Los Angeles County Commute Times by City
The average commute in Los Angeles County is 30.4 minutes each way. Across the 32 places I follow, it runs from 24.8 minutes in Santa Monica to 39.9 minutes in Palmdale. Those are the Census Bureau’s figures for people who travel to work, not the ones working from home.
An average hides a lot, so I also pulled the share of commuters in each place who spend 45 minutes or more getting to work. That’s the column I read first. Below it is a second table built from this site’s own open house list: how far the homes holding open houses sit from six job centers.
Average Commute Times for All 32 Places
| Place | Average one way commute | Commuting 45 minutes or more | Commuting an hour or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palmdale | 39.9 min | 40% | 30% |
| Santa Clarita | 34.1 min | 33% | 19% |
| Florence-Graham | 33.4 min | 23% | 12% |
| Whittier | 33.2 min | 28% | 15% |
| West Covina | 32.9 min | 28% | 15% |
| South Gate | 32.5 min | 24% | 14% |
| Pomona | 31.8 min | 25% | 16% |
| Downey | 31.0 min | 24% | 13% |
| Montebello | 31.0 min | 23% | 12% |
| Lancaster | 30.8 min | 25% | 17% |
| Los Angeles | 30.7 min | 22% | 12% |
| Inglewood | 30.5 min | 23% | 13% |
| Compton | 30.5 min | 19% | 10% |
| Pico Rivera | 30.3 min | 23% | 11% |
| Lynwood | 30.3 min | 21% | 11% |
| Alhambra | 30.3 min | 23% | 11% |
| East Los Angeles | 30.2 min | 22% | 12% |
| Long Beach | 29.9 min | 21% | 11% |
| Norwalk | 29.5 min | 22% | 11% |
| Bellflower | 29.4 min | 20% | 10% |
| Gardena | 29.3 min | 21% | 10% |
| Baldwin Park | 28.9 min | 21% | 12% |
| Lakewood | 28.4 min | 20% | 8% |
| Hawthorne | 28.3 min | 19% | 11% |
| El Monte | 27.8 min | 18% | 10% |
| Carson | 27.5 min | 17% | 9% |
| Glendale | 27.1 min | 17% | 9% |
| Redondo Beach | 27.0 min | 20% | 10% |
| Torrance | 26.9 min | 17% | 9% |
| Pasadena | 26.9 min | 18% | 10% |
| Burbank | 26.0 min | 17% | 7% |
| Santa Monica | 24.8 min | 14% | 7% |
| Los Angeles County | 30.4 min | 23% | 12% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey five-year estimates for 2020 to 2024 (tables B08013, B08006 and B08303), via Census Reporter. Workers who don’t work from home. Margins of error on the averages run from about 1 minute for the larger places to about 2 minutes for Santa Monica, Montebello and Florence-Graham, so small gaps between places are not a ranking.
The Long Commute Share Tells You More Than the Average
Palmdale stands out on every measure. Its average is the longest in the county, 39.7% of its commuters spend 45 minutes or more on the way in, and 29.6% spend an hour or more. Santa Clarita is next at 32.6% for 45 minutes or more, and Lancaster is at 24.6% with 17.0% going an hour or longer.
Palmdale and Lancaster also have a split pattern. Only about 9% of commuters in each travel 30 to 44 minutes, compared with 26.2% countywide, so a commuter there tends to either work close to home or make a very long trip.
Florence-Graham shows why the average can mislead. Its 33.4 minutes is the third longest on the list, yet 22.7% of its commuters go 45 minutes or more, about the county’s 22.5%. The reason is the middle: 37.1% of its commuters travel 30 to 44 minutes, the highest share of any place here.
At the short end, 14.0% of Santa Monica commuters spend 45 minutes or more getting to work, then 16.6% in Burbank and 16.9% in Glendale.
How Far the Open Houses Are From Six Job Centers
For each place, this is the median straight-line distance from the homes holding open houses to six fixed points: downtown Los Angeles (34.0522, -118.2437), Santa Monica and the Westside (34.0195, -118.4912), LAX and El Segundo (33.9300, -118.3960), the Burbank media district (34.1560, -118.3250), Pasadena (34.1478, -118.1445) and downtown Long Beach and the port (33.7701, -118.1937). Driving distances run longer, but the ranking holds.
| Place | Homes on the list | Downtown Los Angeles | Santa Monica and the Westside | LAX and El Segundo | Burbank Media District | Pasadena | Downtown Long Beach and the Port |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florence-Graham | 1 | 5 mi | 14 mi | 9 mi | 13 mi | 13 mi | 15 mi |
| East Los Angeles | 1 | 6 mi | 20 mi | 16 mi | 14 mi | 9 mi | 17 mi |
| Alhambra | 15 | 7 mi | 22 mi | 19 mi | 12 mi | 4 mi | 23 mi |
| South Gate | 1 | 7 mi | 16 mi | 10 mi | 15 mi | 14 mi | 12 mi |
| Inglewood | 3 | 8 mi | 10 mi | 5 mi | 13 mi | 16 mi | 15 mi |
| Glendale | 22 | 8 mi | 17 mi | 18 mi | 4 mi | 6 mi | 27 mi |
| Montebello | 2 | 9 mi | 23 mi | 19 mi | 16 mi | 9 mi | 19 mi |
| Pasadena | 54 | 9 mi | 22 mi | 21 mi | 11 mi | 1 mi | 26 mi |
| Burbank | 20 | 10 mi | 14 mi | 18 mi | 2 mi | 11 mi | 29 mi |
| Compton | 6 | 10 mi | 16 mi | 9 mi | 18 mi | 18 mi | 10 mi |
| Downey | 9 | 10 mi | 21 mi | 16 mi | 19 mi | 14 mi | 13 mi |
| Pico Rivera | 5 | 10 mi | 23 mi | 18 mi | 18 mi | 12 mi | 16 mi |
| Gardena | 7 | 11 mi | 14 mi | 6 mi | 18 mi | 20 mi | 11 mi |
| Los Angeles | 538 | 12 mi | 11 mi | 14 mi | 9 mi | 17 mi | 26 mi |
| Hawthorne | 4 | 12 mi | 11 mi | 2 mi | 17 mi | 21 mi | 14 mi |
| El Monte | 8 | 13 mi | 27 mi | 24 mi | 18 mi | 8 mi | 23 mi |
| Santa Monica | 27 | 14 mi | 1 mi | 9 mi | 13 mi | 21 mi | 25 mi |
| Bellflower | 4 | 14 mi | 23 mi | 16 mi | 22 mi | 19 mi | 9 mi |
| Norwalk | 7 | 14 mi | 25 mi | 18 mi | 22 mi | 17 mi | 12 mi |
| Whittier | 18 | 14 mi | 27 mi | 21 mi | 21 mi | 14 mi | 17 mi |
| Lakewood | 4 | 15 mi | 23 mi | 16 mi | 24 mi | 21 mi | 7 mi |
| Carson | 4 | 15 mi | 18 mi | 10 mi | 23 mi | 22 mi | 6 mi |
| Baldwin Park | 5 | 15 mi | 29 mi | 26 mi | 20 mi | 10 mi | 24 mi |
| Torrance | 13 | 16 mi | 16 mi | 8 mi | 22 mi | 24 mi | 9 mi |
| Redondo Beach | 19 | 17 mi | 14 mi | 6 mi | 22 mi | 25 mi | 12 mi |
| Long Beach | 52 | 18 mi | 24 mi | 16 mi | 27 mi | 24 mi | 4 mi |
| West Covina | 9 | 19 mi | 34 mi | 30 mi | 25 mi | 15 mi | 26 mi |
| Pomona | 16 | 29 mi | 43 mi | 39 mi | 34 mi | 24 mi | 33 mi |
| Santa Clarita | 62 | 30 mi | 29 mi | 35 mi | 22 mi | 29 mi | 49 mi |
| Palmdale | 17 | 38 mi | 44 mi | 48 mi | 32 mi | 30 mi | 57 mi |
| Lancaster | 18 | 44 mi | 50 mi | 54 mi | 38 mi | 37 mi | 63 mi |
| Lynwood | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Median straight-line miles from homes on this site’s open house list as of the morning of September 30, 2026, counted once per home. Several places had only one to five homes that week, so treat their rows as a snapshot. Los Angeles has 538 homes spread from the San Fernando Valley to San Pedro, so its median sits between very different neighborhoods. Lynwood had no open houses that morning.
A few things stand out. Homes in Glendale sit a median 4 miles from the Burbank media district but 8 from downtown. Torrance and Redondo Beach are 8 and 6 miles from LAX, while Long Beach homes are a median 4 miles from the port. Santa Clarita is 30 miles from downtown but 22 from Burbank, which matters if your job is in the Valley and not downtown.
What the Extra Miles Buy
Distance shows up in the price. On the same September 30 list, the median open house in Glendale was asking about $751 per square foot, Pasadena $797 and Santa Monica $1,494. Out in Santa Clarita it was $440, Palmdale $274 and Lancaster $263.
Put Glendale and Palmdale side by side. Moving out cuts the price per square foot by about 64%. It adds about 13 minutes to the average commute and raises the share of people commuting 45 minutes or more from 17% to 40%. Glendale to Santa Clarita is a smaller trade: about 41% less per square foot, 7 more minutes on average, and 33% commuting 45 minutes or more. I keep both columns next to the price before I fall for a floor plan.
The Evening Rush Is the Slow One
Evening traffic in Los Angeles is slower than the morning rush. TomTom’s 2025 traffic index page for Los Angeles puts an average 10 kilometer drive (about 6 miles) at 15 minutes 30 seconds across the day, 19 minutes 14 seconds in the morning rush and 24 minutes 12 seconds in the evening rush. The same page lists congestion at 143% at 5 PM, and October 16 as the worst day of the year.
If I wanted to test a commute from a house I was considering, I would drive it at 5 PM on a weekday. A Saturday drive after an open house won’t say much.
Transit and Freeway Projects Under Way
The Census figures above were collected from 2020 to 2024, so none of the work below is in them. Each item comes from the project’s own page at LA Metro:
- The D Line Subway Extension along Wilshire Boulevard opened its first section, which adds stations from La Brea to La Cienega, on May 8, 2026. Work continues on the sections through Beverly Hills and Century City and on to Westwood.
- The East San Fernando Valley light rail line is a 6.7-mile route with 11 stations along Van Nuys Boulevard, in construction with an estimated completion of early 2032.
- The Interstate 105 ExpressLanes convert the carpool lane into two ExpressLanes each way. The first segment, from Sepulveda Boulevard to Central Avenue, is expected to open in 2028, and the other two segments in 2029.
Using This on a Weekend List
Every place in the tables links to its open house page. Pick the two or three whose commute you can live with, then see what’s open this weekend there. The full list for all 32 places is on the by-city page, updated every morning. If you plan to tour, I also wrote up how open houses work without an agent in California.
This page is for informational purposes only. The author is not a licensed Realtor or Brokerage in the state of California and does not represent buyers or sellers in any transaction. Listing details are provided by third-party sources and may change without notice; confirm date, time, and availability with the listing agent before visiting.
