California Legislative Analyst's Office Issues Updated Housing Affordability Report

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) updated its quarterly Housing Affordability Tracker and now reports that homes in California are about twice as expensive as the typical U.S. home.  The LAO found that payments for a mid-tier home were over $5,500 a month in September 2025—a 74 percent increase since January 2020.​

California home prices grew very rapidly from 2020 to 2022, with mid-tier home prices increasing by about 14 percent per year and bottom-tier home prices increasing by about 15 percent per year. However, since July 2022, home prices have remained relatively stable, with close to no net increase in middle-tier or bottom-tier CA home prices through December 2025. At the national level, mid-tier home prices have increased about 1 percent per year since July 2022.
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Despite the price shocks of 2020-22, California home prices are now similar to what they would have been if they had continued to grow at pre-pandemic rates. Between 2000 and 2020, bottom-tier and mid-tier home prices in California grew at an average annual rate of about 6 percent, similar to average growth over the entire post-pandemic period. If prices had continued to grow at pre-pandemic rates between 2020 and 2025, bottom-tier and mid-tier CA home prices would within about 1 percent of current levels.