DEMAND KEEPS AREA PRICES HIGH.Byline: Barbara Correa Staff Writer An unfurnished unfurnished Adjective not containing any furniture Adj. 1. unfurnished - not equipped with what is needed especially furniture; "an unfurnished apartment" studio in Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. , a two-bedroom house in North Long Beach and a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in Whittier have one thing in common: They are all renting for $1,050 a month. That's the average asking rent right now in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , San Bernardino San Bernardino, city, United States San Bernardino (săn bûr'nədē`nō), city (1990 pop. 164,164), seat of San Bernardino co., S Calif., at the foot of the San Bernardino Mts.; inc. 1854. and Ventura counties, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. data from Reis Inc., a research firm that tracks apartment rents at buildings of 15 units and up. And while $1,050 represents an aggregate for Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , a different set of factors, depending on area, makes rent trends unique in each market. On the whole, Southern California apartment rents, supported by continuing migration and flat construction, are rising at a time when rents almost everywhere else - including in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern - are easing. But there are signs of slowing in the Southern California rental market, due in part to relatively high unemployment and easy financing for home purchases. A report from RealFacts, a research firm that follows rent trends at larger residential buildings, found that while rents in Los Angeles County climbed almost 6 percent in the year that ended in March, most of that increase occurred in the second and third quarters of 2002. Since then, the total increase is under 1 percent. It's no renter's market, however. ``There's still an upward push in rents,'' said Kevin King, senior investment associate at the Long Beach office of Marcus & Millichap, a real estate investment brokerage that also has offices in Encino, Ontario and downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or . He said $1,050 would currently rent a one-bedroom apartment in Belmont Shore, a studio in one of the newer developments - like CityPlace downtown - or a two-bedroom apartment on the east side of Long Beach. He said that even though he's seeing some higher-end apartments being vacated by homebuyers, prices aren't dropping because of the steady influx of new residents. ``We draw from other beach cities in Orange County and L.A.,'' he said. Compared with rents in those areas, Long Beach's are below market. Rents are topping out in higher-income areas of West Los Angeles
Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. as the effects of recessionary trends, the stock market slowdown and dot-com decline hit the high-end rental base of $1,800 a month and up. ``There's definitely been a big drop-off in rent growth. There's been a wake-up call in terms of how much rent growth there can be,'' said Robert Hart, a senior managing director at Kennedy Wilson, a Beverly Hills-based real estate company that remodels apartment buildings of 100 units or more. Still, $1,050 doesn't buy much in those areas - a one-bedroom guest house in Woodland Hills, a studio in Westwood. It buys a bit more - a one-bedroom apartment - in Simi Valley and within walking distance of Old Town Pasadena Built on the foundation of one of the oldest, most beautiful and most prosperous cities in California, Old Pasadena arose from the ashes of a decaying bowery that had a well deserved patina of homeless and hippie. . Moving east, the pickings get better. In Covina, $1,050 rents a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment, and in Fontana the same money gets you a three-bedroom, two-bath place in a building with a pool and Jacuzzi, according to rental ads posted at Rent.com. That benchmark would get a standard two-bedroom, two-bath in Rancho Cucamonga in an older property, built 10 to 15 years ago, said Randall Lewis, executive vice president of Inland Empire's Lewis Apartment Communities. ``In Ontario, $1,050 would get you the same floor plan, but it would be $60 less. In Loma Linda it would be $900.'' While rent increases may be easing somewhat, there isn't any evidence of a significant downturn on the horizon, because demand is still way above supply, especially for low-income housing. Due to appreciating costs of land in the region, a more cumbersome permit process and not- in-my-back-yard pressure on local politicians, there isn't much interest among developers in building lower-income rental apartments - and that's true for L.A., San Bernardino and Ventura counties. ``The only thing that makes sense to the investor is to build high-end luxury apartments,'' said Robin Ossenbeck, a partner at Hendricks. There's also a huge incentive for investors to rehabilitate second-tier buildings - usually older, with fewer amenities and in less desirable locations - and then recoup their investment by charging higher rents. The affordable housing sector may get a boost from $18 million released last month toward the construction of 13 new low-income buildings throughout the city of Los Angeles
The buildings are slated to go up in the San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. , East L.A. and downtown. CAPTION(S): 3 charts Chart: (1) Ventura County (2) San Bernadino County (3) Los Angeles County SOURCE: Reis, Inc. Daily News |
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