The cost of rent in Los Angeles is up 4.5 percent since last year, according to a new report from Apartment List. The analysis indicates that the median price for a one-bedroom is $1,330, while a two-bedroom rents for $1,710.
If you’re wondering if those numbers are typos, we don’t blame you. When we reported on a similar report just last month, the rental website listed the median price for a one-bedroom at $1,930; two-bedrooms, according to that analysis, fetched a whopping $2,750.
No, rental prices didn’t fall by hundreds of dollars per month over the course of a single month. So what happened? Well, Apartment List changed its methodology.
As explained in this blog post, the website’s previous price estimates (based on apartments listed with the service) tended to skew toward the luxury end of the market. To correct for this, the new analysis starts with U.S. Census data, estimating market changes by tracking the prices of similar units as they become available over time.
In the city of Los Angeles, Census data will be affected by rent control regulations, but Apartment List analyst Chris Salviati tells Curbed that the report accounts for this by using only data from residents who have recently moved (meaning they haven’t benefitted from stabilized rent for very long).
The new estimates may be lower than they were before, but they still show that rents in Los Angeles are pretty darn high. By comparison, the national median rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,150.
Prices are also increasing more rapidly in LA than in the rest of the country. Nationally, rental prices rose 2.6 percent last year. The 4.5 percent bump in Los Angeles is also higher than the 3.9 percent average increase across California.
- LA’s most and least expensive rental neighborhoods, mapped [Curbed LA]
- Report says LA County needs more than 500,000 units of affordable housing [Curbed LA]
- 10 Los Angeles renters' rights your landlord doesn't want you to know [Curbed LA]
Comments
Cue ppl blaming Rent Control as the absolute primary reason, and ignoring the fact that Developers almost always have the desire to maximize profits and returns, regardless of the impact on the fabric of the community.
Also Cue ppl ignoring the fact that a lot of these Luxury High Priced/High Rent places are replacing Affordable, Low Rent, Rent Control places. That obviously cant play a role in the rise in Rents…No….it is ALL Rent Control’s fault. Get rid of ALL rent control, and Landlords and Developers will just magically lower rental prices……asinine, illogical, short-sighted mentality on a multifaceted topic.
By USCTrojan90 on 06.01.17 5:27pm
cue USCtrojan90 going on a rant and assuming what others will post.
Cue a triggered 15 paragraph response to this response that will be TL;DR
By Or_NAH on 06.01.17 6:06pm
Yay do I have another personal Troll? Wonder what ever happened to the other one…maybe you’re his new name? Also, was that suppose to be an insult, the amount I type does not bother me, in fact I take it as a compliment that you noticed. And sorry bud, but if you paid ANY attention to general trends on these comment sections, you would know that demonization of (1) Rent Control and (2) Sweeping negative generalizations of Regulations as a whole are on the very near horizon. We’ll see in 2 days whether or not I was accurate. But God do I hope I was incorrect with my prediction
By USCTrojan90 on 06.01.17 7:29pm
"you would know that demonization of (1) Rent Control and (2) Sweeping negative generalizations of Regulations as a whole are on the very near horizon"
Informed people tend to make accurate and topical comments, yes.
By disqusted on 06.02.17 10:34am
Cue ppl ignoring the one most basic law of pricing – supply and demand.
Educate yourself. Even luxury housing lowers the overall cost of housing. The only problem this city has is that our zoning and regulations prevent the massive amount of housing we need to be built – hundreds of thousands of units.
By goingup on 06.02.17 8:17am
lol, but who said we are running out of rich people (population increase, and LA is only becoming more popular). Luxury rental will probably keep going up. Just look at NYC, their rents are still going up, their density is ridiculous and the high rent is spilling into other neighborhoods.
By Opal Blue on 06.02.17 10:04am
Yes, but they also still have a lot of units under rent control.
By MMVic on 06.02.17 10:52am
@Goingup: While in theory your idea makes sense, in the real world however that is not the case. Your idea is rooted on the idea that there is a limited/fixed number of ppl who would live in those luxury units. So that when new ones are built, those "rich luxury clients" move out of previous luxury units and into the new shinny ones, leaving the old luxury units behind for "Non-Rich" users to fill. Thus forcing landlords to lower the prices of the Old Luxury units.
However in the real world, there doesn’t seem to be a limit on "Rich Luxury Clients" mainly bc we keep having new ones from Out of city/Out of state / Out of Country moving in. Thus, as we remove Affordable/Rent Controlled units, replacing them with Luxury Units, the old Luxury units certainly arent dropping their prices to the previous Affordable/Rent Controlled levels.
So no, I dont need to educate myself. As you replace Rent Control/Low Income/Affordable Housing with Luxury Housing, the overall Rental Prices for a region will go up.
By USCTrojan90 on 06.02.17 12:58pm
Sorry but you’re wrong. In my neighborhood in the past 3 years they’ve torn down 4 duplexes and built 3 new "luxury" apartments with (based on the number of stories) I’m assuming conservatively 30 units. So they replaced 8 units with 30 units, adding 22 units to the area. Even under your theory about "out of town" people leasing the luxury units, that is still 22 less renters renting the only other alternative which were 2 units per lot. No rational person could argue that having 22 less people competing over 8 units causes prices to stay the same or go up. It’s just basic, simple, logical, time-proven economics.
By LADude on 06.02.17 1:28pm
The other crazy argument I see is that all these luxury apartments are just for the Chinese or some other out of town/state/country immigrant and they just use them one or two weeks a year. LOL How many people know someone like this? It is amazing that LAUSD graduates just can’t believe other people have higher education and easily make 6 figures. It is like they are in a bubble and when they get in the real world they are blown away by reality.
By LA Denizen on 06.02.17 1:50pm
@USCTrojan90 – It’s not "theory". Economists and housing experts have said repeatedly that adding even luxury housing brings down the overall cost of housing.
But what do they know, they’re just experts, and unlike you they don’t apparently have the power to suspend the laws of supply and demand.
By goingup on 06.02.17 6:25pm
Very few of the new housing projects in LA replace rent controlled buildings. It just isn’t true and it seems so odd that people repeat this lie. Big projects in Downtown, Hollywood, and Koreatown are most often on commercial streets like Wilshire or Sunset or Hollywood and are replacing parking lots or underutilized commercial buildings. In the very few cases where rent controlled buildings are razed, the tenants make out with huge 5 figure payments or are offered an apartment at the same rent in the new building and these new buildings often have many more units than the old property.
By LA Denizen on 06.02.17 10:27am
Yep, you got it. The number of rent control units that have been taken off the market in the last 15 years is something barely north of 20k – a drop in the bucket for a city this size, and most of them have been for by-right projects, not the giant mega projects (which now add to the affordable housing stock due to the passage of Measure JJJ).
Hell, look at the Palladium Towers project as an example. A couple dozen new affordable units on top of what is currently a parking lot, and yet the NIMBYs who cry about rent control units are still suing it and fighting to prevent it from being built.
Same for the project on Franklin and Western – the NIMBYs are fighting to turn the building plan back to the original code, which would do two things: slightly reduce the height, and ELIMINATE ALL OF THE AFFORDABLE UNITS that are planned in exchange for the granting of a zoning variance.
By disqusted on 06.02.17 10:37am
"Landlords will just magically lower prices." Yes, it’s called the invisible hand. It’s actually time-proven and well documented.
By LADude on 06.02.17 1:30pm
Minimum wage also went up around 10%…Was anyone expecting rents to drop?
By apennyadaymakessense on 06.01.17 11:11pm
You can’t afford $1,330 rent with minimum wage…
This is my issue with with raising minimum wage, cost of living usually increases at an equal or higher rate each time minimum wage is increased.
By Opal Blue on 06.02.17 10:09am
Mine goes up 3% every year.
By midcityjuan on 06.02.17 10:17am