Typical U.S. homeowners stay in their houses for 11.8 years, but California homeowners stay in their homes for nearly 20 years, according to a new report from Redfin.
The median U.S. homeownership tenure increased from 6.5 years in 2005 to the peak time of 13.4 years in 2020, before dropping to 11.8 years in 2024. Redfin states that homeownership tenures increased between 2005 and 2020 in part because of the nation’s aging population. Tenure declined between 2020 and 2023 mainly because of the considerable amount of moving going on during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tenure stayed the same from 2023 to 2024 because home sales were slow due to high prices and high mortgage rates.
In California, homeowners have been incentivized to stay put, thanks to Proposition 13, which allows homeowners to lock in a low property-tax rate. In fact, Redfin reports that California is home to three of the top five U.S. metropolitan areas with the longest tenures.
The country’s longest median homeownership tenure is in Los Angeles, where the median time for owners to stay in the same home is 19.4 years as of 2024. San Jose is next, where the median tenure is 18.3 years.
Third on the tenure list was Cleveland, Ohio, where the median homeowner stays in the same home for 17.7 years. There was a tie for fourth place with homeowners in both San Francisco and Providence, Rhode Island, tending to stay in their homes for 16.8 years.
The statistics show just how powerful California’s Proposition 13, which was adopted in 1978, has become. Redfin offers the example of a home bought in LA for $200,000 in 1990. Proposition 13’s 1% property tax rule, the owner would have paid $2,000 in state property taxes the first year.
Today, 35 years later, the owner would still pay under $5,000 in annual taxes because the law limits the increase in the assessed value of a property to 2% per year, regardless of actual changes in the home’s value. A similar home in Los Angeles bought today would cost an estimated $1.2 million, and the owner would owe $12,000 in annual property taxes.
Also playing a role in keeping California homeowners in place is that many enjoy a low mortgage rate of between 3% and 5%, if they bought their homes between 2010 and 2022. Those that bought at certain times in 2022 got even a better deal, with mortgage rates falling below 3%. This phenomenon is taking place across the country as many homeowners are deciding to stay in their homes because they are “locked-in” to a low interest rate.
Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari explained that it is understandable that many Californians hang onto their homes, as they’re financially motivated to do so.
“But it’s a problem for young people trying to break into the state’s notoriously expensive housing market,” Bokhari said. “Tight inventory only pushes home prices up more and adds to the generational homeownership divide.”
