Los Angeles may have cheaper rental options than several other US cities, but many Angelenos are probably still going to be stuck living with roommates for a while. A new analysis of US rental markets by Trulia shows LA rental prices lagging behind San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Washington DC, but don't get your hopes up. They're still plenty expensive (plus, wages in LA lag behind other cities, and far behind rents in LA, so it's still at the top of the unaffordable list). In the one-bedroom and two-bedroom rental markets, LA ranks among the most expensive in the nation (sixth and fifth place respectively)—and in some neighborhoods, a huge chunk of the rentals are completely out of reach for a good chunk of the population. And some of those neighborhoods are kind of surprising.
Here's how the numbers break down:
One-bedrooms
The median price for a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles is $1,750.
Not surprisingly, the list of most expensive one-bedroom rental markets in Los Angeles is made up mostly of neighborhoods on the Westside of town. But at a median rent price of $2,550, it's a resurgent Downtown LA that can claim the highest percentage of expensive one-bedroom apartments in Los Angeles. A whopping 84.3 percent of the one-bedrooms in Downtown LA will set renters back more than $2,000 a month.
As you can see in the interactive map above, there are still pockets of town where a person could find a cheaper than average one-bedroom. Hollywood and neighborhoods along Vermont and south of Pico seem to be the best bet.
Two-bedrooms
LA's median rent for a two-bedroom is $2,695.
LA's top 10 most expensive neighborhoods for renting a two-bedroom is similar to the one-bedroom list, unsurprisingly, but here Century City takes the crown with a median rent for a two-bedroom apartment clocking in at $3,985, and 84.1 percent of two-bedrooms in the neighborhood renting for more than $3,000 a month.
Only one neighborhood representing the red hot eastish-side market made it on the list: Silver Lake managed to crack the top 10 most expensive two-bedroom market with a median price of $2,995.
The two-bedroom map also looks much the same as the one-bedroom, with a large percentage of the below-median rentals falling along Vermont and south of Pico. Much of East LA remains below the median as well, but as development migrates eastward, it's anybody's guess how long those prices will remain relatively affordable.
· Where Rents Are Too Damn High [Trulia]
· Mapping Exactly Which Los Angeles Neighborhoods You Can Afford to Rent In [Curbed LA]
· The Average Angeleno is Now Paying Nearly Half Their Income Toward Rent [Curbed LA]