LA apartment rents fall incrementally in March

Apartment rents continue their downward trend in the Los Angeles market.

Realtor.com found L.A. area median rents dipped 0.8 percent in March compared to the same time a year ago.. 

In a month-to-month comparison, Los Angeles area rents dipped about 0.9 percent from February to March, according to Realtor.com’s data, which evaluated rents in metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Anaheim.

Other California cities which experienced median rent declines, according to Realtor.com, were San Francisco also with a dip of 0.8 percent. There was a 5.3 percent decline of the Inland Empire cities of Riverside-San Bernardino, and a 2.1 percent decline for median apartment rents in Sacramento.

Other researchers found similar trends for Los Angeles rentals. Apartment List found that median Los Angeles rents dipped about 0.1 percent in March. The market’s rents have experienced dips because there are more apartments on the market, said Rob Warnock, a senior research associate for Apartment List. 

“There’s less tightness in the market. It gives apartment managers more pause in terms of how they want to increase rents,” Warnock said. 

During the pandemic, there was little vacancy, under 4.4 percent in Los Angeles. In the first quarter of 2023, vacancy returned to pre-pandemic levels of 4.5 percent to 5.8 percent, he said. 

Zumper, another apartment rental site which distributes market research, ranked the most expensive cities in the Los Angeles area. Santa Monica was the most expensive city with one-bedroom apartments priced at $3,100 per month. Beverly Hills followed with a one- bedroom at $2,930 per month. A one-bedroom in West Hollywood was the third most expensive, at $2,700 per month.

The least expensive city in the L.A. region was the desert city of Twentynine Palms, where the median rent was $940 per month. San Bernardino followed with monthly rents of $1,510. Long Beach was the third least expensive with median rents of $1,800, according to Zumper.