Why are house hunters so reluctant to buy in Los Angeles County?
Well, the house payment they’d get has more than quadrupled since their post-Great Recession lows.
To track the affordability woes of housing, my trusty spreadsheet analyzed median sale prices from Attom and 30-year fixed mortgage rates from Freddie Mac. An estimated house payment was calculated for all residences – including houses and condos, both existing and newly built properties – assuming a 20% down payment.
In May, the countywide $915,000 median-priced residence – financed at the 6.8% average rate of the previous three months – cost an estimated $5,925 a month. That’s the third-highest cost on record. And that just for the loan, not property taxes or insurance.
The last bargain
Go back to this Los Angeles payment yardstick’s January 2012 post-crash low.
That’s when the housing market was digging itself out of the rubble of the bubble’s bursting.
This same homebuyer’s cost was only $1,392 that month. How? There were 4% mortgage rates and a $293,000 median home price.
Of course, you’d have to have the nerve to buy back then.
Los Angeles prices had slid 44% in the previous five years. In May 2025, a house hunter sees the median home 48% pricier in five years.
It adds up to the Los Angeles house payment skyrocketing 326% since its post-crash bargain-basement bottom. Or up $4,533 a month..
And prices, up 212% in the period, are roughly two-thirds of the problem.
How slow?
This exploding expense is a reason why homebuying in Los Angeles ran 25% below average in May.
The 5,535 closed transactions were off 1% in a year and far below the 7,427-a-month pace since 2005. It was also the second-slowest May over 21 years.
Los Angeles is witnessing long-running stagnation.
Consider that the 61,783 residences sold in the 12 months ended in May are 25% below the average annual pace over the past two decades.
The price is wrong
Good news, Los Angeles! Price relief may be brewing.
Yes, the county’s $915,000 median selling price for May is an all-time high, topping $ 902,125 in July 2024.
But look at appreciation. Los Angeles gains averaged of 8.1% annually over the last five years.
However, the median is up just 2.8% in the past 12 months. It’s the second-worst 12-month performance in the past 24 months.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com