{"id":21,"date":"2026-09-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.room-vu.com\/janineg-com\/2026\/09\/17\/californias-down-payment-wait-14-7-years\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:00:00","slug":"californias-down-payment-wait-14-7-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/17\/californias-down-payment-wait-14-7-years\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s Down Payment Wait: 14.7 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"video-zmyer\">\n<div class=\"video-frame-zmyer\">\n        <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\"\n                src=\"https:\/\/www.roomvu.com\/agent\/embed\/janine-gershon\/states-saving-home-remotion-videos-ce93\"\n                frameborder=\"0\"\n                allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"\n                allowfullscreen><br \/>\n        <\/iframe>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"video-description-zmyer\">\n<p>It\u2019s no secret that saving for a down payment in California is a marathon, not a sprint: the current data shows it takes the average household 14.7 years to save up 20% for a median-priced home at $776,200, given a median income of $105,600. For those earning minimum wage, that timeline stretches to a staggering 44.2 years. Geography shapes so much of our market\u2014our coastline, the mountains, and protected open spaces have concentrated demand (and driven up land values) along coveted corridors from Downtown LA to Malibu and beyond. Add to this a longstanding property tax structure that incentivizes homeowners to stay put, and it\u2019s easy to see why inventory is tight. Meanwhile, robust job growth in technology and health care continues to bring new buyers into the market, fueling demand. Unless wage growth can consistently outpace home price appreciation, this saving timeline will remain a reality for so many. As someone who has spent decades helping clients navigate Los Angeles real estate, I can\u2019t emphasize enough how crucial it is for first-time buyers to think strategically and plan for the long term in this unique, dynamic market.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s no secret that saving for a down payment in California is a marathon, not a sprint: the current data shows it takes the average household 14.7 years to save up 20% for a median-priced home at $776,200, given a median income of $105,600. For those earning minimum wage, that timeline stretches to a staggering [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":53,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janineg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}