Probably not a surprise to anyone who's been keeping track of Los Angeles's depressing rental scene that the five most expensive neighborhoods to rent in the whole country are all in Los Angeles. Citylab, using the Zillow Rent Index (which takes into account median rent for all homes in a neighborhood, not just the ones up for rent) for June 2015, found that the most expensive neighborhoods to rent in throughout the country are, unsurprisingly, very tony. Places like Bel Air, Pacific Palisades, and Brentwood made it into the top five of a list of the 25 most expensive neighborhoods in the nation. So did Poet's Quarter, a previously-unknown-to-us neighborhood in San Marino that poets most likely cannot afford.
Also climbing into the top 25 were the Hollywood Hills (22) and Cheviot Hills (24). But a look at this list suggests that the people who are renting these places are probably not the average Angelenos (who has to pay half their income toward rent, wherever they're living). These neighborhoods are definitely the stomping grounds of the mansion crowd, and bigger houses cost more, of course. Once Citylab controlled for size, surveying only one-bedrooms, LA dropped right out of the running (New York dominated that list). There's still a faint glimmer of hope, then, right?