San Francisco has the nuttiest rental scene in the US—potential renters have to show up with mountains of paperwork and compete with dozens of other highly-paid people just for the privilege of paying crazy high prices—but rents actually declined in the city last quarter, while they shot way up in Los Angeles. According to a rental report from rental site Lovely, median rent in LA was a scorching $1,850 in the first quarter of 2014, up more than 13 percent over the first quarter of 2013 and 8 percent over just the quarter before. (Meanwhile, San Francisco rents only went up 8 percent over the first quarter of 2013, although with such a high median price [$3,200] it has a lot less room for growth.)
Even more troublingly, Lovely found that a spike in median rent across all sizes of apartments (whereas in San Francisco, rents on studios climbed hugely over last year, but rents on two-bedrooms only went up a little). That means everyone is being hit hard by LA's rental crisis, the result of growing inequality, lack of supply for low- and median-income renters, and the complete unaffordability of buying, which has given LA the highest percentage of renters in the country. All Lovely can do is recommend you live with a roommate (or maybe your entire extended family). And guess what: "we will likely see the rent prices continue to rise with summer months ahead of us."
· Los Angeles is in a Rental Crisis [Curbed LA]
· Are You Sitting Down? SF's Median Rent Rate is $3,200/Month [Curbed SF]
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