And building high-density urban housing on land previously used for other purposes has caught on.

“I’ve seen a shift from a small niche segment of our industry doing infill to the point now where most builders — certainly the majors — have included this type of building in their business models,” said Rich Ambros, chief executive of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California. “In the years to come, you’ll see a greater supply of workforce housing.”

Squeezing more houses onto smaller acreage is widely acknowledged among urban planners, academics and a growing number of city officials and builders as a solution to housing California’s booming population. The Wilshire Corridor, Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles, Anaheim, Fullerton and Inland Empire cities such as Ontario and Fontana now have high-density developments either built or going up, with jobs and public transportation close by.

That’s great for some, but for other buyers and renters, it’s still a Herculean struggle to live within their means and maintain a reasonable quality of life in Southern California.

Tim Morrison, a 45-year-old executive at a construction-financing company, has commuted 50 miles each way from Glendora — on three trains and a bus — to his Northridge job each day for eight years. His wife, Edwina, 49, a nursing communications technician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, has commuted for 12 years. It was worth it, Tim said, to provide a larger home and good schools for their kids, who now are out of the house.

Tim had a Thomas Edison moment last year when he saw an advertisement for new Standard Pacific condos about to go up across the street from Union Station. Morrison knew he had to get one. The day the sales office opened in March, he and Edwina were among the first to purchase. They bought a $586,000, two-bedroom condo with a view at Axis at Union Station, which they expect to move into this month.

“For us, moving downtown near transportation was a no-brainer,” Tim said. “As soon as I saw the sign for these condos, I knew it was what we were looking for.”

Bentley Hodges and his wife, Catherine, both 28, thought they knew what they were getting into house-wise when Bentley accepted an investment-banking job in the west San Fernando Valley 2 1/2 years ago.

After selling their three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot home in Minneapolis for $270,000, they felt sure they could find a Los Angeles home for $350,000. That optimism quickly turned to despair after the couple looked at “junky, 800-square-foot homes” in the West Valley, Bentley said. They finally found a two-bedroom “major fixer” in West Los Angeles for $580,000.

Bentley said he has endured a dawn-to-dusk commuting schedule so that he and Catherine, a physical therapist, can live in a decent house they can afford (barely). He leaves home for his office at 7 a.m. and returns after 6:30 p.m., when traffic eases.

But a recent move by a co-worker has gotten Bentley to thinking. His colleague transferred to Plano, Texas, and used the profits from the sale of his home here to purchase with cash a five-bedroom, five-bathroom house for $400,000.

“We like L.A., but you get more value for your dollar out of state,” he said. “I’m not sure where the future will lead us.”

Generation Y Us?

The Hodgeses, who were able to use home equity to buy, are the lucky ones. As baby boomers’ children — the bulging demographic dubbed Generation Y — think about entering the market, the inability to findhouses they can afford has pushed home-buying far into the future for some.  Continue »

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