We know that Los Angeles's rental market is the nation's most unaffordable and that LA homebuying is even more punishing for the average person; one study even awarded LA the double-title as the nation's most unaffordable market for renters and buyers. Reinforcing that last report is this new one, out today from Trulia, which finds that the median rent on a two-bedroom apartment in LA County went up 8.8 percent from August 2013 to August 2014, all the way to $2,450.
That's a much larger increase than LA rentals saw back in May, when the year-over-year increase was just 5.4 percent and the analysts all rushed to say the rental market was was topping off; the return to big jumps is pretty terrible news for people who are already paying more than they can afford toward putting a rented roof over their/their families' heads (which is a lot of people).
By Trulia's numbers, LA County's new median rent makes it the fourth most-expensive metro in the nation for renters (and LA has the highest percentage of renters). But what about buying? Asking prices in the LA metro area increased 8.9 percent over the last year, about the same rate as rentals, which the LA Times claims amounts to a "cool[ing] off" of the market. But since homeownership is already out of reach for so many, that's not exactly great news.
· Slow and Steady Now Winning the Home-Price Race [Trulia]
· 10 Charts That Show How and Why LA Has the Most Unaffordable Rental Market in the US [Curbed LA]
· The Average LA Home is Totally Unaffordable at Average Income [Curbed LA]
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