Residents Look Outside LA, Pushing Up Rents Elsewhere

Apartment rent across Los Angeles is soaring.

As a sign of high rent and in some cases unaffordability in downtown and major cities, more people are flocking to the outskirts of Los Angeles County. 

A new study found rent in the city of Lancaster, an hour drive north of downtown Los Angeles, skyrocketed by double digits from the previous year.

With an average rent of $1,210, Lancaster, a city with a population of 160,000 people, has one of the fastest-rising and largest year-over-year rent increases in the nation, according to RENTCafé’s February 2018 market report. 

Texas city Odessa, with a 38.9% year-over-year rental increase, and Midland’s 35.7% ranked No. 1 and No. 2. Reno, Nevada’s rent went up by 10.3%, ranking No. 4. Fort Collins, Colorado, with a 9.9% bump, rounded out the top five.

The apartment search website uses data from Yardi Matrix, a data company that tracks the multifamily, office, industrial and self-storage industries.

Yardi Matrix Senior Analyst Doug Ressler said in a news release the data mirrors RedFin’s recent report that found people are leaving high-tax coastal markets such as Los Angeles in search of homes in more affordable metros.

“Population migration is occurring to affordable Southern and Southwestern states where economic growth is outpacing Northern regions,” Ressler said.

The rental report is indicative of the state of multifamily across Los Angeles and Orange County. Every city up and down the state showed a year-over-year increase in rent. San Francisco led the way with asking rent of $3,428, a 2% bump from the previous year.

In Los Angeles, Glendale has the highest average asking rent with $2,406, a 2.5% year-over-year hike. Pomona's rent had the lowest increase at 0.4% at $1,426. In the Inland Empire, Victorville had the lowest asking rent price at $1,031, a 6% increase.

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