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“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market.
The pain: Southern California last year surpassed having 1 million homes valued at $1 million or more.
The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a LendingTree report looking at Census stats on owner-occupied homes worth $1 million or more in 2023 in 50 large US metropolitan areas – including seven from California.
There were a total of 1.08 million seven-figure homes last year in Southern California’s three metro areas in this study – Los Angeles/Orange counties, San Diego County, and the Inland Empire comprising Riverside and San Bernardino counties. That’s 28% of the region’s 3.8 million residences.
Ongoing home-price appreciation – despite rising mortgage rates and slumping sales – plus construction of high-end homes helped to nudge Southern California across the million-home threshold.
The region added 97,100 abodes to the seven-figure club between 2023 and 2022 – that’s 10% growth, double the non-California pace.
It’s worse in Northern California.
Its four major metros in this study – San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento and Fresno – had 881,000 seven-figure homes out of 2.14 million. That’s a 41% share of all residences.
Yet Northern California last year added only 34,500 million-dollar homes, or 4%.
Elsewhere in the nation, these big price tags remain a relative luxury rarity.
The other 43 US major metros in the study had 3.75 million seven-figure homes out of 41.7 million, or 9% of all owner-occupied homes.
This out-of-California crowd added 193,400 million-dollar homes in 2023, that’s 5% more.
It’s likely depressing to many house hunters to see how common a million-dollar home is across coastal Southern California …
LA/OC: 36% of residences, third-largest share of the 50 US metros tracked. That’s 797,500 out of 2.19 million more than any of the 50 metros. The two counties were up 72,109 or 10%
San Diego: 35% (No 4 in US) – 224,000 out of 643,300 residences. This rose 23,431 last year or 12%.
Inland Empire: The region’s housing bargain has only 6% of its homes with seven figures, the 17th -largest slice among the 50. That’s 60,700 out of 976,000 residences. Still, the million-dollar tally is up 1,600 home in the past year or 3%.
Or look north, where’s it’s seemingly worse near the bay …
San Jose: 72%, highest in the nation – 267,750 out of 374,100 residences (up 13,500 last year or 5%).
San Francisco: 57% (No. 2 in US) – 551,600 out of 975,000 residences (up 19,500 last year or 4%).
Sacramento: 9% (No. 13 of 50) – 53,300 out of 564,750 residences (up 1,500 last year or 3%).
Fresno: 4% (No. 28 of 50) – 8,328 out of 222,250 residences (up 74 or 1%).
“Million-dollar homes are becoming more common not just because wealthier buyers are more interested in making purchases, but because dwindling supply has pushed the price point of ‘middle-class’ housing higher and higher,” the report said.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]
“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market.
The pain: Southern California last year surpassed having 1 million homes valued at $1 million or more.
The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a LendingTree report looking at Census stats on owner-occupied homes worth $1 million or more in 2023 in 50 large US metropolitan areas – including seven from California.
There were a total of 1.08 million seven-figure homes last year in Southern California’s three metro areas in this study – Los Angeles/Orange counties, San Diego County, and the Inland Empire comprising Riverside and San Bernardino counties. That’s 28% of the region’s 3.8 million residences.
Ongoing home-price appreciation – despite rising mortgage rates and slumping sales – plus construction of high-end homes helped to nudge Southern California across the million-home threshold.
The region added 97,100 abodes to the seven-figure club between 2023 and 2022 – that’s 10% growth, double the non-California pace.
It’s worse in Northern California.
Its four major metros in this study – San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento and Fresno – had 881,000 seven-figure homes out of 2.14 million. That’s a 41% share of all residences.
Yet Northern California last year added only 34,500 million-dollar homes, or 4%.
Elsewhere in the nation, these big price tags remain a relative luxury rarity.
The other 43 US major metros in the study had 3.75 million seven-figure homes out of 41.7 million, or 9% of all owner-occupied homes.
This out-of-California crowd added 193,400 million-dollar homes in 2023, that’s 5% more.
It’s likely depressing to many house hunters to see how common a million-dollar home is across coastal Southern California …
LA/OC: 36% of residences, third-largest share of the 50 US metros tracked. That’s 797,500 out of 2.19 million more than any of the 50 metros. The two counties were up 72,109 or 10%
San Diego: 35% (No 4 in US) – 224,000 out of 643,300 residences. This rose 23,431 last year or 12%.
Inland Empire: The region’s housing bargain has only 6% of its homes with seven figures, the 17th -largest slice among the 50. That’s 60,700 out of 976,000 residences. Still, the million-dollar tally is up 1,600 home in the past year or 3%.
Or look north, where’s it’s seemingly worse near the bay …
San Jose: 72%, highest in the nation – 267,750 out of 374,100 residences (up 13,500 last year or 5%).
San Francisco: 57% (No. 2 in US) – 551,600 out of 975,000 residences (up 19,500 last year or 4%).
Sacramento: 9% (No. 13 of 50) – 53,300 out of 564,750 residences (up 1,500 last year or 3%).
Fresno: 4% (No. 28 of 50) – 8,328 out of 222,250 residences (up 74 or 1%).
“Million-dollar homes are becoming more common not just because wealthier buyers are more interested in making purchases, but because dwindling supply has pushed the price point of ‘middle-class’ housing higher and higher,” the report said.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
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