Dive Brief:

• The scrape is back — with developers in Southern California increasingly razing small homes so they can build much larger ones on lots in popular locations.
• It's not like the days before the recession — yet — but numbers are up for demolitions permits in several communities, including Los Angeles.
• The scrapes sometimes are for spec houses and sometimes for bigger structures on properties that homeowners have bought so the existing houses can be taken down.

Dive Insight:

From January through mid-December last year, Los Angeles gave out 29% more demolition permits to knock down single-family houses or duplexes than in the 12 months of 2012. From July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013, Manhattan beach permitted 84 tear-downs, almost 100% more than the 2011-2012 period. The "why" is not hard — the median house price in the region in November was $385,000, up 20% in a year.