This burnt-out 3-bedroom in Torrance sold for over $1 million. Welcome to California's housing market

[BurnDoubt]

15. What do you suppose would account for such a...

disparity in home values?
In 1954, in the center of California, on recently re-zoned farmland in World-Class Agriculture Country, My Grandparents purchased a three-bedroom home for $8000,00 on a piece of land they bought for $495.00. It was do-able with two Union Jobs, although the end-of-the-month menu most often included Ham Hocks and Navy Bean Soup or “Shit On A Shingle”.
In Sacramento today rents are around $2200.00 a month for a studio or one-bedroom apartment.
Most of the guys who own those rentals may never even see the properties as long as they own them.
The people who could be investing in new-home construction are investing in existing properties so they can raise the rents and let the properties fall into dis-repair and then take a “loss”, passing them on to the next “investors”.
The “private sector" has no interest increasing housing stock because they can make money by ”scarce-ifying” the existing inventory.
This is another issue that “The Invisible Hand” will NEVER solve, because it is simply not who they are.