulevard, is a good option,” she said. “And soon you will be able to just hop on the Crenshaw Line and get to LAX.”

Market snapshot

In the 90043 ZIP Code, based on 25 sales, the median sales price for single-family homes in January was $575,000. That’s a 32.2% increase in median sales price over the same month the previous year.

Report card

There are more than a dozen charter, public and private schools within the boundaries of Hyde Park. Among them is View Park Preparatory Accelerated Charter Middle, which scored 784 out of 1,000 in the 2013 Academic Performance Index.

Fifty-Ninth Street Elementary scored 709, Angeles Mesa Elementary scored 705, and YES Academy had a score of 669. Crenshaw Arts-Technology Charter High had a score of 666, and Crenshaw Senior High scored 550.

hotproperty@latimes.com

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