Measure ULA

Uh, and maybe-- I, I don't know.

Is this like, is this a county tax, or is this a city tax? It's a sobering conclusion reached by researchers at the nonpartisan global policy think tank Rand Corporation in a recent report assessing the impact of the real estate transfer tax, officially known as Measure ULA.

Enacted in April of '23, the measure imposes a 4% tax on property sales of $5.4 million to $10.9 million and a 5.5% tax on sales exceeding $10.9 million.

These rates apply on top of Los Angeles' standard forty- .45 base real estate transfer tax.

You need...

Let me read that again.

Quote unquote, "The effects of the Measure ULA, United To House LA, transfer tax on economic development and municipal finances in Los Angeles." We need to have a study for a study on that title.

I mean, that, that warrants a study right there.

Oh, and then this is a good one.

Measure ULA.

Remember this piece of garbage? A tax on real estate sales above $5.5 billion.

A 4% tax.

But you're not as smart as they are.

And they can afford to wait you out.

You know what this did? This Measure ULA that Rahman proposed? It froze the apartment construction market and the sale of apartment buildings because who's going to sell and take a 5% hit? It also froze the construction of future apartment buildings because eventually you want to sell what you built.

You know, there are developers who want to sell what they build.

Exactly.

Measure ULA, the real estate transfer tax on any kind of real estate that's worth more than $5 million, it's a huge 4% or 5.5% sales tax on real estate, and it was passed with a simple majority- And it shouldn't have been, but the courts upheld it.

So there are two justices who are on the ballot for retention who just did that in the appellate courts, Justice Tamzarian and Justice Mori.

If you see them on your ballot, we're not too supportive of those two.

And later, I was going to say later in the show, but let's just do it right here, right now.

The Rand Corporation in May came out with a really cool analysis of LA's Measure ULA that's united to house Los Angeles, ULA.

It was a transfer tax on...

It was supposed to be a mansion tax.

The mansion tax was, uh, on the ballot.

It was called Measure ULA, United to House LA, and it...

Anybody who tried to sell their property for more than, I'll round off the numbers, $5.5 million, you have to pay a 4% tax at the closing.

And if it sells for more than 11 million, you have to pay 5.5%.

It cost $450 million in revenue.

It's a total failure.

Measure ULA is a total failure.

It ought to be repealed.

And this is all on Nithya Raman, who now is trying to distance herself from it and say, you know, we should not, not completely, of course, but we need to modify it.

Reminder, measure ULA, the mansion tax.

You sell a property.

For $5 million or more, you're getting hit with an additional tax at a certain level.

So you're the two ends of the spectrum.

Yeah, but everything in the middle, anything probably from 5 to 10 million up to 20 million is just sort of sitting there because we have Measure ULA.

It's the mansion tax that doesn't apply to mansions.

Beverly Hills is completely exempt.