A seller who closes a $2 million house sale in Culver City this fall will owe about $16,450 in city and county transfer tax at recording, according to Culver City's published calculation table. Sell a house at the same price a few blocks away inside the City of Los Angeles, and the bill is about $11,200, according to Los Angeles's published formula. People who have heard of Measure ULA usually assume the opposite.
The order holds until a sale passes $5.4 million. At that point it reverses hard, and Culver City becomes the far cheaper place to sell. In between sits a price range where the typical Culver City house now trades, and a tax that many sellers still think of as a problem for mansions only.
How Culver City's tax is actually built
Measure RE passed on November 3, 2020, with 51.89% of the vote, according to Culver City's election information. Its rates took effect April 1, 2021. It replaced a flat 0.45% city rate with four brackets. Each rate applies only to the slice of the price that falls inside its bracket, the same way income tax brackets work.
| Portion of the sale price | Culver City rate on that portion |
|---|---|
| Up to $1,499,999 | 0.45% |
| $1,500,000 to $2,999,999 | 1.5% |
| $3,000,000 to $9,999,999 | 3.0% |
| $10,000,000 and above | 4.0% |
The city's own calculation table puts it in dollars. A sale between $1.5 million and $3 million owes $6,750 plus 1.5% of everything above $1.5 million. A sale between $3 million and $10 million owes $29,249.99 plus 3% of everything above $3 million. The base used for the calculation includes any lien or encumbrance that remains on the property at transfer. Los Angeles County's documentary transfer tax of 0.11% is added on top, and the County Registrar-Recorder collects both when the deed records.
The City of Los Angeles works differently. Its base transfer tax is 0.45% of the full price. Measure ULA adds a surcharge that applies to the entire price once a threshold is crossed. For transactions closing after June 30, 2026, a sale above $5.4 million and below $10.9 million pays 4%, and a sale of $10.9 million or more pays 5.5%. Below $5.4 million, a Los Angeles seller owes only the 0.45% base plus the county's share.
The same sale price on each side of the line
These figures come straight from the two cities' published formulas, plus the county's 0.11%. They are estimates for comparison, not escrow figures.
| Sale price | Culver City total, city + county | City of LA total, city + county |
|---|---|---|
| $1,200,000 | $6,720 | $6,720 |
| $1,825,000 | $13,632 | $10,220 |
| $2,000,000 | $16,450 | $11,200 |
| $3,000,000 | $32,550 | $16,800 |
| $5,000,000 | $94,750 | $28,000 |
| $5,500,000 | $110,300 | $250,800 |
| $12,000,000 | $332,450 | $727,200 |
Below $1.5 million the two cities charge exactly the same. Between $1.5 million and $5.4 million, Culver City costs more at every price, and the gap widens as the price rises. At $5 million a Culver City seller pays more than three times the Los Angeles figure. Past $5.4 million, ULA's 4% applies to the whole price, the Los Angeles bill more than doubles the Culver City bill, and it stays higher from there.
So Culver City's tax rises gradually from the first dollar above $1.5 million, while Los Angeles charges almost nothing extra until one price triggers a large jump.
Why the $1.5 million bracket is now the normal case
When Measure RE was on the ballot, $1.5 million may have sounded like a high-end number. Culver City's own figures now say otherwise. The city's Real Property Transfer Tax Status Report for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025–26 went to the City Council on September 28, 2026. It tracks the median sale price of detached single-family homes in the city, quarter by quarter.
In every quarter from Q1 2023 through Q2 2026, that median was $1.5 million or higher. The lowest was exactly $1,500,000 in Q1 2023. In Q2 2026, the most recent quarter the city has published, 35 detached houses sold at a median of $1,825,000 and an average of $2,013,671.
That puts at least half of recent Culver City house sales into the 1.5% bracket. A seller at the Q2 2026 median owes about $11,625 to the city alone, compared with $8,212.50 if the old flat rate still applied. The gap is a real closing cost, but not a dramatic one, and it grows by $15,000 for every additional million dollars of price up to $3 million.
This also explains why the bracket structure matters more than the rates. A gradual tax charges almost every house seller a little more. A threshold tax charges most sellers nothing extra and a few sellers a great deal.
What the gradual design does to pricing
The best evidence on behavior comes from a July 2026 report by Pepperdine's School of Public Policy and Beacon Economics, which studied transfer taxes in Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Culver City. Before and after Measure RE took effect, Culver City sale prices showed no sharp bunching around the $1.5 million, $3 million or $10 million thresholds. Prices stayed spread across those ranges. Within the City of Los Angeles, the same researchers found visible clustering just under the ULA thresholds after it took effect.
The incentives explain both results. A Los Angeles seller weighing an offer of $5.45 million against one of $5.39 million faces a difference of roughly $216,000 in tax, so trimming the price by $60,000 can come out ahead. A Culver City seller choosing between $1.51 million and $1.49 million faces a difference of about $240. In Culver City, list price strategy can follow the comparable sales instead of the tax schedule.
A Culver City mailing address does not decide which tax applies
Both cities apply their tax based on where the parcel sits. Culver City's ordinance taxes realty "sold within the City," and Los Angeles taxes conveyances within its boundaries. If a property lies partly inside Los Angeles, the LA tax is split according to the value, or failing that the square footage, that falls inside the city.
ZIP codes follow neither rule. In 1991 the Los Angeles Times reported that a large Del Rey area of Los Angeles, south of Culver Boulevard and east of Centinela Avenue, used a Culver City 90230 address. It also found a smaller Los Angeles area along Venice Boulevard using 90232. The overlap ran the other way too. Much of Culver City's western arm used 90066, and a few Culver City parcels along Venice Boulevard used 90034. That reporting is decades old, so it shows how the problem works, not a current map.
Fox Hills shows how close the lines can run. Culver City's Fox Hills neighborhood, including Westfield Culver City, is inside city limits. West Fox Hills next door is unincorporated county territory.
For any property near a boundary, check the parcel itself:
- The LA County Assessor Portal map has parcel, city and tax-rate-area layers, so you can compare the parcel against the city boundary instead of the ZIP code.
- Culver City's city maps page links to a property information map and GIS boundary files.
- Los Angeles City Planning's ZIMAS shows whether an address appears in City of LA records.
This matters because the County Recorder states that calculating the tax is the job of whoever prepares the document, not the Recorder's. A wrong assumption about jurisdiction can carry through to a net-proceeds estimate.
The 2026 threshold question nobody has answered publicly
The Culver City code requires the City Manager to adjust the $1.5 million, $3 million and $10 million thresholds in line with the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim consumer price index, rounded up to the nearest $1,000. The adjustment can happen no more than once every five years, and the thresholds can never fall below their original amounts. Five years from the April 1, 2021 effective date was April 1, 2026.
As of early October 2026, the city's tax page and its published code both still list the original thresholds, and no revised amounts have been published. Any upward adjustment would leave more of each sale in the 0.45% bracket, which matters most to sellers just above $1.5 million. Anyone pricing a sale near a threshold should confirm the current figures with Culver City's Finance Department before treating them as final.
FAQ
Who pays the Culver City transfer tax, the buyer or the seller? According to Coast Cities Escrow, under California escrow custom, the seller usually pays city and county transfer taxes, but the purchase contract can split them differently. Culver City's ordinance makes the seller and buyer jointly and severally liable to the city.
Is anything on the November 2026 ballot changing Measure RE? No. Culver City's November 3, 2026 ballot has three local measures, covering voting age, a school parcel tax and the hotel tax. A statewide initiative that would have changed transfer tax rates was withdrawn in a compromise reported on July 1, 2026.
Do any sales get the old 0.45% rate regardless of price? Yes, under Culver City's code, two kinds. One is a transfer of fully deed-restricted affordable housing to a qualifying nonprofit-controlled owner. The other is a qualifying transfer of a building with four or more units where at least one unit was newly built in the previous five years. Both pay 0.45% at any price.
If you're thinking about selling in Culver City or near the Los Angeles line, Casty Living can confirm which jurisdiction your parcel falls in, run both cities' formulas against your expected price, and build that number into your pricing and net proceeds before you list. Let's Chat!
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
