{"id":115391,"date":"2025-08-03T10:49:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T10:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115391\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T10:49:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T10:49:25","slug":"la-buyers-house-payment-up-4533-monthly-since-the-crash-san-gabriel-valley-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115391\/","title":{"rendered":"LA buyer\u2019s house payment up $4,533 monthly since the crash \u2013 San Gabriel Valley Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why are house hunters so reluctant to buy in Los Angeles County?<\/p>\n

Well, the house payment they\u2019d get has more than quadrupled since their post-Great Recession lows.<\/p>\n

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.<\/a> An estimated house payment was calculated for all residences \u2013 including houses and condos, both existing and newly built properties \u2013 assuming a 20% down payment.<\/p>\n

In May, the countywide $915,000 median-priced residence \u2013 financed at the 6.8% average rate of the previous three months \u2013 cost an estimated $5,925 a month. That\u2019s the third-highest cost on record. And that just for the loan, not property taxes or insurance.<\/p>\n

The last bargain<\/p>\n

Go back to this Los Angeles payment yardstick\u2019s January 2012 post-crash low.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the housing market was digging itself out of the rubble of the bubble\u2019s bursting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This same homebuyer\u2019s cost was only $1,392 that month. How? There were 4% mortgage rates and a $293,000 median home price.<\/p>\n

Of course, you\u2019d have to have the nerve to buy back then.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It adds up to the Los Angeles house payment skyrocketing 326% since its post-crash bargain-basement bottom. Or up $4,533 a month..<\/p>\n

And prices, up 212% in the period, are roughly two-thirds of the problem.<\/p>\n

How slow?<\/p>\n

This exploding expense is a reason why homebuying in Los Angeles ran 25% below average in May.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is witnessing long-running stagnation.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The price is wrong<\/p>\n

Good news, Los Angeles! Price relief may be brewing.<\/p>\n

Yes, the county\u2019s $915,000 median selling price for May is an all-time high, topping $ 902,125 in July 2024.<\/p>\n

But look at appreciation. Los Angeles gains averaged of 8.1% annually over the last five years.<\/p>\n

However, the median is up just 2.8% in the past 12 months. It\u2019s the second-worst 12-month performance in the past 24 months.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 1, 2025 at 8:44 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why are house hunters so reluctant to buy in Los Angeles County? Well, the house payment they\u2019d get…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":115392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[852,64,1582,276,7065,2961,224,6080,5337,50,4329,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-115391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-housing","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-county","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-real-estate","19":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114964448147957438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}