Looking for a Cheap Place to Live? Put California in Your Rear-View Mirror

A realtor's 'for sale' sign is displayed outside a single-family home on Sept. 22, 2022, in Los Angeles. Allison Dinner/Getty Images

The cost of renting, buying, and living in California continues to increase, according to new reports.

Housing expenses in Los Angeles are 137 percent higher than the national average, according to a report by Payscale, an organization that provides real-time salary data. Utility costs are 10 percent higher, while groceries are 12 percent more, and the cost of transportation, including the price of gasoline, was 33 percent more this year, Payscale reported.

Overall, the cost of living in Los Angeles is 50 percent higher than the national average, according to the study.

The median home price was also listed at nearly $1.2 million for Los Angeles, while median rent reached $3,600 a month. Energy bills averaged nearly $220 a month, while phone bills were $212 a month, Payscale reported.

California also had the four metro areas with the biggest share of million-dollar homes in 2023, according to U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data analyzed by real estate lender Lending Tree.

A majority of houses in San Jose and San Francisco were worth over $1 million, the lender reported.

In San Jose, nearly 72 percent of the homes were priced over $1 million, while in San Francisco, nearly 57 percent cost over that benchmark. The prices were up from 2022, when 66 percent of homes in San Jose and 53 percent of San Francisco properties topped $1 million, Lending Tree reported.

“Driven by factors including limited housing supplies and the significant wealth generated by the tech and entertainment industries, 44.02 percent of owner-occupied homes across San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego are valued at at least $1 million,” Jacob Channel wrote in the Lending Tree report published in November.

Paying $1 million for a home has become more common across the nation since the pandemic, the lender reported.

The 1970s brought bright colors to the facades of the homes on Steiner Street in San Francisco, California. San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego were the four metro areas in the U.S. with the biggest share of million-dollar homes. Atosan/Shutterstock

Nearly 11 percent of all owner-occupied homes across the nation’s 50 largest cities were valued at $1 million or more in 2023—up from nearly 8 percent in 2022, according to the report.

“Put another way, the share of million-dollar homes in the nation’s largest metros grew year over year by 2.86 percentage points, or 1.32 million housing units,” Channel wrote.

Lending Tree attributes the increase in housing prices to a lack of supply, saying the United States is short millions of available housing units.

“Steep prices are often felt the most in large metros, where roadblocks such as overly strict zoning laws can make new construction difficult and exacerbate supply issues,” according to the report.

On the other end of the scale, Cleveland, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; and Louisville, Kentucky, had the fewest million-dollar homes.

In Cleveland, about 1 percent of owner-occupied homes were valued at $1 million or more. In Buffalo, only about 1.2 percent were over that much, and Louisville had about 1.4 percent.

Although million-dollar houses weren’t as common in these three cities, their numbers grew from 2022, with an increase of nearly 5,800 houses valued at $1 million or more, combined.