South Pasadena has no row in this week's feed, so budgets are checked against Pasadena's $1,180,000 list price
· City Deep Dive
No South Pasadena row in our November 10 feed, so we explain how to test your budget against neighboring Pasadena.
The most specific finding this week is a gap. In our MLS feed snapshot dated November 10, 2026, there is no separate South Pasadena row among the cities we track, so we will not quote a South Pasadena median, a count of active listings or a price-band breakdown. Inventing those numbers would be worse than leaving them out. What we can do is show you how to test a budget, and use neighboring Pasadena as a reference point.
Here is what the feed does show for Pasadena (ZIP 91106). There are 331 active listings, the median list price is $1,180,000 (it was $1,149,000 in the prior snapshot, a change of 2.7%), the median days on market is 30, and the median price per square foot is $765. Across the whole feed, 5783 listings are active, with an overall median list price of $919,000 and a median of 26 days on market. These are Pasadena and feed-wide figures only. They are not South Pasadena figures, and the two cities can differ noticeably.
If you have never bought in the U.S., a few terms matter. The list price is the seller's asking price, not what the home sells for. Days on market is how long a listing has been advertised, and it hints at how much room you may have to negotiate. A median means half of the listings are priced above that number and half below, so it tells you where the middle is, not where your budget fits. That is why a price-band table, which shows how many homes sit in each range, is more useful than one headline number.
Now a worked example of budget math. Suppose your target purchase price is $1,500,000. With 30% down, which is also the general starting point for a foreign-national loan, the down payment is $450,000 (0.30 x $1,500,000) and the loan is $1,050,000. Property tax in California is based on the purchase price: the Prop 13 base rate is 1% of assessed value, and the effective rate is commonly around 1.1-1.25%. At 1.2%, tax is about $18,000 a year, or $1,500 a month (1.2% x $1,500,000 / 12). Add homeowners insurance and any HOA dues, and the monthly cost is more than the loan payment alone.
Closing costs are separate from the down payment. They commonly run about 2-5% of the purchase price, so in the example above you would set aside roughly $30,000 to $75,000 on top of the $450,000. Escrow, the neutral process in which a third party holds funds and documents until the sale completes, typically runs about 30-45 days with financing and roughly 14-21 days for cash. Specifics depend on the property and the lender, so confirm them before you commit to a timeline.
On financing, Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week of November 5, 2026 reports a 30-year fixed national weekly average of 7.18%. That is a national weekly average and not a quote. An individual rate depends on credit score, loan size, down payment, property type and occupancy, so please ask Treasure Mortgage for a current personalised quote. Buyers without U.S. status should know that foreign-national loans are passport-based and need no U.S. credit history, Social Security number or ITIN. ITIN loans also exist, F-1 students can buy and borrow, H-1B holders use the same programs as residents, and a down payment can be a documented gift. For rates on those programs, see https://tuhaousa.com/rates/.
So how do you check whether your budget lines up with South Pasadena? Start with the full distribution table and the current for-sale homes at tuhaousa.com/zh/city/south-pasadena, where you can see how many homes sit in each price band. Then compare your own all-in monthly figure against the homes in your band, not against a single median. Use Pasadena's $1,180,000 only as a neighboring reference, since a different city has different housing stock and different pricing.
If you want us to run your own numbers, including down payment, closing costs, tax and a loan scenario, send Shirley a message. Shirley Tang, 888 Realty, DRE #01845722, can walk you through the price bands city by city and tell you honestly which ones fit your budget.
Want the numbers for your own situation? Text (626) 202-9573 (texting is fastest), call, or add ShirleyT611 on WeChat.