More than half of LA homes sold for over $1 million in February

It’s not exactly breaking news that homes in Los Angeles are expensive, but a new analysis from real estate website Estately sheds light on just how many homes are fetching sale prices well out of reach of the average buyer. It shows that more than half of the houses purchased in February, 2017, sold for over $1 million.

As high a share as that might seem, other cities saw even higher percentages of sales over $1 million. In Pasadena, more than 56 percent of homes went for over $1 million; in Huntington Beach, the number was 62 percent; and in Irvine, over 80 percent of home sales were in seven digit territory.

Courtesy Estately

Of course, many parts of Southern California saw far fewer sales of properties for $1 million, and some cities such as Inglewood and Lancaster had no homes that sold for that much. A recent report from CoreLogic shows that LA County’s median home sale price in January was $525,000 (across all of Southern California it was $455,000).

The regional data from Estately shows that high-priced cities such as Los Angeles are certainly playing a part in dragging up those numbers. It also shows how difficult it is to buy in Los Angeles and Pasadena.

Another recent study from mortgage data analyst HSH found that Angelenos will need a salary of more than $98,000 to afford a home priced at $503,400—with a 20 percent downpayment of over $100,000. That means that, even for residents making six figures, more than half of the city’s homes are selling for around twice what they’ll be able to afford.

No wonder the city has so many renters.

• It takes a salary of $98K to afford a house in LA [Curbed LA]
• LA County’s median home price rises to $525K [Curbed LA]
• Los Angeles has the fourth-highest percentage of renters in the nation [Curbed LA]