What is Measure ULA in Los Angeles? The 4% transfer tax, explained

What is Measure ULA in Los Angeles?

It's an extra transfer tax the City of Los Angeles charges when an expensive property sells. Voters passed it in November 2022 as the "United to House LA" measure — ULA — and the city began collecting on April 1, 2023. Its formal name is the Homelessness and Housing Solutions Tax.

People call it the mansion tax. That nickname is doing real damage, because ULA doesn't care whether the property is a mansion. It applies to apartment buildings, vacant land, industrial parcels and strip centers exactly the same way it applies to a house south of Ventura Boulevard.

Two things to fix in your head before anything else:

• It's charged on the gross sale price, not your gain. Your basis, your remodel receipts, your mortgage payoff — none of it reduces the tax.
• Once you cross the threshold, it applies to the entire price, not just the portion above the line.

That second point is where sellers lose money.

What is the ULA tax rate, and who actually pays it?

The measure set the base thresholds at $5 million and $10 million, and the City adjusts them every July 1 for inflation. For the year that began July 1, 2024, the adjusted thresholds were $5,150,000 and $10,300,000. They move again each July, so confirm the current-year figure with the City of Los Angeles Office of Finance before you price anything — I've linked it in the sources.

ULA sits on top of the transfer taxes that already existed, which in the City of LA are $4.50 per $1,000 (city) and $1.10 per $1,000 (county).

In Los Angeles County the seller customarily pays the documentary transfer tax, and escrow collects ULA at recording the same way. "Customarily" isn't "legally required" — it's a negotiated term in the purchase agreement, and in a slow market at that price point I've seen it discussed. Don't assume either way. Read the contract.

What happens if I sell for $5,200,000 instead of $5,149,000?

You net roughly $157,000 less. Same house, higher price, smaller check.

This is the single most important thing to understand about ULA, and it's the part that gets people. There is no phase-in and no ramp. One dollar over the line and 4% applies to every dollar of the price. The same cliff repeats at the upper threshold — cross from $10,300,000 to $10,400,000 and your rate jumps from 4% to 5.5% on the whole amount, which costs about $160,000 for $100,000 more in price.

So if your property could reasonably sell anywhere from $4.9M to $5.4M, there's a dead zone above the threshold where you're mathematically worse off. Any competent listing strategy at that price point starts with knowing where that dead zone sits this year. Start with an honest value range — my home value page is the place to begin, and then we model the net both ways in writing with escrow before we pick a number.

Does ULA apply to my house in Woodland Hills or Encino?

If the property is inside City of Los Angeles limits, yes — assuming the price clears the threshold. And nearly all of the West Valley is City of LA. West Hills, Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, Winnetka, Chatsworth, Northridge, Tarzana, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Reseda, Van Nuys — those are all neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles, not separate cities. ULA applies to all of them.

What doesn't apply:

• Calabasas and Hidden Hills. Separate incorporated cities. A $6,000,000 sale in Hidden Hills pays no ULA. A $6,000,000 sale a couple of ridges east in Woodland Hills pays about $240,000.
• Topanga. Unincorporated Los Angeles County, not the city. No ULA.
• Burbank, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village. Their own cities. No ULA.
• Everything in Ventura County, covered below.

Boundaries out here don't follow ZIP codes or what the sign on the corner says, and I've written about how badly that trips people up around Canoga Park, West Hills and Winnetka. For ULA the only thing that matters is the jurisdiction the parcel sits in. Look up the address in ZIMAS, the city's own zoning map — if the parcel loads with a Los Angeles council district, it's in the city.

Does ULA apply in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks or Moorpark?

No. Those are Ventura County cities and Measure ULA is a City of Los Angeles ordinance. It has no reach across the county line.

That's a genuine factor for owners of high-value acreage in Chatsworth or West Hills who are already weighing a move over the hill. It doesn't change the calculus for a $900,000 house — nobody at that price is paying ULA in either direction. But if you're selling a large horse property or a multi-parcel holding near the top of the market, the tax on the sale side is a City of LA cost you'd avoid on a Ventura County property you buy later. I've broken down the rest of that trade in Chatsworth to Simi Valley, and the Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks pages cover the neighborhoods.

Why does ULA matter here if most Valley homes are under $5 million?

Because the threshold catches more than mansions. In the West Valley the properties that actually cross it are:

• Apartment buildings. A well-located 20-to-30 unit building in Canoga Park, Reseda or Van Nuys clears $5.15M without being remotely a luxury asset. For a small landlord who bought in the 1990s, a 4% haircut on gross price is often larger than an entire year of net operating income.
• Development land. Parcels along the Orange Line corridor and the older commercial frontage on Sherman Way and Ventura Boulevard. Builders price ULA into what they'll pay, which means the seller eats it either directly or through a lower offer.
• Estate property south of Ventura. Encino, Tarzana and Sherman Oaks below the boulevard have plenty of houses in the $5M–$12M range, especially anything on a flat acre.
• Large acreage in the Chatsworth foothills, Hidden Hills-adjacent West Hills, and the Woodland Hills hillsides — sometimes a single parcel, sometimes a package of two or three sold together.
• Any assemblage. Selling three adjacent parcels to one buyer invites the question of whether it's one transfer. That's a conversation for a tax attorney, not a guess.

Is there an exemption for a primary residence or a long-time owner?

No. This is the part that feels wrong to people and it's still true.

ULA has no primary-residence exemption, no senior exemption, no exemption for how long you've owned, and no allowance for gain versus price. Someone who bought in Encino in 1978 for $210,000 and sells for $5.4 million pays the same 4% on gross as a builder flipping a spec house.

The exemptions the measure does include are narrow and organizational: qualified affordable housing developers, certain nonprofits with a demonstrated multi-year history of affordable housing work, community land trusts and limited-equity housing cooperatives. They require an application and documentation through the Office of Finance. They aren't something a family seller qualifies for.

A few more things ULA doesn't care about:

• A 1031 exchange. Deferring federal and state capital gains doesn't exempt the conveyance from a local transfer tax. ULA is still collected at recording.
• A seller-carried note or installment sale. The transfer happened.
• Prop 19. Transferring your assessed value to a replacement home is a property tax question, entirely separate from a one-time transfer tax on the sale. If you're 55 or older, read the Prop 19 guide and the post on why the order of selling and buying matters, because that sequence is worth real money independent of ULA.
• Capital gains. ULA is in addition to federal and state tax on your gain, and in addition to the $250,000 / $500,000 primary-residence exclusion math. Your CPA handles that half. I don't.

What should I do if my property is near the threshold?

In this order:

1. Confirm the jurisdiction. Pull the parcel in ZIMAS and confirm it's City of LA. If it's Calabasas, Topanga or Ventura County, stop here — ULA is not your issue.
2. Confirm this year's threshold. It resets every July 1. Use the Office of Finance page, not a number you read in an article from 2023.
3. Get an honest value range before you get attached to a price. Not a Zestimate and not the highest number an agent will say to win the listing. A range you'd defend to an appraiser.
4. If the range straddles the line, model both nets in writing. Ask escrow for a seller's estimated closing statement at a price just under and a price just over. Look at the two bottom-line figures side by side. That single sheet of paper decides your pricing strategy.
5. Bring in a tax attorney or CPA if the structure is unusual — entity-held title, partial interests, multiple parcels, a trust distribution, a 1031. Entity transfers can trigger documentary transfer tax, and that's a legal call I'm not licensed to make for you.
6. Settle who pays it in the contract, in writing, before you're in escrow arguing about a six-figure line item.

If you want the numbers version rather than the explanation version, the Measure ULA guide has the current rates and thresholds, and the sellers page walks through the rest of the closing costs — county transfer tax, the 9A report, title, escrow, commissions.

Is Measure ULA going away?

Don't plan around it. There have been legal challenges, and there's been steady talk at the city level about carve-outs and amendments. So far the tax has survived and escrow is collecting it on every qualifying sale. A statewide measure that would have raised the bar for taxes like this was pulled from the 2024 ballot by the California Supreme Court before voters saw it.

If something changes, it'll change on a recording date, which means it matters enormously whether your deal records on March 31 or April 2 of whatever year. That's a reason to watch the City Council calendar if you're a large owner — not a reason to sit on a property for three years hoping.

The short version

If you're selling a normal West Valley house — Winnetka, Canoga Park, most of Woodland Hills, most of Northridge — ULA will never touch your transaction and you can stop thinking about it. If you're selling an apartment building, acreage, development land, or a house in the $5 million neighborhood, the threshold is the most consequential number in your entire deal, and the difference between understanding it and not is roughly the price of a condo.

If you're not sure which of those you are, send me the address and I'll tell you straight. Contact me here.

I'm a REALTOR®, not an attorney or a CPA. This is how the tax works, not advice about your specific transaction — for that, use your own tax professional.