Foreign buyers eye luxe LA homes as proposed wealth tax pushes billionaires out of California

California is seeing an influx of interest from foreign real estate buyers as the state's proposed wealth tax drives an exodus of billionaires.

The wildfires that devastated Southern California in January 2025 prompted an uptick in international demand for luxury homes in the Los Angeles area, which rose by 18.2% by the end of last year before easing to start 2026, an analysis by Realtor.com found.

"At its peak, nearly 1 in 5 luxury home shoppers in the LA metro was looking from abroad, reflecting the metro's draw for high net worth individuals who view Southern California as a destination for residency, second homes, investment properties, and those seeking a form of wealth preservation," said Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith.

The analysis found that would-be buyers from Canada represented the largest share of international housing shoppers in the LA market at 29%. The other largest shares of listing views from abroad originated from the United Kingdom (10%), Australia (8%), Germany (6%) and Mexico (3%).

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An analysis by Realtor.com from March found that the Los Angeles metro area was the second most expensive market for luxury housing in the country, trailing only the metro area that includes Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The top 10% of listings in the Los Angeles market started at $4.255 million in March, just below the $4.299 million in the Bridgeport market and ahead of the third most expensive luxury market, Kahului, Hawaii, which was at $4.192 million.

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The entry-level price point for luxury homes in the LA market is more than three times the national median at over $4.25 million, with the national benchmark at $1.25 million. That threshold is down 8.9% from a year ago.

While there isn't data immediately available to determine whether foreign buyers are making cash purchases in the LA market, the National Association of Realtors reported in July that nearly half of all foreign buyers acquiring real estate assets in the U.S. paid all-cash to avoid high interest rates. 

That's well above the 28% of domestic buyers who made all-cash housing purchases.

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Victor Currie, a real estate agent at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, told Realtor.com that "Los Angeles remains a safe-haven market for global investors," saying that while it "feels overpriced by average housing standards, we can be thought of as a relative bargain compared to other major cities like London or Sydney or Hong Kong."

Currie added that the LA market's appeal to wealthy American and international buyers remains the "mix of lifestyle, weather, culture, and global financial power, all in one place."

California has seen an outflow of billionaires in the last year, ahead of the state potentially implementing a wealth tax. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel are among those who have moved assets or relocated from California.

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The proposed wealth tax, which would amount to a 5% one-time levy on billionaires who were California residents at the start of the year, is in the signature-gathering stage as advocates look to qualify the initiative for the November ballot.