18% of California Households Live Mortgage Free

Fewer than one in five California households have paid off their homes, the lowest of any state in the U.S. But their numbers are rising.

Some 18 percent of the state’s 13.7 million households live in a house they own without a mortgage, the Orange County Register reported, citing 2023 U.S. Census Bureau figures.

Across the nation, 26 percent of the 131 million households are mortgage-free.

Only Washington D.C., at 10 percent, has a smaller share of households without a mortgage. West Virginia was No. 1 at 40 percent.

In states bordering California, no-loan households numbered 26 percent in Arizona, 21 percent in Nevada and 23 percent in Oregon. In Washington State, 22 percent of households live mortgage free, according to the Census.

Across the Golden State, 38 percent of California households own their home with the aid of a mortgage. Those borrowers are the 11th-smallest slice among the states, but it’s also just below the 39 percent share nationally, according to the Register.

California had 2.5 million households without a mortgage last year, the third-largest state tally behind 3.1 million households in Texas and 2.6 million in Florida.

But the number of paid-off households in California is on the rise. No-loan owners grew by 12 percent from pre-pandemic 2019, with California ranking No. 28 in gain among the states. Nevada led with a 24 percent jump.

Nationally, 33.6 million owners were mortgage-free, up 13 percent in four years.

Despite the lack of a mortgage payment, homeowners still had to dip into their wallets for pricier insurance, taxes, repairs and more.

No-mortgage homes cost their owners a median $834 a month in California last year — the seventh-highest expense and 33 percent higher than the U.S. norm of $629, according to the Register.

Housing-related, non-mortgage expenditures in California rose by 34 percent in four years, the second-largest gain behind Colorado’s 37 percent. And it outpaced a 24 percent jump nationally.

Last year, 17.8 percent of California’s mortgage-free households spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing — up from 14.5 percent four years ago and the eighth-largest burden among the states.

Across the nation, 15.2 percent of mortgage-less households spent more than 30 percent on housing, up from 12.5 percent in 2019.

— Dana Bartholomew