REAL ESTATE

Renting in Seal Beach: Seal Beach has the highest average apartment rents in Orange County, with rates up 18.8% from last year, according to the Research Network Ltd., a real estate consulting firm in Laguna Hills.

Rent averages $1,319 per month for a Laguna Hills apartment compared to $1,110 for apartments in the previous year. Laguna Hills is followed by Newport Beach, Irvine, Yorba Linda, and Dana Point as the costliest places to rent apartments.

“The southern Orange County region shows a trend of getting healthier with occupancy and rent rates going up there,” said Pam Woolridge, president of Research Network.

The cheapest place to rent an apartment is Tustin, where an average apartment is $695 per month, compared to $714 in 1993, followed by Anaheim, Buena Park and Fullerton. The city with the highest occupancy rate in the county is Brea with 99.1%, which means fewer than 1% of that city’s apartments were available for rent, followed by Mission Viejo and Fountain Valley. Los Alamitos had the lowest occupancy rate at 87.5%.