The 10 Cheapest Los Angeles, CA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2025


The cheapest Los Angeles neighborhoods are Sunland and Lakeview Terrace for 2025 based on Saturday Night Science.

By: Chris Kolmar | About HomeSnacks
Last Updated: October 22, 2025
Worst Neighborhoods In Los Angeles
Source: Wikipedia User Nserrano | CC BY-SA 3.0

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Los Angeles might be more expensive than living in rural California, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Los Angeles neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Los Angeles are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Los Angeles For 2025

  1. Sunland
  2. Lakeview Terrace
  3. Arleta
  4. Fashion District
  5. Mission Hills
  6. Wilmington
  7. Montecito Heights
  8. El Sereno
  9. Harbor City
  10. Sylmar

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Los Angeles for 2025? According to the most recent census data, Sunland looks to be the cheapest Los Angeles neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Los Angeles. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Los Angeles that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

For more California reading, check out:

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Los Angeles For 2025

1. Sunland

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 16,555
Cost Of Living Index: 135 (30th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.0 (12th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (5th cheapest)
More on Sunland:

2. Lakeview Terrace

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 13,477
Cost Of Living Index: 127 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.5 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (39th cheapest)
More on Lakeview Terrace:

3. Arleta

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 39,928
Cost Of Living Index: 129 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.9 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (3cheapest)
More on Arleta:

4. Fashion District

Fashion District Los Angeles, CA

Source: Wikipedia User Kerstin Bednarek | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 2,466
Cost Of Living Index: 100 (cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.2 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.025 (6cheapest)
More on Fashion District:

5. Mission Hills

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 21,378
Cost Of Living Index: 135 (30th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.9 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (25th cheapest)
More on Mission Hills:

6. Wilmington

Wilmington Los Angeles, CA

Source: Wikipedia User Los Angeles | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 50,695
Cost Of Living Index: 127 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 7.7 (28th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (30th cheapest)
More on Wilmington:

7. Montecito Heights

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 8,572
Cost Of Living Index: 136 (32nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 8.0 (3cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (10th cheapest)
More on Montecito Heights:

8. El Sereno

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 44,421
Cost Of Living Index: 132 (23rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 8.4 (37th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (14th cheapest)
More on El Sereno:

9. Harbor City

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 22,398
Cost Of Living Index: 130 (22nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 7.2 (22nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (35th cheapest)
More on Harbor City:

10. Sylmar

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 78,715
Cost Of Living Index: 133 (24th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 6.0 (13th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (47th cheapest)
More on Sylmar:

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Los Angeles Hoods In 2025

To rank the cheapest places to live in Los Angeles, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 83 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Los Angeles.” We’re lookin’ at you, Sunland.

We updated this article for 2025. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Los Angeles. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Los Angeles

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Los Angeles where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Los Angeles are Sunland, Lakeview Terrace, Arleta, Fashion District, Mission Hills, Wilmington, Montecito Heights, El Sereno, Harbor City, and Sylmar.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Los Angeles aren’t all cheap. Glendale takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Los Angeles.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Los Angeles are Glendale, Westwood, Century City, Mid City West, and Toluca Lake.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more California reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Los Angeles For 2025

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Sunland 135
2 Lakeview Terrace 127
3 Arleta 129
4 Fashion District 100
5 Mission Hills 135
6 Wilmington 127
7 Montecito Heights 136
8 El Sereno 132
9 Harbor City 130
10 Sylmar 133
11 Northridge 148
12 Pacoima 126
13 South Park 118
14 Civic Center-Little Tokyo 129
15 New Downtown 125
16 Granada Hills 152
17 Chatsworth 152
18 North Hills 129
19 Leiment Park 141
20 Tujunga 137
21 Eagle Rock 150
22 Westchester 167
23 Wholesale District-Skid Row 113
24 Harbor Gateway 137
25 San Pedro 143
26 West Hills 166
27 Mount Washington 148
28 Reseda 139
29 Highland Park 142
30 Encino 180
31 Atwater Village 168
32 Boyle Heights 125
33 Canoga Park 136
34 Panorama City 134
35 Portar Ranch 184
36 Playa Vista 169
37 South Los Angeles 125
38 Beverly Glen 205
39 Brentwood 284
40 Studio City 195
41 Southeast Los Angeles 120
42 Silver Lake 163
43 Playa Del Ray 200
44 Valley Village 161
45 Sun Valley 134
46 Hyde Park 129
47 Winnetka 141
48 Mid Wilshire 150
49 Shadow Hills 144
50 Glassell Park 152
51 Chinatown 133
52 Bel Air 310
53 Woodland Hills 174
54 Pacific Palisades 296
55 Lincoln Heights 134
56 Los Feliz 178
57 Central City 118
58 Tarzana 180
59 Watts 114
60 West Los Angeles 224
61 Hollywood Hills 223
62 Cypress Park 150
63 West Adams 128
64 Van Nuys 140
65 Jefferson Park 134
66 Sawtelle 186
67 Central City East 138
68 Mid City 140
69 Echo Park 158
70 Westlake 111
71 Crenshaw 126
72 Palms 147
73 Downtown 113
74 Pico-Robertson 175
75 Mar Vista 186
76 Hollywood 128
77 North Hollywood 138
78 Venice 224
79 Toluca Lake 204
80 Mid City West 184
81 Century City 217
82 Westwood 195
83 Glendale 198
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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