The Beverly Hills 90210 mailing address reaches beyond the City of Beverly Hills, and transfer tax rates differ across the city line.
The events of 2026 left that difference where it was.
The ZIP code tells you the post office
ZIP 90210 covers more ground than the city does. The Los Angeles Times explained years ago that the area known as the Beverly Hills Post Office, or BHPO, shares the 90210 ZIP and the Beverly Hills mailing address but sits outside Beverly Hills city limits. Most of it is part of the City of Los Angeles, with a small county island.
The City of Los Angeles Planning Department's Bel Air–Beverly Crest historic survey puts BHPO inside its own planning area and lists Benedict Canyon, Coldwater Canyon, Franklin Canyon and Beverly Crest among its neighborhoods. The same report describes BHPO as mostly north of Beverly Hills' incorporated limits. It also mentions a home in Greenacres that sits partly in Los Angeles and partly in Beverly Hills.
According to the Los Angeles Office of Finance, the city's transfer tax applies to property conveyed "within the City."
What each side of the line charges
Beverly Hills isn't on the Los Angeles County Recorder's list of cities with special transfer tax rates. The standard documentary transfer tax is $0.55 per $500 of value, which works out to $1.10 per $1,000, or 0.11%. Only five cities in the county charge special rates: Culver City, Los Angeles, Pomona, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica. The recorder lists the county's own $1.10 per $1,000 alongside those cities' taxes.
For sales that close after June 30, 2026, the City of Los Angeles lists a base tax of $2.25 per $500, which is 0.45%. Measure ULA's schedule lists 4% of the full price on sales above $5.4 million and under $10.9 million, and 5.5% at $10.9 million and above. The city's combined rates are 4.45% and 5.95%.
In March 2026, a penthouse at the Mandarin Oriental Residences in Beverly Hills sold for $13.3 million, or $3,852 per square foot. The Real Deal reported that at the time, it was the highest price per square foot for any condo sold in the county that year. CalMatters notes that despite the "mansion tax" nickname, the measure also covers condos, apartment developments and commercial property.
The cliff at $5.4 million
USC's Lusk Center called the structure "a cliff" in a June 2026 presentation.
The thresholds also move. The city adjusts them every year based on the chained Consumer Price Index. The recorder's table shows $5.3 million and $10.6 million for the year that began July 1, 2025, replaced by $5.4 million and $10.9 million on July 1, 2026.
2026 was the year the gap could have closed
This spring, there was a real chance the difference would shrink. A Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association initiative had qualified for the November ballot. According to CalMatters, it would have capped local transfer taxes at $0.55 per $1,000, a cutoff that Los Angeles' top ULA rate of 5.5% is 100 times. Assemblymember Buffy Wicks also introduced AB 736 as a possible way to avoid the ballot fight. It would have capped transfer taxes at 1.5% to 3%. Even that draft left out single-family homes, individually owned condos included, valued at $5.4 million or more.
Neither one went anywhere. In a deal reached on June 25, the initiative was pulled from the ballot, and the compromise "doesn't touch real-estate transfer taxes," CalMatters reported. Mott Smith, chairman of the Council of Infill Builders, told the outlet:
"Measure ULA and other similar measures will remain untouched."
AB 736's last recorded action, on June 25, 2026, reads "In committee: Hearing postponed by committee," according to the Legislature's bill history. The measure that took the initiative's place on the November 3 ballot was Prop. 43. It would have required a two-thirds vote for future citizen-initiated special taxes and wouldn't have removed existing ones. The Associated Press called it as failing early on November 8, when it trailed 56.8% to 43.2% in CalMatters' results. Earlier, on December 15, 2025, the California Court of Appeal rejected a challenge to ULA, as Courthouse News reported.
Beverly Hills isn't the only low-tax neighbor. Two other cities that border parts of the Westside run their own steep schedules. Santa Monica charges $56 per $1,000 on sales of $8 million and above, and Culver City reaches 4% at $10 million.
How owners on the taxed side are responding
The clearest effect of ULA shows up in whether owners sell at all. In July 2026, The Real Deal reported that Gesh Group, a luxury builder that also remodels, had gone from 80% new construction and 20% remodels before ULA to about 60% remodels. The same article cited Attom data showing a 46% increase in remodel permits for high-priced homes in the City of Los Angeles. A Westside broker quoted in the piece said ULA comes up in "nearly every meaningful conversation" about timing, pricing and renovation, and that it has led some owners to delay selling.
A RAND study published May 28, 2026, estimates that ULA reduced high-value real estate sales in Los Angeles by 31% through early 2026. The UCLA Lewis Center looked specifically at non-single-family property, which includes condos and apartment buildings. After a correction, its estimate is a sustained reduction of about 7% to 15% in those transactions compared with what would otherwise have happened. Meanwhile, the tax keeps collecting. The coalition behind ULA, United to House LA, reported $1.37 billion raised as of August 2026.
Quick answers
Does a Beverly Hills mailing address mean a property is in the City of Beverly Hills? No. BHPO uses the 90210 ZIP and a Beverly Hills address, but most of it lies in the City of Los Angeles.
Will the thresholds be different next year? Probably. They're adjusted every year to inflation, and the current $5.4 million and $10.9 million figures apply to sales closing after June 30, 2026.
Did the November 2026 election change ULA? No. The statewide measure that would have capped transfer taxes was withdrawn in June, and Prop. 43 applied only to future tax initiatives.
This post is general information about published tax rates and isn't legal, tax or financial advice. Before you set a price or sign anything, confirm how these rules apply to your property with a tax professional or attorney.
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