LA 'troll apartment' on market for $250K – would YOU live here?

A bridge too far? Quirky Los Angeles ‘troll apartment’ hits the market for $250,000 – but there’s just one catch…

• The 450-square foot apartment in Alhambra has one bedroom, one bathroom 
• Rising house prices and rental costs mean Americans have been forced to consider more unusual ways to get on the property ladder
• It has been dubbed a ‘troll apartment’ as it is embedded into a bridge  

One of the cheapest homes in a Los Angeles county has gone on sale for $250,000 – but there is just one catch.

The one-bedroom 450-square foot ‘fixer-upper’ is built into the side of a bridge. 

The so-called ‘troll apartment’ in Alhambra, less than ten miles from downtown Los Angeles, is actually below street level and embedded into the bridge overlooking a stream.

But it is also one of only 11 properties in the county listed for under a quarter of a million dollars, according to listing agent Compass Real Estate.

Rampant inflation and Federal Reserve hikes have sent mortgage rates soaring and inflated rent costs across the country. At the beginning of this month, the average 30-year mortgage rose to 6.79 percent, according to Freddie Mac. 

Southern California has been hit particularly hard by rising house prices, with the median sale price for a single-family house around $785,000 in the state. Buyers have been forced to move to far-flung suburbs, opt for much smaller properties near city centers, or consider more unusual options – like this ‘quirky’ bridge house.

The home on East Main Street in Alhambra, Los Angeles, is on the market for $250,000

The apartment has a ‘rooftop patio’ which is actually located at street level with only a metal fence separating it from the adjacent street

The property is listed as ‘ideal for a young professional that wants to be close to downtown for work’ and boasts a ‘roof top patio which is perfect for entertaining.’ 

The ‘roof top’ patio is about the size of the home itself, and is located on street level above the stream with a metal fence separating it from the adjacent street. 

The apartment is a ‘cosmetic fixer’ which is ‘conveniently located to retail ships and good eats’ and is an ‘excellent opportunity to get into home ownership and build equity,’ according to its listing.

Doug Lee, the agent with Compass Real Estate who listed the home for precisely $249,950 told the Los Angeles Times: ‘We had no comparables … no similar properties. This is a very, very unique property.’

He said the apartment, which was built in 1949, had once belonged to his high school friend’s parents, who bought it in 2005 for about $72,000. 

The original plan was to build it in to a ‘man cave’ but the property has not been lived in for over 20 years so is in need of essential maintenance such as a $3,000 mold abatement job. 

Lee told KTLA the home could do with some re-imagining to transform it into a ‘modern treehouse.’ 

Instead of being put off by the unusual set up, he said people thought it was ‘unique and cool.’ 

The home has been on the market for a few weeks, and Lee said he has been overwhelmed by the huge amount of interest in it.

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The ‘fixer-upper’, which is on the market for $250,000 has not been lived in for over 20 years

The apartment is below street-level, down a staircase and embedded into the side of a bridge

He said he did not know how responsive the market would be – but an open house over the weekend drew in 40 to 50 groups each day. ‘It was a zoo,’ he told the Los Angeles Times. 

He added USA Today: ‘Anyone that makes $80,000, your maximum pre-approval is up to $400,000. Everybody is trapped. It’s either this or you’re stuck in rents land.’

It is one of the only properties in the county listed for under $250,000 – with the average one-bedroom home in Alhambra costing $350,000. 

Lee said the price was less than the average apartment in the area to make up for the lack of a dedicated parking spot.

There is also the potential hiccup that the bridge which the apartment is built into is presumably public land. It is not clear who owns the space between the home and the water – including the arches suspending the bridge. 

The real estate agency said it is currently working with the US Army Corps of Engineers to determine whether this is public land. It is not clear whether this could affect the sale of the home or its market price.

The home also received a mixed response when it was posted on popular Instagram page Zillow Gone Wild.

While some saw potential – with one user writing ‘Would love to host a party up there’, others were less positive. 

‘My brain is not computing whatever is happening here,’ wrote another user, while another commented: ‘How did that ever get a building permit.’ 

The stairwell takes you down to the home’s front entrance from street level

The ‘unique’ property features one bathroom and one bedroom and measures 462 square feet

Listing agent Douglas Lee said there had been huge interest in the home, with an open house attracting hundreds of prospective buyers 

It comes as Americans are increasingly looking for more creative ways to get on the property ladder as prices soar and red-hot inflation hammers savings. 

Rent growth is outpacing incomes across the country, according to data from Moody’s Analytics. 

It revealed average rents have risen by 134.9 percent since 1999, while incomes have gone up by 76.8 percent in the same period. 

Some are even turning to mortgage-free ‘tiny homes’, which are booming in popularity on social media and can cost less than $50,000.

There is just one catch – buyers have to build the homes themselves. 

Home Depot is selling a whole host of pre-fabricated, one-bedroom homes for anywhere between $4,000 and $40,000.

It falls well below the average cost of a property in the US which is now $339,048, according to property website Zillow.

A 366-square-foot ‘Sea Breeze’ home is currently listed on Home Depot’s website for $23, 592, pictured 

The ‘kit’ comes with a steel structure and the components to assemble them and is delivered to a customer’s door

Earlier this year California Governor Gavin Newsom announced plans to spend $30 million constructing 1,200 tiny homes to combat the housing crisis and homelessness problem in the state.

Nearly a third of all homeless people in the country are in California. 

The 120-square-foot properties can be assembled in just 90 minutes and will be connected to electricity – though they will not have plumbing, water or cooking appliances. 

However critics have lambasted the plans, saying it is putting a ‘band-aid’ on the crisis and accusing the governor of ‘sweeping things under the rug’. 

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