{"id":5230,"date":"2026-07-23T13:37:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5230"},"modified":"2026-07-23T13:37:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:37:40","slug":"l-a-orange-county-is-the-nations-most-unaffordable-housing-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5230","title":{"rendered":"L.A.-Orange County is the nation\u2019s most unaffordable housing market"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><iframe allow=\"geolocation\" allowfullscreen=\"yes\" allowtransparency=\"1\" class=\"iframe\" height=\"550px\" id=\"6a62192028b7b\" loading=\"lazy\" scrolling=\"yes\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/29755390\/embed\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Maybe some year soon, housing in California will become a manageable expense for the masses.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5228\">Courtney Stodden accepts Jason Alexander apology for sexual skit<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Until then, you\u2019ll have to read more rankings that detail how unaffordable Golden State life can be.<\/p>\n<p>For example, my trusty spreadsheet found the metro area comprising Los Angeles and Orange counties as the nation\u2019s most unaffordable, with six California housing markets ranked among the nation\u2019s eight biggest affordability headaches.<\/p>\n<p>Let me explain.<\/p>\n<p>Affordability challenges were graded three ways, using recent stats from the real estate tracker Zillow to create a broad measure of housing\u2019s financial burden across 50 large U.S. housing markets \u2013 including the six in California.<\/p>\n<p>First, ponder crowded housing, a signal of affordability stress, as the share of families living with other families. This includes across all housing settings, ownership or rental, between 2019 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Next, for buyers, think about the relative cost of homes for sale in May: the share of listings that were \u201caffordable\u201d as measured by house payments not exceeding 30% of income.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, for tenants, cogitate how much of the local paychecks go to the landlord: the ratio of May\u2019s rents to incomes.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It added up to L.A.-Orange County deemed the most unaffordable based on its overall housing-cost grade, which combines the 50-market rankings for these three affordability yardsticks.<\/p>\n<p>Note how poorly L.A.-Orange County scored.<\/p>\n<p>Families that were doubling up equaled 9% of all L.A.-Orange County homes, the fourth-highest share among the 50 metros. Only 5% of L.A.-Orange County homes on the market were \u201caffordable\u201d \u2013 the smallest share in the nation. And local rents ran 34% of incomes, the third-highest ratio.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s only slightly better than the nation\u2019s second-worst spot for affordability \u2013 San Diego County.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It had 9.5% of its families \u201cdoubled up \u201d \u2013 No. 3 among the metros. Only 10% of its listings were affordable, and it also received the third-worst grade. And San Diego\u2019s 31% rent-to-income was fifth-highest.<\/p>\n<h4>Elsewhere in California<\/h4>\n<p>No. 4 was San Jose, with 10% doubled up, the nation\u2019s highest. Only 13.7% of listings were affordable, the nation\u2019s fourth-worst. And a 25% rent-to-income ratio ranked No. 15.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5226\">Elon Musk to make \u2018historically accurate\u2019 AI version of \u2018The Odyssey\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>No. 5 was San Francisco, with 9.7% doubled up, No. 2 among the 50. Its 16% affordable listings were ninth-worst. And a 27% rent-to-income ranked No. 11.<\/p>\n<p>The Inland Empire was No. 6, with 7% doubled up (No. 11). Its 15% affordable listings were No. 8. And a 31% rent-to-income ratio was fourth-worst.<\/p>\n<p>No. 8 Sacramento\u2019s 8% share of doubled-up families ranked ninth-highest. Its 14% affordable listings were No. 6, and a 26% rent-to-income ratio was No. 13.<\/p>\n<p>The only metros among the eight most unaffordable not from the Golden State?<\/p>\n<p>No. 3 Boston and New York, which tied the Inland Empire for sixth-worst.<\/p>\n<h4>Nationally speaking<\/h4>\n<p>Contemplate the national housing burden compared to the Golden State\u2019s mess, as measured by the median results from these six California metro areas.<\/p>\n<p>Just 6% of American families are \u201cdoubled up\u201d vs. 9% in California. That\u2019s one-third less.<\/p>\n<p>Nationwide, 35% of listings are \u201caffordable\u2019 vs. 14% in the Golden State. That\u2019s 2.5 times more.<\/p>\n<p>And the typical American renter pays 27% of their income to the landlord, compared with 29% in California. Surprisingly, a narrow gap.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, if you want the best housing bargain in the nation, this math says consider relocating to St. Louis, which earned the best affordability score.<\/p>\n<p>Only 4% of St. Louis families double up, 59% of homes for sale are affordable, and the typical rent is only 20% of income.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5224\">FDA is investigating another cyclospora parasite outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe some year soon, housing in California will become a manageable expense for the masses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>L.A.-Orange County is the nation\u2019s most unaffordable housing market - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5230\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"L.A.-Orange County is the nation\u2019s most unaffordable housing market - 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