What salary do you need to live in Los Angeles, CA?

What housing costs in Los Angeles

A one-bedroom in Los Angeles rents for a median of $1,784 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $2,210 and a three-bedroom for $2,636. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $26,520.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA at $871,300. Set against the $95,958 median household income, that is a ratio of 9.1×, which keeps the buying part of the score low for most incomes.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Los Angeles's overall prices at 113.6 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $88,055 would elsewhere.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Los Angeles

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $129,000, Okay at $259,000 and Comfortable at $521,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 5% of income and the median home is 1.7× income.

No salary reaches Royal in Los Angeles: a fifth of the score reflects local prices rather than income, and with a parity of 113.6 the ceiling is 81 points, below the Royal cutoff of 85.

How they were found: the same scoring function the calculator runs was evaluated at rising incomes until each cutoff was crossed, and the crossing rounded up to a whole $1,000.

Los Angeles at four common salaries

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Stretched, with scores from 7 to 13.

In Los Angeles the table's top salary of $150,000 stops at Tight (29) for two bedrooms; Comfortable starts higher, at $521,000.

How Los Angeles ranks among 387 metros

On price level Los Angeles is 3rd of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 7th, and on median home value 6th. The two rankings agree, both falling in the top 10%.

For a sense of scale, the metros just above and below it on two-bedroom rent are Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA ($2,249) and Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA ($2,207).

Los Angeles vs. the rest of California

Compared with California as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Los Angeles is 5% higher ($2,210 vs. $2,103) and the median home is 19% higher ($871,300 vs. $734,700).

Scored the same way, the statewide figures turn Comfortable at $439,000, so Los Angeles needs $82,000 more than California overall.

If Los Angeles is on your list, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA, and Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA are the most similar California metros by two-bedroom rent and price level; the table shows where each turns Comfortable.

Does the typical Los Angeles income clear the bar?

A household at the Los Angeles median income of $95,958 would see a two-bedroom score of 17 — Stretched — with rent at 28% of income. Put differently, Los Angeles's typical household is $425,042 below the $521,000 it takes to read Comfortable on two bedrooms. For California as a whole, the median household income of $99,122 scores 23 against statewide rents. Since a household can have two or more earners, compare it with a combined income rather than one paycheck.

These are pre-tax estimates from public statistics, not financial advice.