Rent growth shows signs of slowing
LOS ANGELES — After a remarkable run-up in housing costs that has crimped budgets, forced families from their neighborhoods and contributed to homelessness, it appears rent growth is slowing in Southern California and across the nation.
Experts attribute the tapering in part to an increase in new apartment buildings that, although not giving tenants the upper hand, is giving them a bit more leverage than in years past. And after years of steady increases, some renters are simply unable or unwilling to stretch further, with the richest among them choosing a mortgage instead.
“There is only so much rent you can get,” said Cynthia Wray, senior director of acquisitions for FPI Management Inc., which manages 75,000 apartments in California. “At a certain point you can’t go any higher.”
The latest evidence of a slowdown came Thursday, when real estate firm Zillow released data showing the national median rent for a vacant apartment dipped in August from a year earlier. It is the first time that’s happened since 2012. In Los Angeles County, the median fell 0.5 percent to $2,442, after rising an average of 4.3 percent last year and 6.5 percent in 2016.
Lower rents would be a shock for many of those living in California. But just because the median rent — the point at which half the apartments are renting for more and half for less — dipped doesn’t mean rents are suddenly falling for tenants. Vacancy remains very low. Data providers other than Zillow do not show a decline, but a slowdown is clearly evident in their surveys.
The deceleration is most pronounced for more expensive rents, which is also where most of the new apartments are aimed. But data show slackening in older buildings as well.
The slowdown comes as Californians prepare to vote on a major rent control measure in November. Tenant advocates say the current development boom hasn’t helped low-income tenants much, with some even arguing new luxury housing can make apartments nearby more expensive by attracting wealthier people and contributing to gentrification. But Brent Gaisford, director of Abundant Housing L.A., said recent rent data suggest that even new luxury buildings carry relief for lower-income renters, by causing wealthier tenants to move out of older buildings and thus freeing up units for less-well-off households.
“When more units are on the market, landlords have less power,” Gaisford said. “Hopefully we can keep that going.”
In so-called Class A buildings — those that tend to be newer and more luxurious — data from RealPage show the median rent across L.A. County was up 3.1 percent in the second quarter compared with a year earlier. Rent growth in those higher-end buildings peaked at 6.3 percent at the end of 2015 and was as low as 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
In lesser-quality Class B buildings, median rent rose 3.3 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared with a peak of 7.8 percent in the first quarter of 2016. In Class C buildings, which tend to be the oldest, most run-down properties, rents rose 4.1 percent in the second quarter after rising as much as 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.
In Orange County, median rents rose 2.2 percent in Class A buildings in the second quarter, 2.4 percent in Class B and 2.6 percent in Class C.
Rent growth in the Bay Area has also tapered off from the sharp increases seen several years ago.
Among those who stand to benefit from the slowdown is Darrell Alfonso, who with his girlfriend moved into a $2,115a-month, one-bedroom in Palms on the Westside of Los Angeles in 2016. A year later, when their lease came up for renewal at the non-rent-controlled apartment, he expected a sizable increase. Instead, he said, they signed up for another year at only $25 more a month, a 1.2 percent increase. That’s below even the maximum 3 percent allowed in L.A. rent-controlled buildings.
“I was a bit surprised,” said Alfonso, a 32-year-old marketing manager, who if he renews again this fall can probably count on not seeing much of an increase.
Mark Hammerschmitt, who is the principal owner of the complex, said he is moderating rents now in response to the competition from new buildings opening nearby on Venice Boulevard and Overland Avenue, as well as in downtown L.A. By holding down increases and adding renovations at the 1980s-era complex such as a resident lounge and freshening up the pool area, he’s hoping to limit vacancies.
“We can read the tea leaves,” Hammerschmitt said. “I don’t want my residents leaving.”
Of course, for the nearly 2 million California renters paying more than half their income on rent and utilities, even a small increase isn’t much relief. Furthermore, the slowdown itself is bifurcated in a way that is masked by county-level data, according to real estate professionals and tenant advocates.
Gary DeLong, vice president of legislation for the Apartment Assn., California Southern Cities, said that although “stable” neighborhoods are seeing rent increases of 2 percent to 3 percent a year, dramatic jumps occur in gentrifying areas where landlords are renovating buildings to cater to an influx of higherincome tenants priced out of other communities.