Just when it looked like financially strapped Angelenos might finally put the years-long economic recession behind them and stash a little cash in the bank, a study released Tuesday shattered that possibility for renters, anyway, indicating that rents are about to skyrocket.
The silver lining, however, is that landlords will be flush with cash, and can look into buying boats or what not.
USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate projects that the cost of the average Southern California apartment will rise 8.2 percent over the next two years, the Los Angeles Times reports.
That uptick would put the average monthly rent at $1,856. In Orange County, the prediction is 8.6 percent growth, to $1,806. In the comparatively affordable Inland Empire, rents are expected to jump 9.9 percent to $1,246 a month. Compare those numbers to last year, when, as the Times reports, rents rose less than 4 percent.
By some measures, the Times reports, L.A. is the least affordable rental market in the country.
“Though the economy and employment have improved, renters’ incomes are stagnant,” Richard Green, who directs the Lusk Center, told the Times. “So while net absorption and occupancy rates are moving in the right direction, affordability continues to worsen.”