Measure ULA in 2026: The New $5.4 Million Threshold, and Why One Dollar Can Cost $216,000

If you are selling property in the City of Los Angeles today, the Measure ULA threshold is $5,400,000. Not $5.3 million, which is the figure in nearly every article written about the tax, including local coverage published this month. The upper tier is now $10,900,000. Both numbers moved on July 1, 2026.

The thresholds reset every year against the Chained Consumer Price Index. The ordinance requires it and almost nobody tracks it. The Office of Finance rate table is the authoritative place to check, and it is worth checking before you price anything.

What does crossing the line actually cost?

The ULA tax is not marginal. It applies to the full value conveyed, not to the slice above the threshold.

A sale at exactly $5,400,000 owes no ULA tax. A sale at $5,400,001 owes 4 percent of the entire amount, roughly $216,000. One dollar of price, $216,000 of tax.

The second cliff is smaller and still serious. At $10,899,999 the 4 percent rate produces about $436,000. At $10,900,000 the rate steps to 5.5 percent and the bill becomes $599,500. That is $163,500 for one additional dollar.

The city's base transfer tax of 0.45 percent sits underneath all of it and applies at every price.

Which value does the city measure?

Here is the mechanic that catches sellers. The base transfer tax is computed on net value, excluding any lien or encumbrance remaining on the property. The ULA tax is computed on gross value, including assumed debt.

A sale where the buyer takes over an existing loan can therefore clear the ULA threshold on paper while the money actually changing hands sits well below it. If you are structuring a deal around an assumption, run the tax against the gross number.

How small is the market this tax touches?

> From April 1, 2023 through April 30, 2026, Measure ULA raised nearly $1.2 billion from 1,633 real estate transactions.

Thirty-seven months, 1,633 qualifying sales. That is about 44 a month, in a city of four million people, across every category the tax reaches: single-family homes, apartment buildings, retail, industrial, land.

That number is worth sitting with. The Los Angeles Housing Department expects to allocate more than $520 million in ULA funds in fiscal 2026-27, including $335 million for affordable housing programs and $144 million for homelessness prevention. That budget rests on roughly 44 property sales a month.

It also explains why the exemption fight is as sharp as it is. When the base is that narrow, every carve-out takes a real slice out of it. LAHD ran the numbers in May: exempting multifamily and commercial property built or substantially rehabilitated within the past 15 years would cut ULA revenue by 28.8 percent, about $145 million a year.

Whether the tax has shrunk the market is genuinely disputed, and both sides have real evidence. A UCLA Lewis Center study by Michael Manville and Mott Smith found declines of 30 to 50 percent in non-single-family transactions after ULA took effect. The United to House LA coalition points to what the revenue has produced: $152.7 million awarded toward 1,409 new affordable units, 4,488 households given rental assistance, and 14,258 households given eviction defense.

Where did the reform fight land?

On July 1, 2026, the City Council voted 14-0 to shelve a ballot measure that would have exempted new apartment buildings from ULA for their first ten years. It was the last day to put items before voters in November.

One narrower measure survived. On August 4 the Council voted 13-1 to ask voters whether to exempt Palisades Fire homeowners from ULA on a one-time, five-year basis running from the date of the fire emergency.

For anyone pricing a sale between now and the next adjustment on July 1, 2027, none of that changes the arithmetic. The threshold is $5.4 million, the tax is measured on gross value, and the first dollar over the line is the most expensive dollar in the deal.

Sources

Los Angeles Housing Department, Report to City Council on ULA Revenues and Programmatic Outcomes, C.F. 26-0088-S1, May 10, 2026: https://cityclerk.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2026/26-0088-S1%5Frpt%5Flahd%5F05-10-26.pdf

Los Angeles Office of Finance, Real Property Transfer Tax and Measure ULA FAQ, current rate table and thresholds: https://finance.lacity.gov/faq/measure-ula

Los Angeles Housing Department, ULA Revenue Dashboard: https://housing.lacity.gov/ula-revenue

UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, The Unintended Consequences of Measure ULA, Michael Manville and Mott Smith: https://www.lewis.ucla.edu/event/the-unintended-consequences-of-measure-ula/

LAist, LA City Council shelves ballot measure to cancel the mansion tax on new apartments, July 1, 2026: https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-city-council-mansion-tax-measure-ula-november-ballot-measure-2026-vote

MyNewsLA, LA Voters to Decide Measure Exempting Pacific Palisades from Measure ULA, August 4, 2026: https://mynewsla.com/government/2026/08/04/la-voters-to-decide-measure-exempting-pacific-palisades-from-measure-ula/