Episode 2 · Property Types & Supply Dynamics
Torrance Housing Stock: Sizes, Ages, Taxes
Torrance is mostly detached houses, with the largest share built in one fast decade, with condominiums making up about a fifth of its parcels. This page shows how big those homes are, how old, how much of their taxed value sits in the land, and why two matching houses can carry very different tax figures depending on when each last sold.
💡 Key Insights & Takeaways
- The most common detached layout, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, covers 37.6% of the detached stock, and 4,509 houses, 14.3%, still have one bathroom.
- The median detached house measures 1,597 square feet, against 1,300 for the median condominium.
- Torrance went up fast. 44.2% of every parcel dates to the 1950s, and the median year built is 1958.
- Across 1,451 detached sales the median lot ran about 5,900 square feet, a figure drawn from homes that listed and sold rather than from every parcel.
- Under Proposition 13, parcels last sold in the 1980s carry a median assessed value of $314,881, while those last sold in the 2020s carry $779,779.
Torrance holds 9,189 condominiums — 20.2% of all 45,544 parcels — as of 18 September 2026, alongside 31,560 detached houses. Land carries 65.0% of assessed value across all parcels, so what you are taxed on here is mostly the ground. Half the city has held its parcel for a decade or longer.
At a glance
| As of | ||
|---|---|---|
| Parcels in the city | 45,544 | 2026-09-18 |
| Detached houses | 31,560 (69.3%) | 2026-09-18 |
| Condominiums | 9,189 (20.2%) | 2026-09-18 |
| Median detached living area | 1,597 sq ft | 2026-09-18 |
| Land share of assessed value | 65.0% | 2026-09-18 |
What kind of homes are in Torrance?
Torrance is a detached city with a real attached fifth inside it. Detached houses take 69.3% of all parcels at 31,560. Condominiums take 20.2% at 9,189. Residential income buildings take 5.1%, commercial and industrial parcels take 4.7%, and vacant land barely registers at 0.3% — which tells you the city finished building decades ago.
That attached fifth is the part most buyers never tour. The two columns differ on size and on who lives in them, and a buyer who tours only detached listings never sees a fifth of the city. Compare an attached unit only against attached sales.
How big are Torrance homes?
The median detached house measures 1,597 square feet, with a quarter of them under 1,284 and a quarter over 2,046. The median condominium measures 1,300 square feet, with a quarter under 1,064 and a quarter over 1,660.
That is 297 square feet apart at the median, and it is roughly a bedroom: the median detached house carries three and the median condominium carries two. Walk both columns before you decide, because the floor plans diverge more than the square footage suggests.
The single most common detached layout — three bedrooms and two bathrooms — covers 37.6% of the detached stock at 11,857 parcels. Five configurations between them cover 81.4% of it. 4,509 detached houses, 14.3%, still have one bathroom. Those are the obvious renovation targets, so budget the permit before the offer rather than after the inspection.
How big are the lots in Torrance?
Read the caveat before the number. Lot area is not recorded in the assessment data for Torrance — the field is empty on all 45,544 parcels. The figure below comes from the homes that actually listed and sold, drawn off the listing data rather than the assessment data.
Across 1,451 detached sales the median lot ran about 5,900 square feet, with a quarter under 5,300 and a quarter over 6,601. That is a listed-and-sold sample covering about 4.6% of the detached universe, and it is turnover-weighted — the homes that change hands are not a random draw from the homes that exist.
Condominium lot values carry the shared parcel and are excluded entirely, because a condominium's "lot" in the assessment data is the whole development.
How old is the housing in Torrance?
Torrance went up fast and the recorded build years show exactly when. 44.2% of every parcel — 20,148 of them — dates to the 1950s. The 1960s add 15.5%, the 1970s 9.5%, the 1980s 9.7% and the 2000s 5.8%. The median year built is 1958.
That one decade explains the ceiling heights, the garage widths and the single-pane windows you will meet on tour, and it explains why whole streets read the same from the kerb.
Renovation is harder to see than age. The assessment data carries an effective year that moves on substantial permitted work, and only 1,097 parcels — 2.4% — carry an effective year of 2010 or later. The median effective year is 1964, six years after the median construction year.
2.4% is not a renovation count. The effective-year field follows its own updating practice and is not a renovation register. A kitchen redone without a permit leaves no trace in it. Ask the seller for permits, because this data will not show them.
Is it the land or the house you are paying for in Torrance?
Land carries 65.0% of assessed value across all parcels. What you are taxed on here is mostly dirt rather than building, and the improvements on an ordinary Torrance house carry less assessed weight than the ground beneath them.
The median assessed value across all parcels is $604,209. Assessed value is not market value and it never tells you what a home would sell for — it tells you what the county taxes.
Why do two identical Torrance houses pay different taxes?
Proposition 13 locks assessed value to whenever the parcel last changed hands, then trends it by no more than 2% a year. The result is a staircase rather than a market.
| Parcel by decade of last sale | Median assessed value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Sold in the 1980s | $314,881 | 2026-09-18 |
| Sold in the 2020s | $779,779 | 2026-09-18 |
On comparable houses, that is a tax bill about two and a half times larger — the two figures are medians by decade of last sale, not a matched pair. And this is the normal condition rather than the exception: 50.9% of the city has held its parcel for a decade or longer, so the seller's current bill says nothing about yours. Budget the tax on your own purchase price.
Pull the assessed value and the last sale date on any parcel before you model the carrying cost.
Who owns homes in Torrance, and do they live in them?
California's homeowners' exemption records a primary residence. 23,503 parcels — 51.6% — carry one. Detached houses run at 60.4% and condominiums at 44.4%, 16 points apart.
Read that as occupancy rather than as ownership. The exemption says who lives in the home. It says nothing about who owns it or through what vehicle, and no investor share can be derived from it. That claim needs owner data, which this page does not carry.
Common questions
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