One Hill, Two Tax Codes: How Measure ULA Shapes Pricing in the Bird Streets but Not Trousdale

A Bird Streets home that closes at $5,400,000 this fiscal year owes the City of Los Angeles $24,300 in transfer tax. If it closes at $5,500,000, the city tax is $244,750. The buyer paid $100,000 more, and the seller kept $120,450 less. That outcome follows directly from the rate table the Los Angeles Office of Finance publishes for Measure ULA. The table matters more in the Bird Streets than almost anywhere else in the 90069 ZIP code, because these streets are in Los Angeles, and Trousdale Estates, just over the ridge, is in Beverly Hills.

The ZIP code says West Hollywood. The tax bill says Los Angeles.

National press often files these streets under West Hollywood. When Mansion Global covered a listing on Blue Jay Way in February 2026, the headline placed the street in West Hollywood, even as the subhead set the home above Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The mailing convention says nothing about which city has jurisdiction. The City of Los Angeles maintains these roads. Council District 4 has published resurfacing schedules for Thrasher Avenue from Rising Glen Road to Oriole Drive and for Blue Jay Way up to Thrasher.

City jurisdiction decides the tax. The Office of Finance applies its transfer tax to every document that conveys real property within the City, and Measure ULA sits on top of that base tax. Forbes, writing about Blue Jay Way in December 2025, put Trousdale Estates "just over the hill in Beverly Hills." The two enclaves share the same ridgeline and draw much the same buyers, but they sit under different tax codes.

Where the cliffs sit for sales closing this fiscal year

For transactions closing after June 30, 2026, the City's ULA thresholds are $5.4 million and $10.9 million. Sales above $5.4 million and below $10.9 million pay an extra 4%. Sales at $10.9 million or more pay an extra 5.5%. On top of either rate sits the City's 0.45% base tax. The rate applies to the full price, not just the dollars above the threshold. That is why a single dollar can move the bill by more than $200,000 at the first line, and by about $163,500 at the second.

Beverly Hills works differently. California City Finance's rate schedule, effective December 1, 2025, lists Beverly Hills and West Hollywood at a combined city and county rate of $1.10 per $1,000, with no value tiers. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder names Los Angeles among the few cities that add their own tax to the county's $1.10. Beverly Hills is not on that list.

The Los Angeles figures cover only the City's tax and leave out the county share. All figures use the Office of Finance rates for the 2026–27 fiscal year. The thresholds reset every year. A May 2026 report from the City Administrative Officer put them at $5.3 million and $10.6 million for 2025–26. A comp from last year can therefore sit on the other side of a line that has since moved.

The dead zones above each line

The cliff creates a price band where a higher sale price leaves less after the City's tax. Working from the official rates, the first band runs from just over $5.4 million to about $5.63 million. Below roughly $5,626,000, a 4.45% bill leaves the seller with less than a sale at exactly $5.4 million would. The second band runs from $10.9 million to about $11.07 million. In that range, the jump from 4.45% to 5.95% on the whole price wipes out the extra dollars.

These bands matter most at two points: setting the list price, and deciding how much to renovate. A Bird Streets house that a renovation would carry to about $5.5 million has moved into the first band. The improvements were real, but measured against what the seller keeps, they are worth less than nothing. The same arithmetic covers a remodel aimed at $11 million that lands just above the second line. Our design and development practice treats these thresholds as constraints on scope. A project should either keep the finished value comfortably below a line or carry it well past the band. A finish level that leaves the house sitting just above a threshold works against the owner.

What buyers and sellers did with the lines

The behavior shows up in the data. A July 2026 study from Pepperdine's School of Public Policy and Beacon Economics found visible clustering of sales just below the ULA thresholds. It also found that the share of transactions above them fell after the tax took effect in April 2023. For single-family homes at $5 million and above, the study estimated that post-ULA sale prices in Los Angeles trailed surrounding jurisdictions by roughly 11% to 12%. Across all single-family homes, the gap was 6% to 7%. Its regressions estimated that monthly high-value transaction counts ran about 41% below surrounding jurisdictions after implementation. It found no statistically significant effect below the threshold.

That study was funded in part by the Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors. Its 2025–26 figures combine nine months of observed sales through March 2026 with seasonal extrapolation. It also cautions that a "foregone" transaction could be a sale repriced below the line, a buyer who went to another jurisdiction, a sale that was delayed, or no sale at all. RAND's May 2026 report used a different method and estimated that high-value transactions fell 31% and that ULA had raised $1.2 billion through early 2026. The two estimates differ in size. They agree on direction. Activity thinned exactly where the tax applies.

At trophy prices, the cliff becomes a toll

Clustering is a strategy for houses priced near $5.4 million. Most Bird Streets trophy inventory sits far above both thresholds. In its December 2025 piece, Forbes counted five sales over $23 million in the prior year. One was a $26 million sale at 1535 Blue Jay Way in November 2025. The same piece covered 1615 Blue Jay Way, listed at $22.5 million after a Dahmor Studio renovation.

No pricing move avoids the tax at these levels. At 5.5%, a $26 million sale owes $1,430,000 in ULA alone, and $1,547,000 once the City's base tax is added. A sale at the same price in Trousdale would owe $28,600 in total documentary transfer tax. The difference is roughly the price of a full interior renovation, and it is paid at closing on one side of the ridge and not the other. Buyers comparing a Bird Streets view box with a Trousdale midcentury are, in effect, comparing two different total costs. The portals show the same asking price for both.

Why the line is likely to stay put

As of October 2026, every major challenge to ULA has failed or stalled. In December 2025, Courthouse News reported that the California Court of Appeal had upheld the measure and affirmed dismissal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association's challenge. A June 15, 2026 update from the City's outside counsel, Burke, Williams & Sorensen, reported that the California Supreme Court had denied review.

The statewide initiative that would have capped local transfer taxes, and cut ULA with them, was withdrawn in June 2026 under a legislative compromise that left transfer taxes unchanged, CalMatters reported. Its replacement on the November 3 ballot is Proposition 43. It would raise the vote needed for specified voter-proposed local special taxes to two-thirds starting January 1, 2027, and it does not repeal ULA. At the city level, the Council shelved a proposed exemption for newly built apartment buildings 14–0 on July 1, LAist reported. The one exemption headed to voters this November covers sales of homes damaged or destroyed in the Palisades Fire, according to LAist's August coverage.

A few direct answers

Does a 90069 address put a home under West Hollywood's transfer tax? No. The City of Los Angeles taxes conveyances of property inside its boundaries. The mailing address does not decide which city a parcel is in. The parcel's jurisdiction is the fact to confirm early.

Will the thresholds be different next year? Very likely. They adjust every fiscal year. They moved from $5.3 million and $10.6 million in 2025–26 to $5.4 million and $10.9 million for sales closing after June 30, 2026.

Would the Palisades measure affect Bird Streets sales? As LAist described it, the proposed exemption covers homes damaged or destroyed by the Palisades Fire and would last until early 2030.

This post explains how a public tax works. It is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, so please confirm how ULA applies to your transaction with a qualified tax professional or real estate attorney.

If you own in the Bird Streets and are deciding whether a renovation should stop below a ULA threshold or clear the band above it, Cathleen Shera Team can map your home's likely value against this year's lines before any design decisions are made. Request a complimentary home valuation & private consultation.