Is a $93,300 Salary Low Income in Los Angeles County? In 2026, Yes. Understanding the Qualifying Limits, the Jobs Under Them, and the Housing and Lending Programs They Open

In Los Angeles County this year, a household of four earning up to $133,250 is “low income” under the federal and state definitions, a single person is low income up to $93,300, and a couple up to $106,600. Those limits sit above the county’s median household income and above the median pay of a carpenter, a mail carrier or a bus driver in the Los Angeles metro, and by HUD’s count they cover 36.7 percent of households in Torrance, about one in four in Redondo Beach and one in six in Manhattan Beach. Most people living in the South Bay have never checked the qualifying limits, because “low income” doesn’t sound like two people with jobs and a mortgage in Torrance. It may be surprising for many that, by the government’s math, it is. And the same math that decides who can rent an affordable apartment also decides who can get a loan of up to $100,000 toward a first home, or up to $161,000 in the City of Los Angeles, who can put 3 percent down on a regular mortgage, who gets 32.5 percent off the electric bill, and whose child gets a free spot in state preschool. Each one has its own cutoff, and most of the cutoffs are higher than people guess. So here are the 2026 numbers, what they open, the jobs that fall under them, how South Bay paychecks stack up, and one new building with a Gardena address that started taking applications in September for move-ins in December. No argument about housing policy, just the numbers and what they mean for a household here.

What does falling under the limit open up?

The limits were written for rental programs, and every program below publishes its own table, so the figures here are each program’s own as of October 21, 2026. Three yardsticks come up: the HUD area median income limits above, the federal poverty guideline, and the state median income. Household size and gross income before taxes, the same two numbers a lease application asks for, are all it takes to find where a household lands on each.

Buying a home:

• The Los Angeles County Development Authority’s Home Ownership Program: a zero-interest, deferred, shared-appreciation loan of up to $100,000 or 20 percent of the price for first-time buyers, in two tiers. HOP80 takes household income up to 80 percent of AMI ($93,300 for one person, $133,250 for four) on homes up to $700,000; HOP150 takes income up to 150 percent ($113,475 for one, $162,150 for four) on homes up to $850,000. Unincorporated areas and the participating cities listed on the program page, first come, first served, through a participating lender.
• The Los Angeles Housing Department, for addresses inside the City of Los Angeles, which includes San Pedro, Harbor City and Wilmington: up to $161,000 for households at the 80 percent limits, and up to $115,000 for households above them and up to $183,250 for four. Both are zero-interest, deferred and shared-appreciation. Reservations open on posted dates; the remaining 2026 dates are November 18 and December 16.
• Fannie Mae’s HomeReady and Freddie Mac’s Home Possible: 3 percent down conventional loans for borrowers at or below 80 percent of the area median income under the agencies’ own lookup tools, available through any lender that sells to them.
• CalHFA’s MyHome Assistance Program: a deferred down payment loan of 3 to 3.5 percent of the price for first-time buyers, under CalHFA’s own Los Angeles County ceiling of $214,000, which is above every HUD line. CalHFA’s Dream For All, up to $150,000, runs by lottery; the 2026 registration closed in March.
• Proposition 37 on the November 3 ballot, if it passes: a state loan for up to 17 percent of the price of a newly built home for households up to 200 percent of AMI. Our propositions post covers it.

The monthly bills, which use the federal poverty guideline rather than AMI:

• Southern California Edison CARE, 32.5 percent off electricity, and SoCalGas CARE, 20 percent off gas: household income up to $43,280 for one or two people and $66,000 for four, effective June 1, 2026. SCE’s FERA tier, 18 percent off, runs from there up to $82,500 for four.
• Cal Water’s Customer Assistance Program, half off the monthly service charge, on the same income table, in the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Hermosa-Redondo systems of its Rancho Dominguez District. LADWP EZ-SAVE in San Pedro uses the same table.
• California LifeLine phone service, up to $19 a month off: household income up to $50,800 for four.

Preschool and the tax bill, which use other tests:

• The California State Preschool Program, 2026-27: family income up to $136,044 for four, which is above the HUD four-person low-income line.
• Property tax postponement for owners who are 62 or older, blind or disabled, through the State Controller: household income up to $57,002, applications October 1 to February 10.
• The homeowners’ exemption, $7,000 off the assessed value of a primary residence, has no income test at all. In 2017 the County Assessor estimated that nearly 400,000 Los Angeles County homeowners had never claimed it.

How many of the households that qualify actually enroll depends on the program. SCE and SoCalGas report CARE enrollment above 100 percent of their estimated eligible households; SCE’s FERA tier was at 11 percent through September 2025. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities puts federal rental assistance at three in four eligible households not receiving it, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture puts California’s CalFresh participation at 81 percent of those eligible. Each program’s table is linked above, and each takes the same two inputs.

What are the 2026 income limits for Los Angeles County?

HCD’s 2026 State Income Limits, effective June 23, 2026, give these figures for Los Angeles County. They match HUD’s limits for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale metro area, which took effect May 1, 2026, and they apply county-wide: the same table governs Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Gardena and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The area median income, the number every other figure is built from, is $108,100 for a four-person household in 2026, up 1.4 percent from $106,600 in 2025. HCD’s own definitions read: “Extremely low income: 15-30% of AMI,” “Very low income: 30% to 50% of AMI,” “Lower income: 50% to 80% of AMI; the term may also be used to mean 0% to 80% of AMI,” and “Moderate income: 80% to 120% of AMI.” California also has an “acutely low” tier at 15 percent, $16,200 for four people this year.

For a South Bay reader the practical translation is the 80 percent column. A deed-restricted apartment advertised for “low income” households is open to a single renter earning up to $93,300 a year, which is $7,775 a month before taxes. A family of four qualifies up to $133,250, or about $11,100 a month.

How does the area median income work?

Picture every household of four in Los Angeles County lined up by what it earns in a year, lowest on the left, highest on the right. The household standing exactly in the middle of that line earns $108,100. That is the area median income. Half the county’s four-person households earn less, half earn more.

Every program here uses that middle figure as a yardstick and names its limits as a share of it. Thirty percent of the yardstick is the extremely low tier. Fifty percent is very low. Eighty percent is low. An apartment labeled “60 percent of AMI” rents only to households earning 60 percent of the yardstick or less, and its rent is capped so that it stays near 30 percent of that income. That is why Toyon Gardens lists $69,960 as the most one person can earn for one of its 60 percent units. The tax credit program that governs the building computes its tiers from the very-low figure: 1.2 times the one-person very-low limit of $58,300 is $69,960.

The yardstick stretches and shrinks with household size. A one-person household is measured against 70 percent of the four-person figure, two people against 80 percent, three against 90 percent, five against 108 percent. So the same tier that admits a family of four at $133,250 admits one person at $93,300.

Two things the yardstick does not measure: what a household owns, and where in the county it lives. It is one figure for the whole county, so a household in Manhattan Beach and a household in Gardena are measured with the same stick, even though the Census median in one is more than twice the other.

What the yardstick does not do is match the published limits exactly. Eighty percent of $108,100 is $86,480, and the published low-income limit for four people is $133,250. The next section explains the difference.

Which jobs pay under the limits?

The phrase “low income” lands differently once it is set against what ordinary jobs pay. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a median annual wage for each occupation in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area in its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, the most recent set. Half the people in each job earn less than the figure shown, half earn more. Beside each is where that single wage falls against the one-person limits: very low at $58,300, low at $93,300.

Household size changes the reading. Two retail salespersons at the metro median bring in $75,400 together, which is under the two-person low limit of $106,600 and over the two-person very-low limit of $66,650. A firefighter at the median supporting a household of four, $98,050 against a four-person low limit of $133,250, is a low-income household by the federal definition. So is a police officer at $121,980 with three dependents. An elementary school teacher and a cashier raising two children, $138,840 between them, sit about $5,600 above the four-person line.

These are metro-wide medians for the occupation, not the pay at any one employer or city, and the limits count every earner in the household. The arithmetic is the point: a large share of the people who staff the stores, schools, clinics and fire stations of the South Bay earn under the published low-income limit for their household size, and the income test in a deed-restricted lease is the only test the limit applies.

Why is “low income” above the median here?

The published four-person low-income limit, $133,250, is about 123 percent of the four-person median, not 80 percent of it. The reason is a federal adjustment for rent.

HUD’s methodology for the 2026 limits explains the step. “Low-income families are defined as families whose incomes do not exceed 80 percent of the median family income for the area,” but the agency then applies a high housing cost adjustment that “adjusts income limits upward for areas where rental housing costs are unusually high.” The adjustment is triggered when a typical two-bedroom rent would take too large a share of a very-low-income household’s pay, and Los Angeles County trips it. The low-income limit is then set at 1.6 times the very-low limit, and HUD allows it to exceed the national median family income, $107,900 for 2026, “when justified by high housing costs.”

The City of Los Angeles Housing Department prints the result in plain terms on its own 2026 rent and income schedule: “80% income exceeding median income is an anomaly just for this county due to HUD historical high cost adjustments to median.” HCD went one step further this year. Because the low limit came out above 120 percent of the median, HCD set the county’s moderate-income limit equal to its low-income limit, so that in Los Angeles County in 2026 “low” and “moderate” are the same dollar figure.

Household size moves the line the same way everywhere. HUD scales the four-person limit by 70, 80, 90, 100, 108, 116, 124 and 132 percent for households of one through eight, rounding up to the nearest $50.

How do South Bay household incomes compare?

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey gives a median household income for each city, averaged over 2020 to 2024 and stated in 2024 dollars. HUD’s Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy tables, built from the 2018 to 2022 survey and released December 23, 2025, count how many households in each city fall at or below 80 percent of the area median family income, which is HUD’s “low income” line. Both sets are below, with the renter share of households from the same Census tables.

Rolling Hills is left out because the Census top-codes its median at $250,000 or more and its 582 households are too few for a percentage to mean much. The Census margins of error are wider in the smaller cities; Hermosa Beach’s median carries a margin of about $23,000 either way, and Palos Verdes Estates’ about $35,000. Stats presented here represent the city or area as a whole, not any one individual property.

Two readings come out of the table. In Hawthorne, Gardena and Lawndale the median household earns less than the one-person low-income limit of $93,300, and in those three plus Lomita, Carson and Torrance it earns less than the four-person limit of $133,250. In Torrance, by HUD’s count, 36.7 percent of households, about 20,450 of 55,720, sit at or below the low-income line. In Redondo Beach it is about one household in four. Even in Manhattan Beach, where the median is more than twice the county’s, HUD counts 16.2 percent of households, about 2,170, at or below 80 percent of the area median. Those are the households that meet the income test for a deed-restricted unit, whether or not they have ever looked for one.

Adding up the Census income brackets gives the same picture from the other side: 43.5 percent of Torrance households and 32.9 percent of Redondo Beach households reported under $100,000 a year, against 54.6 percent county-wide.

What does the income limit have to do with the cost of buying here?

Nothing directly, and that is the part worth sitting with for a minute. The limits are set from the county’s median income and its rents. The price of a house in the South Bay is set by a different market. In the twelve months to October 2026, by our own CRMLS figures, the median detached home sold for $1,300,000 in Torrance, $1,670,000 in Redondo Beach, $1,900,000 in Rancho Palos Verdes and $3,850,500 in Manhattan Beach. The California Association of Realtors’ Housing Affordability Index for the second quarter of 2026, released August 5, put the minimum qualifying income for the county’s median-priced single-family home, $879,900, at $219,200 with 20 percent down, and found 17 percent of county households could afford it. Under the same formula, which calls for a household income of roughly a quarter of the purchase price at this year’s rates, the Torrance median takes about $322,000 a year and the Redondo Beach median about $418,000.

Set the two numbers side by side. A four-person household at the top of the low-income bracket, $133,250, is at about 41 percent of what C.A.R.’s formula says the Torrance median house requires. That distance is why the affordable housing programs here are rental programs, and why their ceilings reach as high as they do.

What does “affordable” mean on a rent schedule?

State law, Health and Safety Code 50052.5, sets an “affordable housing cost” for lower-income households at no more than 30 percent of gross household income, with adjustments. A unit tied to a tier therefore carries a maximum rent built from that tier’s income limit, not from the market. The state tax credit committee’s 2026 rent limits for Los Angeles County, effective May 1, 2026 and inclusive of utilities, are:

For scale, HUD’s 2026 fair market rent for the Los Angeles metro, the 40th percentile of rents for standard units, is $2,328 for a one-bedroom and $2,903 for a two-bedroom. The Census puts the median gross rent in Torrance at $2,280 and in Redondo Beach at $2,691.

What is Toyon Gardens?

Toyon Gardens is a new five-story, 78-unit apartment building at 3127 W. 147th Street, with a Gardena mailing address, in the El Camino Village area of unincorporated Los Angeles County. The developer and owner is Brilliant Corners, a nonprofit housing organization based in San Francisco, and the property manager is Solari Enterprises, Inc. The Los Angeles County Development Authority’s rental flyer reads: “Accepting applications September 1, 2026, for move-ins beginning December 2026.” The County’s housing listing for the building is dated September 21, 2026.

The flyer calls the building “an affordable apartment community for families and individuals whose gross annual income is 30%, 50% or 60% of the Area Median Income” and gives the unit mix:

The income limits on the flyer, effective May 1, 2026, run from $34,980 for one person at the 30 percent tier to $107,940 for five people at the 60 percent tier. At 60 percent, one person qualifies up to $69,960, two people up to $79,980 and four up to $99,960. The 50 percent column matches HCD’s very-low-income figures above to the dollar. Occupancy is one to two people in a studio, one to three in a one-bedroom, and two to five in a two-bedroom. One pet up to 35 pounds is allowed. The building has accessible and sensory units, a community room, a laundry room, a bike room and 38 parking spaces, and it replaces a truck and container storage lot.

Who are the 78 homes for?

The leasing flyer invites applications at all three tiers. The project’s financing documents add what the flyer leaves out. The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee’s staff report of August 6, 2024 lists a “Homeless Set Aside” of 60 units and states that “the project will be receiving rental assistance in the form of HUD Section 8 Project-based Vouchers” on those 60 units, with an on-site case manager. Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s motion of April 9, 2024, which approved up to $7,005,067 in federal HOME-ARP funds for the project, calls it “60 affordable units for people with a disability, 17 units for low-income families, 1 unrestricted manager’s unit.” Brilliant Corners’ own account of a September 25, 2025 site visit says the 60 permanent supportive housing units are “for people with disabilities, and people and families experiencing homelessness.”

The arithmetic lines up: the 60 units at 30 percent of the area median (15 studios, 43 one-bedrooms and 2 two-bedrooms) are the supportive housing units with vouchers, and the 17 units at 50 and 60 percent (10 one-bedrooms and 7 two-bedrooms) are the general affordable units. None of the published documents say how the 60 voucher units are filled, whether by referral through the County’s homeless services system or by open application, and the flyer draws no distinction. For a South Bay household applying on income alone, the units whose eligibility rests on income are the 17 at 50 and 60 percent.

On rent, nothing has been published for 2026. The developer’s 2024 application proposed, utilities included, $709 for a one-bedroom at 30 percent, $1,182 at 50 percent and $1,418 at 60 percent, and $1,702 for a two-bedroom at 60 percent, all on 2023 limits. The 2026 ceilings in the table above are the most those units can charge now. In a voucher unit the tenant pays 30 percent of adjusted income and the voucher covers the rest, so the posted rent is not the tenant’s payment.

The building cost $60,133,574 to develop, about $771,000 per unit, according to the tax credit staff report, which notes “construction costs, insurance, prevailing wages, and environmental remediation” as the reasons. The largest single source was a $22,683,505 Community Care Expansion grant from the California Department of Social Services, followed by federal four percent tax credit equity of $23,126,547, the County’s $7,005,067, a $2,588,960 state Infill Infrastructure Grant and a Citibank loan. The affordability restrictions run 55 years. There is no age restriction.

How does someone apply?

The flyer gives two channels: email [email protected], or call 1-800-801-8440, extension 7205, for an application. Accessibility requests go to 714-282-2520, California Relay at 7-1-1, or the same email. A pre-application for accessible units can also be submitted through the City of Los Angeles Housing Department’s Affordable and Accessible Housing Registry. As of October 21, 2026, the registry’s public listings did not show Toyon Gardens, so the email and phone channels are the ones that are open. The flyer does not state an application deadline, a lottery or a waitlist procedure, and none has been published elsewhere.

For other deed-restricted buildings, the route depends on where the building is. Inside the City of Los Angeles, which includes San Pedro, Harbor City and Wilmington, the registry above handles new lease-ups and waitlists; its applicant guide, revised November 10, 2025, walks through the pre-application. Outside the city, the Los Angeles County Development Authority runs the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, for which “a family’s gross annual income must be below 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI) in Los Angeles County,” and most buildings in Torrance, the beach cities and the Peninsula keep their own waitlists through their managers. Applications take gross income before taxes, and household size counts everyone who will live in the unit.

What gets reported next?

The Census Bureau releases its 2025 one-year estimates on October 29, 2026, which will update the county and Torrance figures above. HCD and HUD publish the 2027 income limits in the spring. Toyon Gardens begins move-ins in December 2026, and the manager’s rent schedule will be added here when it is published. Market figures for every South Bay market are in Market Insights.

What is here is how the income limits and the programs work. It takes no position on housing policy, on any development, or on any ballot measure. It is general information, not real estate, tax, lending, legal, financial or investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, list, price or rent any property. Each program decides its own eligibility.

Buying, selling, or still deciding if the South Bay is where you’ll settle down next? Neil Chhabria, Broker, 310.798.3122, [email protected].

Sources

California Department of Housing and Community Development, 2026 State Income Limits (memo dated June 23, 2026) and income limit definitions. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, FY 2026 income limits methodology, FY 2026 HOME income limits, California, Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy data, 2018 to 2022, and FY 2026 fair market rents, revised (Federal Register, April 21, 2026). Los Angeles Housing Department, 2026 rent and income schedules and registry applicant guide (revised November 10, 2025). Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, Income Limits 2026. California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, 2026 rent limits and staff report CA-24-541, August 6, 2024. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates, tables DP03, DP04 and S1901 for each city and Los Angeles County, and the 2025 release schedule. Los Angeles County Development Authority, Toyon Gardens rental flyer, County housing listing (September 21, 2026), board letter of April 9, 2024, and Section 8 eligibility. Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, motion by Supervisor Holly Mitchell, April 9, 2024. Brilliant Corners, Toyon Gardens site visit, September 25, 2025. Urbanize LA, Steven Sharp, May 6, 2026. California Association of Realtors, second quarter 2026 Housing Affordability Index, August 5, 2026. Program pages read October 21, 2026: Los Angeles County Development Authority Home Ownership Program and its HOP80 (June 2026) and HOP150 (August 2026) flyers; Los Angeles Housing Department LIPA and MIPA; Fannie Mae HomeReady; Freddie Mac Home Possible; CalHFA MyHome, income limits (effective June 30, 2026) and Dream For All; California Secretary of State, Proposition 37; Southern California Edison CARE and FERA; SoCalGas CARE; Cal Water Customer Assistance Program and Rancho Dominguez District; LADWP EZ-SAVE; California Public Utilities Commission LifeLine; California Department of Education Management Bulletin 26-03; State Controller Property Tax Postponement; NBC Los Angeles, January 25, 2017, on the homeowners’ exemption; Joint Investor-Owned Utilities status report to the CPUC Low Income Oversight Board, December 2025; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Federal Rental Assistance, updated June 11, 2026; USDA Food and Nutrition Service, SNAP participation rates, 2022. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim. Chhabria Real Estate Company, CRMLS Matrix pull of November 8, 2026, twelve months to October 2026. All read October 21, 2026.

We do our very best to supply facts drawn from official sources so that the information you find here is reliable and accurate. If we find conflicting information, we report on all of it.