As prices fall, rents rise

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Good morning. The graphs at right say it all, or almost, but I will throw in some words too. From this morning’s L.A. Times:

‘Apartment rents are indeed climbing, hitting an average of $1,494 a month in Southern California for the last three months of 2007, an increase of 4.5% over the same period a year earlier, according to a survey of larger apartment complexes by RealFacts, a property research firm. ...In fact, home values and rents often move in opposite directions, real estate analysts said.’

More: ‘The downward pressure on house prices and the upward pressure on rents are in some respects reciprocal of one another,’ said Stuart Gabriel, director of the Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA. ‘The two go hand in hand.’

Caveat: The rent number is an average, and most statisticians prefer a median.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com