03/29/2024

Report: LA is the nation’s most unaffordable housing market—and prices will keep rising

Home prices in Los Angeles have never been higher, and rents are increasingly unaffordable for many residents. Sadly, a new report from the UCLA Anderson Schoolf of Management predicts the situation is unlikely to change in the near future.

The report finds that three of the six most unaffordable cities for homebuyers nationwide are in Southern California and that Los Angeles is the single most unaffordable city for both renters and buyers. Though the cost of housing is higher in other cities, median income in LA is low enough that more residents will struggle to make monthly rental payments or save to buy a home.

The report notes that rental rates and home prices are closely tied—and both are likely to continue rising, in part because of a relatively sluggish pace of new housing development. Between 2014 and 2016, job creation vastly outpaced the construction of new housing in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Jose, and San Francisco—not coincidentally some of the most expensive urban areas in both California and the U.S.

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