According to the latest Los Angeles Metro Report from apartment listing website Zumper, Santa Monica was ranked as the most-expensive spot in Los Angeles to rent a one-bedroom apartment, with a medium active listing of $3,000 over the past month. The website ranked 25 LA metro area cities, with Santa Monica coming out ahead of Irvine ($2,880), West Hollywood ($2,880), Redondo Beach ($2,710) and Costa Mesa ($2,680) in one-bedroom listings.
The city remains at the top of the Zumper report despite the fact that one-bedroom listings on the site are down 10.2% year-over-year. This is by far the largest decline in rent evolution out of the 25 listed cities, beating out Torrance (6.9%) and West Hollywood (4.6%) for the sharpest drop.
Two-bedroom listings tell a similar story, with Santa Monica’s average listing going for $4,500, narrowly edging out West Hollywood ($4,450) for the most expensive metro area spot. Once again, this is despite a year-over-year drop of 3.4%, with only Glendale (9.6%) and West Hollywood (5.1%) falling more in the two-bedroom category.
Similar websites also put Santa Monica in rare air, including Apartments.com, with average one-bedroom listings going for $2,992. According to the site, this puts the city at 91% higher rent than the national average, putting it among the most expensive cities in the entire United States. The average two-bedroom rental on the site, $3,779, is much more lax than the Zumper average.
The Apartments.com report also breaks down one-bedroom rentals by Santa Monica neighborhood, with the most expensive being no surprise. One-bedroom listings in Downtown Santa Monica average out to $4,278 per month from the site’s listings, with Ocean Park ($3,781) and North of Montana ($3,712) finishing second and third in average listing price. The most affordable neighborhood, by nearly $1,000, is the Sunset Park neighborhood with an average one-bedroom rental at $2,339 per month.
While the high rents impact everyone, those just beginning their apartment journey have been particularly hurt in the Los Angeles area. A recent report from Rent.com stated that recent college graduates wanting to live alone in a one-bedroom apartment have to spend 54.9% of their income to do so, the second-highest percentage in the nation (behind New York City). This would define the group as "severely rent burdened," those that have to spend 50% or more of income on housing.
Even with recent graduates that rent a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate, that group would still spend 35.9% of income on rent, and would still count under the "rent burdened" category. Overall, 54% of Los Angeles residents were noted as rent burdened (at least 30% of income spent on housing) in 2021.
thomas@smdp.com