Apartment Rents are Rebounding in Los Angeles

After declining for the last four months of 2023, rent growth has a pulse.

Apartment rents in Los Angeles, which were declining during the last four months of 2023, appear to be rebounding in 2024.

The median rent in Los Angeles ticked up by 0.2% in February, to $2,061, according to a report from Apartment List. In a year-over-year comparison, L.A.’s median rent has decreased by nearly 3.9%.

The report, which includes a database of 24 cities in the Los Angeles metro area, shows the median price in L.A. proper lagging behind the median for the metro. L.A.’s median is 4.6% lower than the median for the metro area, the report said.

Newport Beach currently has the most expensive median price at $3,295, while Long Beach is the most affordable city in the metro, with median rent of $1,774. Rents grew 0.8% in Burbank in February, where the median rent on a two-bedroom apartment is $2,372.

A University of Southern California report released in December projected modest rent growth across the six-county region in Southern California through 2025.

USC’s Casden Multifamily Forecast predicts apartment rents will rise in the region between 2% and 4% through 2025. The report projects that Orange County will maintain its position as the strongest rental market, with typical asking rents hitting a record $2,800 by the summer of 2025, according to a report in the Orange County Register.

The report forecasts below-average increases for Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The USC report, compiled by the university’s Lusk Center for Real Estate, said landlords will face hard times as they try to replace low-interest loans coming due for multifamily properties in the next four years,

“As the industry takes time to sort out financing, new supply will dip lower and lower. Vacancy will drop, and rents will climb,” the report said.

The report projected that, in the summer of 2025, rents will average $2,306 in Los Angeles County; $2,049 in the two-county Inland Empire; $2,540 in San Diego County; and $2,671 in Ventura County.

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