LA now has the nation’s fifth-highest rental prices

Los Angeles renters now face the fifth-highest prices in the nation, according to a new report from rental website Zumper. The city has overtaken Oakland in the latest rankings, and now trails only San Francisco, New York, San Jose, and Boston.

The report shows that the median rental price for a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles jumped up to $2,090 in April (beating Oakland by $30 per month). That’s a 1.5 percent increase over the month before, when the median price was $2,060.

Meanwhile, two-bedroom prices in Los Angeles are still higher than anywhere but San Francisco and New York. The median price for units with a second bedroom was $2,980 per month in April, up a percent since March.

Rental prices nationwide have increased in recent months. Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades suggests that’s the result of a seasonal uptick in the number of people moving, constraining supply and causing prices to rise.

It may be a while before prices begin to level off in LA. A report from real estate firm Marcus & Millichap earlier this year projected that the city’s rents would rise more than 5 percent by the end of 2017.

Will that growth cause Los Angeles to climb even higher on the most expensive cities list? Only time will tell.

• LA rental prices rose 3 percent last month [Curbed LA]
• Report predicts LA rents will keep rising in 2017 [Curbed LA]
• LA’s cheapest and most expensive rental neighborhoods [Curbed LA]