Buying Near LAX: What It Costs and What It Does Not

Westchester and parts of Playa del Rey sit near the LAX runways. Buyers ask about it constantly and get answers that are either dismissive or alarmist. Here is the useful version.

The noise is not uniform

It depends on which runways are in use, the wind direction, the time of day, your elevation, and what is between you and the airport.

LAX operates on a west flow the large majority of the time, meaning aircraft take off toward the ocean and land from the east. Under that pattern, arrivals come in over parts of Westchester and Inglewood. Departures head out over the water.

When the wind reverses, which happens a small percentage of the year, the pattern flips and the noise moves with it.

The soundproofing program

Many homes in the affected areas were soundproofed under the LAX residential soundproofing program, which paid for replacement windows, doors, and insulation.

If you are looking at a house in the flight path, ask whether it participated and get the documentation. A soundproofed house with the windows closed is a substantially different experience from one that was not, and it is a specific, verifiable fact rather than an opinion.

The avigation easement

Some properties near the airport carry a recorded avigation easement, granting the right to overflight. It runs with the land. Your title report will show it and you should read it.

What it does to price

It is priced in. Homes under the flight path trade at a discount to comparable homes outside it, and that discount is well established and understood by the local market.

For some buyers that discount is the reason they can afford a house with a yard fifteen minutes from the beach. For others no discount is sufficient. Both are reasonable positions.

What I tell buyers to do

Stand on the property. Not in the car with the windows up, on the property, for twenty minutes, on a weekday morning. Then go back on a Saturday.

You will know inside ten minutes whether it bothers you. This is not something to reason your way through. It is something to experience and then decide.

What I will not do

Tell you it is quiet when it is not, and tell you it is unlivable when thousands of people live there happily. Both of those are agents talking their book.

Call me at (310) 861-3459.