Renters in Los Angeles will have to pay roughly $136 more a month – nearly $1,630 a year – for housing by 2019, a University of South California Casden Economics Forecast found. The increase is largely attributable to low housing availability, as well as positive wage growth and employment, according to the report.
In L.A., millennials will especially impact rent as they continue to choose multifamily apartment complexes over single-family homes. Average monthly rent in the county today clocks in at $2,237 with a 3.94 percent vacancy rate. By 2019, that number is expected to grow to $2,373 a month with 3.91 percent vacancy.
The numbers are even bleaker for out-of-state transplants.
Local renters who moved from another state pay roughly $200 more than current residents, while renters who moved from somewhere else in the state pay about $124 more.
Rising rents are also likely to negatively impact employers, who could have trouble recruiting out-of-state talent due to the high cost of living. Rent growth is outpacing income growth at an unsustainable level, concluded the study’s authors, Richard Green and Christopher Thornberg.