A Southern California News Group composite of three rental indexes shows the asking rent for a vacant unit in L.A. County increased by an average 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to Q4 of 2020.
The average rent in L.A. County reached $2,264 a month by year’s end, up $205 year-over-year.
Examining data from RealPage, Moody’s Analytics-Reis and CoStar, the Southern California News Group also found that apartment rents rose 18 percent in Orange County and 17 percent in the Inland Empire during Q4 of last year.
Orange County’s average rent was $2,432 a month, or $368 a month more than Q4 2020. The average rent in the Inland Empire was $1,873 a month, up $272 compared to a year prior.
As rents rose, so did occupancy, marking a first for the fourth quarter of a year.
According to the National Apartment Association, occupancy finished last year with a 30-basis point quarter-over-quarter increase, moving occupancy to 97.4 percent to close out 2021.
“The last few months of the year are typically the slowest for the market, as renters hunker down for the holidays and the start of winter,” states the analytics blog. “This time frame follows prime leasing season – the cyclical bump that generally occurs during the 2nd and 3rd quarters.”
Traditionally a slower time of year for moves, occupancy has typically dropped 40 basis points on average in the fourth quarter during the past 30 years. The highest occupancy increases were in San Francisco, New York, Newark, St. Louis, Houston, San Antonio and Cincinnati.