Research Briefs

Apartment-dwellers in San Diego County can look forward to the highest projected rent increases in Southern California over the next two years, thanks to growing demand and low vacancy rates, according to a report released Tuesday.

The study prepared by Beacon Economics for the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate said average rents are expected to rise by $155 -- to $1,577 -- over the next two years in San Diego County.

Elsewhere in Southern California, rents are projected to climb by $109 in Los Angeles County, $149 in Orange County and $84 in the Inland Empire.

Despite a substantial increase in multifamily construction, the2016 USC Casden Multifamily Forecast finds that higher demand for apartments across Southern California will keep vacancies low and drive significant rent increases over the next two years.

The cost of living in Southern California is going to soar and no neighborhood is safe from rising rents and home prices.

"You have two options: either rents go up or we build more units," says economist Chris Thornberg, co-author of a new report from USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate.

He argues that policies and movements against dense developments will only exacerbate California's housing crisis.

Santa Monica is already part of the most expensive rental market in the country, and rents are expected to continue rising in the Los Angeles area through 2018, according to two studies released this week.

The 2016 USC Casden Multifamily Forecast, which was released to the public Thursday, found that despite housing construction back at pre-recession levels, demand for apartments throughout the state will keep vacancies low and rents on the upswing.

The price of rent in Southern California is projected to continue its upward climb over the next two years, as demand for multifamily units increases and vacancy rates are reduced, according to a study released by the University of Southern California Multifamily Forecast earlier this week.

Answering the question requires looking at what’s driving the demand. According to a study by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, renter households in the United State increased from 34 million in 2005 to nearly 43 million in 2015. L.A. has a housing shortage of 82,000 units, which helped prompt Mayor Eric Garcetti’s goal to create 100,000 residential units by 2021, with approximately 46,000 of them priced at levels deemed “affordable” for low- or moderate-income individuals and families.

WASHINGTON (June 29, 2016) – The Urban Land Institute (ULI) welcomes new members to the Institute’s global board of directors and new global trustees, all of whom start serving their terms on July 1, 2016.

There has been a significant increase in bank regulations since the last recession and, as a result, the availability of debt is being shifted to non-regulated sources, particularly debt funds, SVP/market manager for PNC Bank’s real estate group Kenya Williams tells GlobeSt.com. Williams, a University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estatemember, recently served on the event panel at the center’s annual Lusk Executive Forum here.

For those of us in Orange County stuck renting, instead of buying, an abode, each year brings clouds of uncertainty as the rental contract expires. For me, in Huntington Beach, since the Great Recession ended I’ve been hit with 5 percent boosts in rent every year.

It’s the price for living in paradise. Or at least what passes for paradise in a state where property rights keep diminishing, meaning the construction of housing supply never keeps up with demand.