Please do not treat May’s record home price in Southern California as a signal of real estate market health.
The six-county region median selling price hit a new peak at $840,000, as reported by real estate tracker Attom. The 2% increase in the past year toppled the old record of $831,000 set in June 2025. Attom’s count includes homes and condos, both existing and newly built.
Yes, this horribly unaffordable housing market has not collapsed like it did when house hunter finances were equally stretched roughly two decades ago. And tolks who bet on local real estate – homeowners and investors – likely cheer the 84% surge in prices in the past decade.
But consider a different view: how locals who might dream of owning a home one day might think about those same sky-high home prices.
Just look at homeownership rates across Southern California in the first half of 2026, according to the Census Bureau.
The highest rate was found in the Inland Empire, where 62% of households own their homes. That’s the 21st lowest level among the nation’s 75 largest metropolitan areas. Ventura County’s 61% is the 17th lowest. San Diego County’s 56% is the sixth-lowest.
And the nation’s worst? The 48% rate for the metro area comprising Los Angeles and Orange counties.
What really matters
My trusty spreadsheet put Southern California’s homebuying burden into perspective by calculating what house hunters really think about: their monthly payment.
A typical buyer at May’s median price might finance the purchase with a 30-year mortgage – rates ran at 6.5% over three months through May. They must also pay property taxes and home insurance. Additionally, if they used only a 10% down payment – that’s $84,000 in cash at closing – there’s the extra cost for mortgage insurance.
All these assumptions add up to a hypothetical buyer’s combined monthly expenses of $5,800, only 3% below the peak in May 2024. This estimated ownership burden would consume 42% of the $168,000 average annual wage earned by a two-worker household, using Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Most lenders reserve that size of budgetary stretch for borrowers with high credit scores and few debts.
Meanwhile, ponder the cost of the alternative living arrangement. The typical Southern California rent runs $2,800 a month, according to Zillow. That’s less than half the house payment.
Sales spurt
Despite the monetary hurdles, springtime’s brief dip in mortgage rates helped 18,345 Southern California homes to sell in May. That was up 22% in a year.
That’s the best sales pace for any May since 2022, a time when the Federal Reserve was ending its pandemic-era cheap-money policies that had pushed mortgage rates to historic lows.
May’s noteworthy bump in buying could also be linked to those with solid paychecks in a largely stagnant job market. Perhaps it’s a byproduct of California’s against-the-grain higher consumer confidence, too.
Still, the financial constraints on house hunters, largely tied to record-high prices and costlier mortgages, meant May’s sales pace was 13% below the average purchasing pace for that month since 2005.
Counting counties
Ponder these homebuying patterns across the six counties, ranked by May’s median price:
– Orange: $1.22 million median – second-highest, just 0.1% below the county’s peak price. Estimated house payment of $8,500 a month would eat up 58% of two average wages and is 167% above typical rents. May’s 2,996 sales, up 40% in a year, are only 1% below average.
– Los Angeles: $912,395 median – fourth-highest – 0.6% below the peak. A payment of $6,300 consumes 40% of two average wages and is 125% above typical rents. May’s 6,226 sales, up 13% in a year but 16% below average.
– San Diego: $900,000 median – fourth-highest – 2% below the peak. A payment of $6,200 consumes 42% of two average wages and is 109% above typical rents. May’s 3,232 sales were up 34% in a year but 8% below average.
– Ventura: Record $892,500 median. A payment of $6,200 consumes 50% of two average wages and is 110% above typical rents. May’s 831 sales were up 34% in a year but 3% below average.
– Riverside: $600,000 median – eighth-highest – 2% below the peak. A payment of $4,200 consumes 40% of two average wages and is 62% above typical rents. May’s 2,866 sales were up 7% in a year but 24% below average.
– San Bernardino: $530,000 median – ninth-highest – 3% below the peak. A payment of $3,700 consumes 34% of two average wages and is 50% above typical rents. May’s 2,194 sales were up 28% in a year but 18% below average.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
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