Measure ULA adds 4 percent on Los Feliz sales above the threshold and 5.5 percent at the top tier. Here is what it actually costs, what it does not cover, and how the annual July reset changes the math.
How much does Measure ULA cost on a Los Feliz home sale?
Measure ULA, the Los Angeles transfer tax, adds 4 percent on City of LA home sales above $5,400,000 and 5.5 percent at $10,900,000 and above. The seller pays it at closing on the gross sale price, not the gain, on top of the 0.56 percent base transfer taxes. Thresholds rise each July 1.
If you own in Los Feliz Estates, Laughlin Park, the Oaks, Franklin Hills, or one of the architectural homes scattered through Los Feliz, there is a real chance an eventual sale will cross a Measure ULA threshold. And the difference between a home that clears the line and one that does not is not a few hundred dollars. It is well over $200,000.
Most Los Feliz sellers Debbie Pisaro works with first hear about ULA from a neighbor, a CPA, or a Reddit thread, and the version they hear is usually a little wrong. The numbers move every July, the rules around what counts as consideration trip people up, and the planning moves a seller can actually make are narrower than most people assume. Here is the real picture, with a clean breakdown of what it costs, what it does not cover, and how to think about it before listing. If you want the short version from a Los Feliz real estate agent: model the net before you set the price, not after an offer lands.
What is Measure ULA, in plain English?
Measure ULA is a City of Los Angeles transfer tax that voters passed in November 2022 and that took effect April 1, 2023. It applies to any sale of real property within the City of Los Angeles above a dollar threshold. Los Feliz sits inside the City of LA, so every sale in the neighborhood is exposed.
It is layered on top of the transfer taxes a seller already pays at closing:
- Los Angeles County documentary transfer tax: $1.10 per $1,000 of sale price, or 0.11 percent.
- City of Los Angeles documentary transfer tax: $4.50 per $1,000 of sale price, or 0.45 percent.
- Measure ULA, only on sales above the threshold: 4 percent or 5.5 percent of the gross sale price, depending on tier.
One detail that catches people: ULA applies to gross consideration, which includes debt the buyer assumes, not just the cash across the table. The base city and county taxes are calculated on net value. That difference rarely changes the answer on a straight residential sale, but it matters on anything with assumed financing.
The tiers, and how they move
The thresholds and rates index annually to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Chained Consumer Price Index, and the new figures take effect every July 1. Current tiers:
- No ULA at or below $5,400,000. The seller owes the base transfer taxes only.
- 4 percent on sales above $5,400,000 and under $10,900,000.
- 5.5 percent on sales of $10,900,000 and above.
For context on how fast the line moves: the tax opened in April 2023 at $5,000,000 and $10,000,000, ran at $5,300,000 and $10,600,000 through June 2026, and reset to the current figures on July 1, 2026. The next adjustment lands July 1, 2027. If a closing date straddles a reset, the recording date controls, which is why a single day can decide whether the tax applies at all. Confirm the live figures on the City of LA Office of Finance Measure ULA page before finalizing any strategy.
What does ULA cost on real Los Feliz sale prices?
The cleanest way to understand the impact is to run it on prices that actually transact in Los Feliz. These are illustrative, not tax advice, and they assume the home is in the City of LA, which Los Feliz is, and that no exemption applies. Base transfer taxes below are the combined city and county 0.56 percent.
- $3,200,000 sale: ULA does not apply. Base transfer taxes only, about $17,920.
- $4,950,000 sale: Still under the threshold. No ULA. Base transfer taxes about $27,720.
- $5,400,000 sale: At the threshold, not above it. No ULA. Base transfer taxes about $30,240.
- $5,450,000 sale: Fifty thousand dollars higher, and now above the line. ULA at 4 percent on the full $5,450,000 is $218,000, plus about $30,520 in base tax. Total transfer-tax bucket: roughly $248,520.
- $6,000,000 sale: ULA at 4 percent is $240,000, plus about $33,600 base. Total roughly $273,600.
- $8,000,000 sale: ULA at 4 percent is $320,000, plus $44,800 base. Total $364,800.
- $10,900,000 sale: The top tier starts here. ULA at 5.5 percent is $599,500, plus $61,040 base. Total $660,540.
- $11,000,000 sale: ULA at 5.5 percent is $605,000, plus $61,600 base. Total $666,600.
Two things should jump out. First, ULA applies to the gross sale price, not the portion above the threshold. There is no exclusion. A sale one dollar over the line owes 4 percent on the whole price, not 4 percent on the dollar. Second, the cliff is real, which is why Debbie Pisaro models the full closing math for Los Feliz sellers before a list price is ever set.
There is no bracket relief in this tax. A sale one dollar over the line owes the full 4 percent on the entire price, so the worst outcome in Los Feliz is not a high sale price. It is a sale that clears the threshold by a hair.
What does ULA not apply to, and what are the exemptions?
A short list, and it is genuinely short:
- Property outside City of LA limits does not owe ULA. Burbank, Glendale, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and unincorporated LA County are not subject to it. Los Feliz is fully inside the city, so this rarely helps here.
- Transfers to qualified affordable housing organizations are exempt, as are transfers to certain long-standing 501(c)(3) entities and to government agencies.
- The tax is owed at closing and, by custom on Los Feliz sales, the seller pays it. A contract can allocate it differently, and on rare occasions does.
On the tax treatment: ULA is a transfer tax, so it does not reduce your property's basis the way a capital improvement does. It is generally treated as a selling expense that reduces the amount realized on the sale, which lowers taxable gain. That is a meaningful distinction and it is a question for a CPA working from the actual closing statement, not for an agent.
People also ask whether a 1031 exchange gets them out of it. Be careful here, because two different taxes are getting mixed together. A 1031 exchange defers federal and state capital gains on investment property. It does not exempt the transfer from ULA, because ULA is a tax on the conveyance itself, and a conveyance still happens in an exchange. A primary residence does not qualify for 1031 at all. Splitting a sale into multiple parcels to duck the threshold rarely survives scrutiny either, since the City looks at the underlying transaction. Talk to a real estate attorney before getting creative.
Mechanically, nobody sends the City a check. ULA is collected at recording, through escrow, out of seller proceeds, and it shows up on the settlement statement as a documentary transfer tax line alongside the city and county amounts. That means it is not a bill that arrives later and it is not negotiable at the closing table. By the time the grant deed records, the number is already fixed by the price on the contract.
The place sellers get surprised is what counts toward that price. Consideration is not simply the cash the buyer wires. Debt the buyer takes over counts. So can other value moving across the table in an unusual structure. A seller credit for repairs does not reduce the sale price for ULA purposes either, which occasionally matters for a home sitting a hair above the line: shaving the price and shaving the credit are not the same move, and only one of them changes the tax.
How should ULA change your pricing and timing decisions?
For a Los Feliz seller, ULA mostly affects three decisions.
Where to price near the threshold. If a home would naturally land just over the line, the seller and agent need to look hard at whether the upper end of the range is worth the ULA hit. A list that closes just under the threshold can net more than a list a hundred thousand higher that gives back room in negotiation and then eats a six-figure tax. The right answer depends on actual recent comps in Los Feliz Estates, the Oaks, Laughlin Park, or a specific submarket. This is exactly the kind of question Debbie Pisaro works through with clients before a list price is set, and it is a core reason to work with the best real estate agent in Los Feliz.
Whether to close before or after July 1. The threshold moves up roughly $100,000 each summer. If a home sits right at the prior cap, closing after the reset can avoid the tax outright. But the calendar move only helps if the transaction can wait, the buyer can wait, and interim carrying costs do not eat the savings. For most Los Feliz sellers, the question of selling now or waiting matters less than getting priced and presented correctly in the first place.
How ULA interacts with the true net. Sellers anchor on list price. What actually matters is what hits the account. A $7,000,000 list that closes at $6,600,000, minus commission, base transfer taxes, $264,000 in ULA, a mortgage payoff, prep, escrow, and capital gains, is a very different number from $7,000,000. For a real net rather than a Zestimate, it is worth seeing how much a Los Feliz sale actually nets and what a Los Feliz home is genuinely worth.
What else should a Los Feliz seller plan for alongside ULA?
ULA is the line item people fixate on, but it is rarely the largest one. On a typical Los Feliz luxury sale, the seller-side costs usually break down something like this:
- Real estate commissions, post-NAR settlement, often 4 to 5 percent combined, sometimes lower
- City of LA plus County documentary transfer taxes, about 0.56 percent combined
- Measure ULA where applicable, 4 or 5.5 percent on gross
- Owner's title insurance, a Southern California convention where the seller pays
- Escrow fees, typically split or seller-paid by custom
- Mortgage payoff plus any prepayment items
- HOA transfer fees, statement fees, county recording fees
- Pre-listing prep: paint, staging, light landscaping, photography, sometimes deferred maintenance
- Federal and California capital gains on the gain above the $250,000 or $500,000 primary-residence exclusion, where it applies
If the home is an architectural property or a designated Historic-Cultural Monument, there may be additional considerations, especially with a Mills Act contract. The Mills Act passes to the buyer at sale, and selling a Mills Act or HCM home carries its own disclosures to handle cleanly.
For sellers in the Oaks, Laughlin Park, and Los Feliz Estates, ULA exposure is the rule, not the exception. For sellers in the flats below Franklin or in the smaller Franklin Hills cottages, a sale may never come near it, and choosing a Los Feliz neighborhood is where that difference starts. Sellers who value privacy can also sell quietly, off the public market.
ULA is not unique to Los Feliz either. Sellers across the city run the same math, and Debbie Pisaro covers it for other LA submarkets too. For a full closing-math valuation and seller net sheet, sellers can request a Coastline 840 valuation. The brokerage exists for exactly this kind of work: why we built Coastline 840 is the long answer, and there is a broader case for why boutique teams outperform the big-box model when a sale turns on modeling rather than volume. Whatever the price point, an experienced Los Feliz real estate agent runs the full net, ULA included, before the home is listed, not after an offer is already on the table.
Get a real net, ULA included, from Debbie
Twenty-four years in the Los Feliz market, a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, and a seller net sheet that models ULA at both tiers, transfer taxes, commission, and capital gains. No Zestimate, no obligation.
debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Common questions about Measure ULA in Los Feliz
Does Measure ULA apply to all of Los Feliz?
Yes. Los Feliz lies entirely within the City of Los Angeles, so every sale in the neighborhood is subject to Measure ULA if it crosses the dollar threshold. Adjacent cities like Glendale, Burbank, and West Hollywood are separate jurisdictions and not subject to ULA, but no part of Los Feliz sits in any of them.
Is Measure ULA paid on the gain or on the sale price?
The gross sale price, including any debt the buyer assumes. ULA is a transfer tax, not an income tax, so basis, improvements, and mortgage payoff do not reduce the calculation. A $6,000,000 sale owes 4 percent of $6,000,000, regardless of what the owner paid for the home or what is still owed on it.
Who actually pays Measure ULA, the buyer or the seller?
On Los Feliz sales, the seller pays it at closing, the same way the seller customarily pays the city and county documentary transfer taxes. A purchase contract can technically allocate the cost differently, and occasionally does in a strong seller's market, but the default every escrow officer will assume is that it comes out of seller proceeds.
What are the current Measure ULA thresholds, and when do they change?
Four percent applies above $5,400,000 and 5.5 percent at $10,900,000 and above. The tax opened in April 2023 at $5,000,000 and $10,000,000 and is indexed to the Chained Consumer Price Index, so new figures take effect every July 1. The next adjustment lands July 1, 2027.
Does Measure ULA apply if I sell a Los Feliz HCM property with a Mills Act contract?
Yes. ULA applies regardless of HCM designation or Mills Act status. The Mills Act reduces the buyer's ongoing property tax obligation, not the seller's transfer tax at closing. Los Feliz has more than fifty designated Historic-Cultural Monuments, many carrying Mills Act contracts, and the contract passes to the new owner without changing ULA exposure.
Can I avoid Measure ULA with a 1031 exchange?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. A 1031 exchange defers capital gains tax on investment property. ULA taxes the conveyance itself, and a conveyance still happens inside an exchange, so the transfer tax is still due. A primary residence does not qualify for 1031 at all. Ask a real estate attorney before structuring anything around this.
Is Measure ULA going to be repealed or overturned?
It has survived every challenge so far. A federal suit was dismissed in 2023, the California Court of Appeal upheld the tax in December 2025, and a statewide initiative that would have capped local transfer taxes was withdrawn in June 2026. Los Angeles has continued to discuss narrow exemptions. Plan for ULA as a permanent cost.
How much money has Measure ULA actually raised?
More than $1.2 billion in its first three years, against early projections that ran considerably higher. The revenue funds affordable housing production and tenant assistance programs. For a seller the number matters mostly as a signal: a tax generating at that scale is not one the city is likely to give up quietly.
Do Los Feliz homes in different submarkets face different ULA exposure?
Yes, significantly. Laughlin Park, Los Feliz Estates, and the upper Oaks routinely transact above the 4 percent threshold, so exposure is the rule there. Franklin Hills cottages and smaller Los Feliz Square homes often transact well below it. Architectural pedigree and HCM designation can push a sale across the line, so submarket drives strategy as much as the address does.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Los Feliz?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz and the surrounding neighborhoods. She specializes in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes, and handles the full transaction from pricing and net-of-ULA modeling through closing.
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz and the surrounding neighborhoods. She specializes in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Feliz and the Eastside. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published April 2026.
