Published: 3 Nov 2026 · Last verified: 3 Nov 2026 · Next review: Dec 2026 This ranking updates monthly as new city posts publish. All figures are 800 sq ft detached ADU, 2026. Changes logged in Corrections.
Ten cities. Same 800 sq ft detached ADU. Same mid-grade finishes. $12,000 apart — Long Beach at $313,000, San Francisco at $325,000.
That spread is the entire thesis of this series in one table. Construction costs barely move between these cities; the $12,000 lives in Phase 1 — the soft costs. School fees, impact fees, permits, sewer. The ADU is identical. The fee schedules are not.
The ranking
| Rank | City | Total (800 sq ft) | Per sq ft | Costliest fee line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Long Beach | $313,000 | $391 | School $4,304 |
| 2 | Sacramento | $316,000 | $395 | School $4,104 |
| 3 | Torrance | $317,000 | $396 | School $4,304 |
| 4 | Fullerton | $318,000 | $398 | DIF ~$6,411* |
| 5 | Garden Grove | $318,000 | $398 | Permit ~$5,176* |
| 6 | Glendale | $318,000 | $398 | Permit ~$8,550* |
| 7 | Anaheim | $320,000 | $400 | DIF ~$10,411* |
| 8 | Burbank | $320,000 | $400 | Permit $3,692* |
| 9 | Oakland | $322,000 | $403 | Permit $12,800–$19,200 |
| 10 | San Francisco | $325,000 | $406 | Permit ~$19,500 |
* Asterisked figures carry stated assumptions or unverified items — see each city’s post for the full ledger.
Not ranked here: Santa Maria (~$306,000*) has the lowest nominal total but the most unverified items; San Diego ($344,000) is a real outlier driven by the highest soft-cost stack in the series. Both are published separately.
What the spread tells you
$12,000 is small — and that’s the point. On a $320,000 build, the city-to-city spread is under 4%. Nobody should pick a city for ADU fees alone. But $12,000 is also real money, and it concentrates in lines you can actually plan around:
- School fees are the most predictable spread: $1,792 (Pasadena, not yet ranked) to $4,320 (Campbell, not yet ranked). Within this table: $4,104–$4,304. District boundaries, not city boundaries, set this number.
- Impact fees are the most volatile: $0 (Oakland, Sacramento sewer-side) to ~$11,173 (Pasadena proportional). Within this table, Anaheim’s ~$10,411 DIF is the high.
- Permit fees are the least predictable: $1,006 (Torrance, series low) to ~$19,500 (San Francisco). Valuation-based cities punish expensive builds; flat-fee cities don’t.
The cliff matters more than the ranking. Every city in this table except Long Beach has a meaningful 750 sq ft cliff. Shrink the ADU to 749 sq ft and the ranking reshuffles completely — several cities drop $5,000–$11,000 in impact fees alone. The cheapest ADU in California isn’t in the cheapest city; it’s the 749 sq ft ADU in a high-cliff city.
How to use this table
- Find your city (or nearest published neighbor) for a planning baseline.
- Read that city’s full post — the total is the headline; the ledger is the tool.
- Check the cliff before finalizing square footage. The 750 line is worth more than any city choice.
- Verify the asterisked items with the city. Our totals are honest about what’s confirmed and what isn’t.
Coming next
Pasadena, Campbell, and Palo Alto publish this month — all three will move this table. Pasadena’s $1,792 school fee and Palo Alto’s corrected ~$303,000 total are the ones to watch. The December update re-ranks everything.