Instead, California’s mortgage-free homes increased by 16% over five years, compared with a 2% uptick among owners with mortgages. However, California’s 16% growth in mortgage-free living from 2019 was only the 24th largest jump among the states. Despite those price bumps, California’s share of mortgage-free owners increased by 3 percentage points from 2019, when it stood at 31%. California’s mortgage-free owners paid a median $882 a month in housing costs last year, the eighth-highest among the states and 40% above the nation’s $628. Across California, 9% of mortgage-free owners had housing costs exceeding 50% of a household’s income – the ninth-highest level of extreme housing burden among the states.