Neighborhood Data for Social Change, a project of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, is pleased to present the second annual State of Los Angeles County Housing and Neighborhood report. We are thrilled that more than 250 people will be attending the unveiling of this work on August 11, 2026, at the California Endowment.

I want to thank Caroline Bhalla, Jared Schachner, and Cameron Yap for their leadership in producing this report, as well as the dozens of other contributors listed in the acknowledgments.

As in our inaugural report, ten things stood out to me this year. They are:

1. Los Angeles County, despite many policy changes designed to encourage the construction of new housing, is still struggling to produce enough housing to substantially increase vacancy rates and has therefore yet to place meaningful downward pressure on rents and house prices. 
2. Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) have risen from 9.5% of the new housing supply in 2018 to 37% in 2025.
3. In one council district, approximately 70 percent of those ADUs are not on the market for rent, and those that are generally are not affordable to moderate-income (let alone low-income) households in Los Angeles County.
4. The homeownership rate in Los Angeles County among those earning more than $150,000 is lower than the overall national homeownership rate.
5. Increasing interest rates have led to a more than 90% decline in refinance mortgage applications since 2020.
6. Non-Black Angelenos were more likely than their Black counterparts to benefit from rate and term refinances.
7. Black Angelenos who refinance their mortgages are more likely to do so to tap home equity.
8. The homeownership rate among Black householders in Los Angeles ticked up slightly, but our data predate the devastating fire in Altadena, where the Black homeownership rate was quite high.
9. While homelessness in Los Angeles County was flat, unsheltered homelessness has fallen.
10. More vehicles than rough sleepers were observed during the unsheltered count between 2022 and 2025. In 2026, however, rough sleepers outnumbered observed vehicles.