Apartment rental prices across the region continue to rise, and now the newest study has found that the average apartment in Los Angeles County now costs $2,271 a month.
The Axiometrics data reported in the Daily Breeze represents a 2.5 percent increase since this time last year. Even that jump seems minor when compared to the spike they found in rental prices in the Inland Empire areas. Prices there are up by 6.7 percent since February 2016, reaching $1,501.
Aximometrics’ numbers might seem like they skew a little higher than some other recent ones we have seen because they’re averaging together all apartments on the rental market, including some pretty large and lavish ones, rather than breaking the prices out by categories.
Part of the force that seems to be driving numbers up is an upward trend in occupancy rates. Between January and February alone there was a .3 percent increase in that important number. That indicates that, right now, only 3.7 percent of possible apartments are actually on the market and everybody looking for a place to move is competing for that small pool of rentals.
Nonetheless, if you can find one of those available apartments, you might want to try to lock in your lease now. Axiometrics predicts that we’ll experience another 3.5 percent rise in prices over the coming year.
All of which might have you thinking about just buying a place instead, were real estate sales prices not trending up at even faster rates.
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