Renters who sat out the housing boom over concerns about skyrocketing home prices are now facing an explosion of another sort: soaring monthly rents. Rents in Los Angeles and Orange counties in the last two quarters rose at their fastest rate in five years, making them the costliest of any major market in the Western U.S., according to data to be released today. Apartment rents are increasing more rapidly in many of California's major markets compared with other places in the West, said Novato, Calif.-based research firm RealFacts. Blame the economy for producing more jobs, while rising interest rates and high home prices keep more people from owning. Those dynamics are giving landlords the confidence to brazenly boost rents, analysts said. Also, the "condominium craze" among developers converting apartments into market-rate housing has reduced the supply of rental units. "With so much focus on the housing market, everyone forgot about the rents," said Delores Conway, a professor at USC's Marshall School of Business who studies multifamily housing in Southern California.
