Apartments Outyield Houses in Los Angeles Before HOA Fees

Apartments outyield houses across Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) because condo entry prices sit well below single-family houses, while nightly rates and monthly rents do not fall at the same pace. Apartment short-term rental yields average 5.5% against 4.3% for houses, a gap of 1.2%. These are gross figures before HOA fees, which narrow the real spread considerably. The numbers reflect county-wide medians across 293 ZIP codes, so your specific neighborhood may sit well above or below.

Important regulatory context: Short-term rentals heavily restricted in Los Angeles. Investment properties generally not permitted; may require owner occupancy, specific zoning, or other conditions (permit required, $199). Los Angeles prohibits short-term rentals of investment properties; only primary residences are eligible. Owner-occupants are capped at 120 unhosted days per year (hosted stays have no limit). Home-Sharing application fee is $199. Extended Home-Sharing permit ($1,066) allows more than 120 days. 14% Transient Occupancy Tax. Short-term rental figures in this article apply only where operation is legally permitted. Verify eligibility with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning before purchasing an investment property for short-term rental use.

Apartments Win on Short-Term Yield at Most Bedroom Counts, Houses Narrow the Gap on Long-Term Rent

County medians across 293 ZIP codes. Gross yields before HOA (apartments) and before operating costs.

The long-term rental figures tell a quieter story than the short-term figures. Apartment rents track residential demand and do not scale as aggressively as nightly vacation pricing, so the apartment advantage shrinks on long-term rental, particularly at the 4+ bed end where the two sit within 0.1 points. The top combination county-wide is a 4+ bed apartment at 6.0% on short-term rental, while the standard 3-bed house benchmark yields 4.5% on short-term rental against 2.9% on long-term rental.

The Price Mechanism Explains Most of the Gap, and HOA Fees Close Part of It Back

Apartment yields pull ahead because entry prices fall faster than nightly rates and monthly rents. A 2-bed apartment in Los Angeles costs around $579,033 compared with $864,805 for a 2-bed house. A traveller paying $224 per night for a walkable condo in Downtown or Hollywood is not paying a proportionally smaller amount than they would for a comparable 2-bed house, so each invested dollar generates more revenue in the apartment.

HOA fees then take a chunk of that advantage back. A 2-bed apartment in Los Angeles typically carries HOA charges of around $5,377 per year, and dues swing sharply with building type. Luxury high-rises along the Wilshire Corridor, in Downtown, or in Century City with concierge, gym, pool, and valet amenities charge substantially more, while older walk-up buildings in Koreatown and the Valley charge considerably less. In the highest-fee buildings, dues can erase the apartment yield advantage entirely.

The bigger risk sits with the individual HOA. Condo associations can prohibit short-term rentals through their CC&Rs regardless of what city law allows, and many Los Angeles buildings have explicitly banned them to preserve residential character. An apartment purchased on the assumption of short-term income can end up restricted to long-term tenants only if the HOA rules change after closing. Read the CC&Rs and the last two years of board meeting minutes before committing.

Larger Houses Edge Ahead on Short-Term Yield, and 4+ Bed Is Unreliable

Yield patterns across bedroom counts in Los Angeles are not uniform. For houses, larger properties actually outyield smaller ones on short-term rental because nightly rates rise sharply with size (a 4+ bed house commands roughly $399 per night against $119 for a 1-bed) while sale prices do not scale proportionally. Apartments show a flatter curve: a 1-bed condo commands competitive nightly rates at a low entry price, and 4+ bed apartments sit at the top of the short-term ranking.

The 4+ bed category warrants extra caution. It bundles 4, 5, and 6+ bedroom listings, so a small number of trophy properties in Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, or Pacific Palisades can push the median in either direction. Treat those numbers as directional rather than definitive.

Yields Vary Enormously Across Los Angeles ZIP Codes

These are county-wide medians. Individual Los Angeles neighborhoods diverge by more than a factor of two. The highest-yield ZIP is Long Beach (90802) at 6.7%, followed by Lancaster (93536) at 6.7% and Glendale (91203) at 6.6%. These are typically outer-basin or Antelope Valley ZIPs where entry prices are a fraction of Westside levels. Coastal and Westside ZIPs run well below the county median because sale prices are several times higher while rents have not kept pace. The dashboard shows suburb-level data for every bedroom count and property type, so you can compare within the specific neighborhood you are evaluating.

View Los Angeles in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

What the Table Does Not Capture

• HOA fees: Estimated at around $5,377 per year for a 2-bed apartment, not deducted from the gross yields in the table above. Luxury buildings charge multiples of this, older buildings charge less.
• Capital appreciation: Houses usually outperform apartments on long-term value growth because you own the land. In Los Angeles, where developable land is the scarce asset, this gap has historically been large.
• Renovation potential: Houses offer ADU conversions, granny flats, additions, and pools that apartments cannot match. California's statewide ADU reforms have made single-family lots more flexible than at any point in the past decade.
• Financing constraints: Some lenders restrict mortgages on small condos (under 500 sq ft), buildings with high investor-to-owner ratios, or projects with pending litigation. These conditions are more common in older Los Angeles buildings than buyers expect.
• 4+ bed data breadth: The 4+ bed category bundles 4, 5, and 6+ bedroom listings. A small number of trophy properties can pull the median in either direction.

Los Angeles Is an Appreciation Market, Not a Cash-Flow Market

The 3-bed house median in Los Angeles County sits at $1,136,290, compared with $687,000 statewide and $242,500 nationally. The gross long-term rental yield on that house, 2.9%, sits below the national median of 5.3%. This is the textbook profile of a coastal premium market: investors pay for land, climate, and exposure to long-term price growth rather than immediate cash flow.

That framing matters for the house-versus-apartment decision. If you are buying primarily for income, the apartment yield advantage in the table above is the right signal, once you net out HOA fees and confirm the building permits short-term use. If you are buying for the multi-decade appreciation that has characterized Los Angeles since the 1970s, houses retain the edge because of the land component and the optionality of ADUs, extensions, and rezoning. Most Los Angeles investors ultimately earn their return from appreciation, not rent, which is why the county's comparatively modest yields have not dented investor demand.

For a companion Los Angeles analysis, see Los Angeles Yields 3.7% as Investors Bet on Appreciation. For an adjacent California market, see Oakland's 3.0% Yield Means Appreciation Must Do the Heavy Lifting. For the underlying methodology, see our market score methodology and data sources.

Data reflects market conditions as of April 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.