Jonathan Lansner

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Jerome Powell's days as Federal Reserve boss were akin to a roller coaster ride for Southern California's housing market.

Local real estate was whipsawed over Jerome Powell’s eight years as fed chairman.

Remember the summer of 2007? The first iPhone was for sale. Justin Timberlake topped the music charts, and Jason Bourne was No. 1 at the box office.

But if you look closer at the confidence index, you can see that shoppers are still worried about what lies ahead.

Still, it's an unnerving trendline. The good news, for California, is that Golden Staters are better than most Americans at paying their bills. Nationwide, 3% of consumer debt was delinquent in the first quarter, the highest since 2020's first quarter.

Nearly one-third of California rentals offer discounts, though landlord generosity – or desperation, depending on one's view – is higher elsewhere in the nation.

More Californians are filing for bankruptcy, yet this signal of bill-paying problems looks middle-of-the-pack on a national scale.

One way to gauge California's relatively solid employment picture in early 2026 is to note that four of the country's fastest-growing job markets are here.

It’s not too difficult to find California landlords who’ll offer discounts – the six-metro median share is 31% – and that’s up from 28% a year ago.