SGV Housing / Insights
San Gabriel Valley
Housing Law Insights
Plain-English guides to the rent, zoning, building, and tax rules that affect SGV tenants, owners, and builders.
Land Use & Zoning
ADUs, SB 9 lot splits, transit-oriented upzoning, by-right approval, density bonus, CEQA, housing elements
SB 9 Lets an SGV Single-Family Lot Become Four Units — What the Law Actually Requires
SB 9 allows a duplex and a lot split on most single-family parcels without a hearing, and a 2024 cleanup bill (SB 450) closed the loopholes cities used to slow it down. Here's what a single-family owner can actually do with it today.
Read articleAB 130 Froze Residential Building Codes Through 2031 — Except in the SGV Foothills
A 2025 state budget bill locked residential building standards statewide through mid-2031 and fast-tracked CEQA review for qualifying infill — but wildfire hardening rules are the one layer SGV foothill cities can still set on their own.
Read articleBuilding & Construction
Costs, timelines, hiring a team, hillside lots, building codes
Construction 101: What It Takes to Build in the San Gabriel Valley
Most of the money on a residential project is made or lost before construction starts. Seven phases, six rules that are easy to state and easy to violate, and the fork every SGV owner faces before they know they're facing it.
Read articleBefore You Buy the Lot: A San Gabriel Valley Due Diligence Checklist
Thirteen things to verify before you close on a lot — topography, fire access, utilities, zoning, title, survey, geotech, and environmental — with what breaks a deal and what it costs to find out.
Read articleWhat It Costs to Build in the San Gabriel Valley (2026)
A real 2018 baseline, escalated by a published cost index instead of a re-quoted survey — so you can check the math rather than trust it. Plus the trade-by-trade line items behind the per-square-foot number, and the three questions to ask before any cost figure means anything.
Read articleWho You Actually Need to Hire: The Consultant Team for a Small SGV Project
Five to ten consultants, hired in roughly this order, with what each one actually delivers and how long they take. Evaluated on two questions that matter more than any résumé. Historical Southern California fee ranges included as anchors — always get current quotes.
Read articleWriting the Program and Reviewing the Design: What to Nail Down Before You Build
Two checkpoints decide whether a house is buildable, permittable, and sellable before anyone pours a foundation: the brief you hand your architect, and what you do with the drawings they hand back. Both are cheap to get right and expensive to skip.
Read articleADU or Ground-Up? The Two Timelines, Side by Side
An ADU and a ground-up project pour the same concrete, but one takes about six months and the other takes two to three-and-a-half years. The entire gap is entitlement — a legal category the state took away from cities. Here's the difference, path by path.
Read articleBuilding on a Hillside Lot in the San Gabriel Valley: What the Slope Actually Costs
A per-square-foot number is the wrong tool on a hillside, because the cost isn't in the building — it's in everything under and around it. Retaining walls, caissons, fire access, drainage, and the geology report that decides all of it.
Read articleProperty & Transfer Taxes
Prop 13 and Prop 19, documentary transfer tax, Measure ULA, federal home-sale and estate rules
Prop 19: Why Inheriting the Family House in the SGV Can Mean a New Tax Bill
Since 2021, a parent-to-child home transfer only keeps the old, lower property tax bill if the child actually moves in — and rental or vacation property loses the break entirely. Here's what changed and what didn't.
Read articleMeasure ULA's 'Mansion Tax' Doesn't Reach the SGV — Here's What That's Worth
Los Angeles's Measure ULA adds up to 5.5% on a home sale over $5.4 million — but only inside LA city limits. No SGV city is subject to it. On a multimillion-dollar sale, that boundary is worth a quarter million dollars.
Read articleRent & Tenancy
Rent control, statewide rent caps, just-cause eviction, local ordinances
SGV Rent Rules: Which Law Covers Your Rental, and the Current Caps
AB-1482, LA County's RSTPO, Pasadena's Measure H, and Baldwin Park's ordinance each cover SGV rentals differently. One chart shows which law applies, what it exempts, and today's cap.
Read articleAB-1482 Statewide Rent Cap: Who's Covered, Who's Exempt
California's statewide rent cap and eviction rule cover most rentals. Here's who's exempt from each one, including houses with an ADU, and what decides it.
Read articleRenting Out an ADU in the SGV: Which Rent Rules Apply
Two questions decide it: is your ADU covered, and is your main house covered? One chart for the ADU, one line for the house, and what Pasadena, Altadena, and Baldwin Park do differently.
Read articlePasadena's Measure H Caps Rent Increases at 2.5% Through September 2027
Pasadena's rent cap is part of the city charter, so changing it takes a citywide vote. Here's the current 2.5% rate, the October reset, which units are covered, and a 2025 court ruling on relocation pay.
Read articleLA County Caps Rent on Older Altadena Apartments at 1.919% Through June 2027
Altadena follows LA County's rent law, not Pasadena's. Here's which rentals get the county rent cap, which get only the eviction rule, and where to check your own address.
Read articleCity of LA Only, Not the SGV: How an ADU Can Put a Pre-1978 House Under Rent Control
In the City of Los Angeles, a new detached ADU is generally not under rent control, but the older house on the lot may be. Here's what LA's housing department says for detached, attached, and converted ADUs.
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