In Los Angeles, buying a home is becoming increasingly difficult, and for many younger homeowners, the route to ownership appears to be tied less to wages and more to family wealth.
According to new research from the University of Southern California, a rising share of Los Angeles homeowners under 45 own their homes outright without a mortgage and have lower incomes than those with mortgages. The pattern suggests that this type of homeowner may be inheriting property or receiving family assistance when purchasing a home.
Here's what to know
According to The Real Deal, those findings come from the Neighborhood Data for Social Change, part of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. The outlet said the share of homeowners younger than 45 without a mortgage has increased by 27%.
The same USC data show an income divide among younger owners: Those without mortgages average about $163,000 a year, compared with roughly $223,000 for those who still have one. In a city where many working households cannot afford home prices on wages alone, that gap points toward inheritance or other family assistance as another route into ownership.
Los Angeles trails well behind broader benchmarks on homeownership. USC data put the rate at 36% in the city, compared with about 46% in Los Angeles County, 56% in California, and 65% nationwide.
The mismatch between earnings and housing costs has kept growing. USC reported that in 2024, the median home value in Los Angeles County was nearly 10 times the median household income, while in the city of Los Angeles the ratio was close to 12 to 1.
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More background
Homeowners in the region are also getting older. The report found that nearly half of Los Angeles County homeowners had remained in the same home for at least 20 years, underscoring how little turnover there is in the market.
When homes stay in the same hands for 20 years or more, younger residents trying to buy often face a double barrier: too few homes for sale and rising prices that outpace paychecks. That can leave more people renting for longer and make it harder to build wealth through home equity.
USC also measured how long different types of housing take to move from permit to certificate of occupancy. The averages were 22 months for single-family homes, 18 months for two- to four-unit housing, and 37 months for multifamily projects with five or more units.
Construction timelines can be slow, delaying the arrival of new supply that could ease pressure on prices or rents, especially in a market as strained as Los Angeles.
What can be done?
Per-capita housing production has varied widely across local cities. In The Real Deal's summary of the USC report, Rolling Hills Estates, Duarte, Hidden Hills, Monrovia, West Hollywood, and Los Angeles were identified as the leading builders between 2018 and 2025.
The data also suggest that smaller multifamily projects can move through the pipeline more quickly than large apartment developments. That could make duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes an important part of easing the housing crunch, especially in neighborhoods where single-family housing dominates.
As the gap between incomes and home prices widens, buying in Los Angeles increasingly hinges on whether a household has outside wealth to draw on.
USC summed up the trend: "This pattern suggests that younger households may increasingly be occupying inherited homes purchased and paid off by previous generations."
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