O.C. Rents Up by 7% Over Last Year, to Record $1,037 Average

Running well ahead of overall inflation, Orange County rents have risen by about 7% over the last year, a company that monitors trends at large apartment complexes reported Friday.

As of Dec. 31, renters in the county were paying a record $1,037 a month on average, up 6.93% from $970 a year earlier, according to Novato, Calif.-based RealFacts. It said rents have risen by nearly 13% since March 1998, when they averaged $919.

The nation’s “core” rate of inflation--leaving out the volatile energy and food sectors--was just 1.9% in 1999, the Labor Department reported Friday.

But with the local economy booming and home prices up more than 20% in the last two years, few apartments have gone empty in the county recently. Since March 1998, the occupancy rate has held in a narrow range--from 96.1% to 97.7%. Last month, the rate stood at 96.9%.

“A few years ago, there were people who would have told you it’s impossible to keep things that full, that you couldn’t turn an apartment around that fast when someone leaves,” said Caroline Latham, a RealFacts partner.

Ron Witten, president of Dallas-based M/PF Research Inc., recently called the Southland “the nation’s real hot spot for rent growth,” with increases throughout the region and especially strong ones in Orange County. Indeed, Orange County had the nation’s seventh-highest average rent, behind San Francisco, San Jose, Boston, Oakland, Philadelphia and San Diego.

Monthly rents varied considerably within the county, however.

Inland cities in North County, such as Anaheim ($840), Buena Park ($850) and Stanton ($864), were relatively affordable.

But rents tended to be far higher along the coast, in newer cities and in the south. Dana Point averaged $1,270, Irvine $1,356, Seal Beach $1,413 and Newport Beach $1,671, for example.

The RealFacts figures overstate actual rents, Latham said. The company tracks full-priced apartments in complexes with 100 units or more. These apartments typically constitute 20% to 25% of all the apartments in an area, and they tend to be more expensive than those in smaller complexes, she said.

“Mostly, the smaller buildings don’t have as many amenities, and they’re generally older,” Latham said.

However, she said, sharply higher rents and extremely few vacancies are being experienced throughout the entire apartment market.

* O.C. JOBS

County employers added 40,000 new jobs in 1999. A1

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Rents by the slice

Here’s what Orange County apartments fetch in rent.

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Type Avg. Avg. sq. ft. rent Studio 512 $736 1 bd/1 ba 749 904 2 bd/1 ba 924 953 2 bd/2 ba 1,028 1,192 3 bd/2 ba 1,212 1,331

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Highs and Lows in the County

Newport Beach has the highest rents in Orange County, at an average of $1,671 a month. Anaheim had the lowest, at $840. Here’s a city-by-city look at occupancy and rental rates.

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City Average Avg. Occupancy Rent Aliso Viejo 96.2% $1,275 Anaheim 97.3 840 Anaheim Hills 94.0 1,175 Brea 96.8 949 Buena Park 96.7 850 Corona del Mar 85.8 1,245 Costa Mesa 97.0 1,081 Cypress 98.9 944 Dana Point 95.0 1,270 Foothill Ranch 96.5 1,229 Fountain Valley 96.6 1,012 Fullerton 96.9 875 Garden Grove 98.0 919 Huntington Beach 96.9 1,035 Irvine 96.0 1,356 La Habra 98.6 906 La Palma 97.9 910 Laguna Beach 95.7 1,127 Laguna Hills 95.0 1,068 Laguna Niguel 97.6 1,135 Lake Forest 96.8 1,051 Mission Viejo 97.3 977 Newport Beach 95.7 1,671 Orange 97.0 963 Placentia 98.2 1,006 R.S. Margarita 97.1 1,109 San Clemente 94.9 1,076 S.J. Capistrano 97.0 1,199 Santa Ana 96.8 972 Seal Beach 95.3 1,413 Stanton 97.0 864 Trabuco Canyon 98.4 1,155 Tustin 96.6 1,024 Westminster 96.4 888 Yorba Linda 96.9 1,206 Average 96.9 1,037

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Source: RealFacts Inc.