Hi Trevor,
Welcome to South LA =) my fiance and I recently bought a duplex in the neighborhood near 43rd & vermont in June 2017 and since then, we have seen sooo many changes in the area.
1. There is a lot of commercial development occurring in that expo/usc neighborhood- they broke ground on the George Lucas Museum, the LA Football Club, renovations to the Coliseum has begun, Honda is moving in a dealership on King, and the opening of USC Village (which includes Trader Joes and Target).
2. There is a lot of movement of demographics in the areas. What has historically been considered impoverished, dangerous, and blue collar areas is now turning into a place where young white collar/creative couples are buying homes. The closer to property is to USC and Expo Park, the more desirable it is. I've been organizing a community safety (police) meeting with our community on the NextDoor app and there were MANY new, young individuals who recently purchased (within the last year) a property in the South LA community.
3. There are a few flippers in the area who have done quite a few SFR flips that you can use as estimates for your project. The most notable are @Shawn Ward and @Meredith M. . You can find Shawn's flip posts on biggerpockets. There was one (I think it's on La Salle) near King blvd, where Shawn bought the property for about $400K, put in about $100K and sold it for about $660k (check his story for exact numbers) and we're seeing some lovely flips pop up all over South LA.
4. I dont mean to be speculative, but property values have also seen quite a bit of appreciation in our area. We closed on our duplex for $400K in June (each unit has 2bed/1bath) and at time of financing, the property appraised for about $415K. When I checked the Zillow Estimate last month, the property value was estimated at about $472K (of course it's zillow but it's a rough estimate).
I think there's a lot of opportunity in south LA and as people keep moving to Los Angeles from other states, they may not be able to buy a $1 million house in the westside or midwilshire but they can afford a $400k-$700k property near a major university and 15 minutes from downtown.
Also another thing to consider is the 2028 Olympics and what will that do to the value of the properties in the area? Homeowners in our neighborhood charge $40+ for parking during USC and LA Rams games.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any additional questions. We also have a facebook group South Los Angeles Bigger Pockets where we share information about local events, meetings, and RE news articles regarding South Los Angeles.
