CITY OF LOS ANGELES DENSITY ANALYSIS
how different building types contribute to residential density across Los Angeles
Suggested Citation
Ricardo de la Rosa, L., Alvarez, D. (2025) City of Los Angeles Density Analysis. Los Angeles, CA. Pacific Urbanism.
What Residential Density Really Looks Like in Los Angeles
As housing prices continue to rise across Los Angeles, the call for greater residential density has become a familiar refrain in citywide policy debates. Yet the term "density" often enters these conversations without a clear explanation of what it means in practice—or what it looks like in the neighborhoods where it might be implemented.
This study uses quantitative data from the Los Angeles Office of the Assessor to ground the discussion in reality. By calculating the number of dwelling units per acre provided by different types of residential buildings throughout the city, we can visualize and compare the actual spatial footprints of common housing forms—from single-family homes to large apartment complexes.
The findings help clarify how Los Angeles has historically delivered housing—and how it can do so more effectively in the future while maintaining familiar neighborhood patterns.
METHODS
The core metric in this analysis is dwelling units per acre (DU/Ac), which quantifies how many residential units exist on a given amount of land. While often cited in zoning regulations and planning documents, this number can be highly abstract without visual or contextual reference.
To help bring the concept into focus, we grouped all residential parcels in the City of Los Angeles into standard building type categories based on the number of units on each lot:
Examples of existing buildings in Los Angeles for each of the eight building types used in this study.
For each category, we used Assessor data to calculate the average parcel size and the average number of dwelling units. Dividing the two yields the average residential density for each building type, expressed in units per acre.
Results
The results provide a clear picture of how much housing each building form delivers per acre:
Figures above each bar correspond to the average observed Dwelling Unit per Acre for each building type (Example: A building with 2-4 dwelling units provides an average density of 16 dwelling units per acre)
The highest average densities—62 dwelling units per acre—are achieved not by the largest buildings, but by mid-sized buildings containing 25-49 units (as well as 50-99 unit buildings). These are often three-story apartment buildings with street-facing landscaping and interior courtyards. They are found throughout many of Los Angeles' established multi-family neighborhoods.
In contrast, buildings with more than 100 units provide, somewhat counterintuitively, a lower average density of 50 DU/Ac. This is potentially due to features such as surface parking, landscaped open areas, and driveways that accompany many large-scale developments.
At the lower end of the scale, single-family dwellings average just 6 units per acre, highlighting how land-inefficient this housing form can be. Even relatively modest additions—such as duplexes or fourplexes—can more than double or triple the number of units accommodated per acre.
Implications for Housing Policy and Land Use Planning
These findings offer a useful frame for understanding how Los Angeles can thoughtfully increase its housing supply while remaining sensitive to context.
First, they show that higher residential density does not require high-rise buildings. The most land-efficient forms of housing in Los Angeles today are modestly scaled buildings in the 25–49 unit range. These buildings are common across the city and offer a familiar, walkable form that blends well into many existing neighborhoods.
A break down of the existing housing stock for the City of Los Angeles, showing the distribution of each building type by decade since 1900. Note that 2-99 building types make up 54% of the entire housing stock for the City of Los Angeles.
Second, the results illustrate that meaningful increases in housing can be achieved through small and medium-sized buildings that already exist in the urban fabric. In many cases, these structures are indistinguishable from lower-density housing at a quick glance—offering a similar architectural scale while accommodating more households.
Third, the data shows that residential density is not inherently tied to building size alone. Design elements such as setbacks, parking configurations, and lot coverage can significantly affect how much housing fits on a parcel of land. Understanding how these elements interact helps inform conversations about how to make the best use of available land.
Finally, the study helps translate planning terminology into concrete, visualizable terms. When a parcel is zoned to allow for 56 DU/Ac, knowing that this might equate to a 24 unit building —and could be achieved in a three-story courtyard-style building—gives both policymakers and residents a clearer sense of what to expect.
A Better Understanding of Neighborhood-Scale Density
The City of Los Angeles is evolving. As it adapts to changing housing needs, demographic shifts, and long-term sustainability goals, many neighborhoods will see new forms of housing. This study aims to provide a helpful resource for understanding what that change can look like—and how it connects to existing development patterns across the city.
By linking unit counts and parcel sizes to average densities, and then comparing those across building types, we gain insight into the role that neighborhood-scale buildings have played—and can continue to play—in addressing the city’s housing challenges.
Instead of relying on generalizations or assumptions, this data encourages more grounded conversations about what kinds of housing are most effective, what forms are already well established, and what new possibilities might exist for the future.