If you are buying a teardown or a lot on the Westside, the price you can pay is what the finished house will sell for, minus the cost to build it, the taxes on the way out and the profit the risk deserves. In Pacific Palisades, recent lot sales averaged about $270 per square foot of land with a median of about $1.8 million, according to the Palisadian-Post in October 2026. We have been selling since 1987, with over $2 billion in sales, and land is the work I do every day.
THE PLAIN NUMBERS
- Pacific Palisades lots: about 150 for sale and about 32 selling a month, at an average of about $270 per square foot of land (Palisadian-Post, October 16, 2026). Lot values are 30% to 50% below where they were before the January 2025 fire, depending on location.
- Palisades rebuild activity: about 1,850 properties have permit applications filed, including about 500 from owners who bought their lot after the fire. About 700 of roughly 4,200 properties with destroyed homes have changed hands (same source).
- Brentwood finished homes: a median sale price of $2,459,311 in September 2026, down 10.4% from a year earlier, with a median of about $1,030 per square foot and 62 days on market (Redfin, all home types).
- Measure ULA, City of Los Angeles: for sales closing after June 30, 2026, 4% of the full price on sales above $5,400,000 and 5.5% on sales of $10,900,000 or more. It is charged on the whole price, not the part above the line, and it sits on top of the city transfer tax of $4.50 per $1,000 and the county tax of $1.10 per $1,000 (Ervin Cohen & Jessup, August 21, 2026).
- ULA has no exemption for a primary residence, a seller over 65 or a sale at a loss (same source). A measure on the November 3, 2026 city ballot would give a five-year ULA exemption to sales of homes damaged or destroyed in the Palisades fire (Hanson Bridgett, August 12, 2026). Check the result before you underwrite a Palisades deal.
WHERE THE CITY LINE CHANGES THE MATH
Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Bel Air, Venice and the Beverly Hills Post Office area are inside the City of Los Angeles, so ULA applies. Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Malibu are separate cities with their own rules and their own transfer taxes.
The bands matter most near the lines. A sale at $5,450,000 inside the city owes $218,000 in ULA. A sale at $5,400,000 owes none. We price around those lines on both the land purchase and the finished house.
HOW WE UNDERWRITE A LOT OR TEARDOWN
- Zoning and size. We pull the zone and the lot from the City of Los Angeles records and work out how much house the lot allows.
- Slope. On hillside lots the city's Baseline Hillside Ordinance shrinks allowable floor area as the slope gets steeper and caps grading. A flat lot and a steep lot of the same size can allow very different houses.
- Permit status. A ready-to-issue (RTI) lot comes with plans already through city review, so the buyer skips the design and plan check stage. We confirm what is approved and what is still open with LADBS before you price it.
- Exit value. We price the finished house off closed new construction sales on the same streets, by price per square foot.
- Costs and taxes. Hard costs, soft costs, carry, selling costs, ULA and the city and county transfer taxes.
- What is left. The residual is the most the land is worth to you. If the asking price is above it, we tell you.
A WORKED EXAMPLE (ROUND EXAMPLE NUMBERS, NOT A QUOTE FOR ANY STREET)
Say a lot in the City of Los Angeles allows a 6,000 square foot house, and new construction nearby sells at $1,600 a foot.
- Finished house value: 6,000 x $1,600 = $9,600,000
- Hard costs at $650 a foot: $3,900,000
- Soft costs (design, engineering, permits, insurance) at 15% of hard costs: $585,000
- Carry and financing: $500,000
- Selling costs at 5%: $480,000
- Transfer taxes at resale, assuming the builder pays them as seller: ULA at 4% is $384,000, city tax $43,200, county tax $10,560, so $437,760 in all
- Builder profit target at 15% of resale: $1,440,000
Total costs and profit come to $7,342,760. That leaves about $2,257,000 as the most this buyer should pay for the land. ULA alone takes $384,000 out of that number. Move the same lot to a city where ULA does not apply and the land is worth more to the same builder.
OUR TRACK RECORD
We have been selling since 1987, with over $2 billion in sales, and RealTrends placed us in the top 1.5% in the US for 2025. A few of our sales on the Westside:
- 15205 De Pauw Street, Pacific Palisades: sold $8,850,000
- 2726 Castle Heights Place, Los Angeles: sold $6,800,000
- 231 N Kenter Avenue, Brentwood: sold $4,995,000
- 960 Indiana Avenue, Venice: sold $4,950,000
See more of our closed sales at https://teamsorrentino.com/properties/sold.
I work with investors and builders buying in the $5 million to $15 million range, and with owners deciding whether to sell a house as is or as a lot.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are Pacific Palisades lots selling for?
Recent lot sales averaged about $270 per square foot of land, with a median sale of about $1.8 million, according to the Palisadian-Post in October 2026.
How much is Measure ULA on a Westside sale?
Inside the City of Los Angeles, for sales closing after June 30, 2026, it is 4% of the full price above $5,400,000 and 5.5% of the full price from $10,900,000. A $10,900,000 sale owes $599,500.
Does Measure ULA apply in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills or Malibu?
No. ULA applies to sales inside the City of Los Angeles. Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Malibu are separate cities with their own transfer taxes.
What is a ready-to-issue (RTI) lot?
A lot sold with building plans that have already been through city review, so permits are ready to be pulled and the buyer skips the design and plan check stage. We confirm the permit status with LADBS before you make an offer.
How do you figure out what a teardown is worth?
We start from what a finished house on that street will sell for, subtract the cost to build, carry and sell it, including ULA, and subtract a fair profit. What is left is the most the land is worth.
Looking at a teardown, a lot or an RTI project on the Westside? Call Jonny Sorrentino at 310.721.0534 and we will run the land math on the address.
Team Sorrentino, Rodeo Realty. Lisa Sorrentino CA DRE 00974656. Scott Sorrentino CA DRE 00973692. Jonny Sorrentino CA DRE 02086025. Rodeo Realty CA DRE 00951359.
