All homes and bedroom counts
Markets / California / Los Angeles
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles merits investigation only for buyers who can tolerate thin current income and underwrite earthquake exposure; cash-flow-focused or affordability-dependent investors should avoid it.
Median price$968k
Median rent$2,927
Gross yield3.6%
Job growth▼ 0.1%
Composite Market ScoreRank #544 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Los Angeles, CA?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $2,927 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 1.40% from a year earlier.
Studio, 1BR and 2BR listings
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Los Angeles
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles County, CAFIPS 06037 | $2,079 | $2,328 | $2,903 | $3,681 | $4,098 |
| Orange County, CAFIPS 06059 | $2,682 | $2,746 | $3,236 | $4,393 | $5,246 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Los Angeles merits investigation only for buyers who can tolerate thin current income and underwrite earthquake exposure; cash-flow-focused or affordability-dependent investors should avoid it. A $968,028 median home value against $2,927 monthly asking rent produces a 3.63% gross yield before unreported operating costs.
The clearest positive is modest rent growth, not broad momentum. Asking rent rose 1.4% year over year, and the published fair-market rent is $3,069.5, above the median asking rent. Permits totaled 36,862, but their location and fit with investable submarkets are not published.
Risks center on demand, entry cost, and physical loss. Jobs fell 0.1% year over year, while net migration was -50,730 households. Price-to-income is 10.09, and rent consumes 36.61% of median household income. Earthquake is the dominant hazard; the published annual loss ratio is 0.3683% of building value. Proceed only if property-level rents, expenses, insurance, and seismic condition support the deal.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What does the record show about tenant affordability?
Median household income is $95,958, and rent-to-income is 36.61%.
Is household migration positive or negative?
Tax filings show 142,048 households moved in and 192,778 moved out, producing net migration of -50,730.
What share of purchase mortgages went to non-occupants?
The reported investor share is 13.51%; total purchases were 59,609.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 3.6%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 1.40%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 13.5%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Los Angeles as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
Market pulse
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Months of supplyn/aRedfin unavailable
Median days on marketn/aRedfin unavailable
Listings with price dropsn/aRedfin unavailable
Sale-to-list ration/aRedfin unavailable
Home value growth▲ 0.6%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 1.40%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield3.6%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 0.1%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady25→25
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 47% and rents 31%. Prices running ahead of rents is what compresses yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
25| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 41 | 30% | 12.30 |
| Rent trend | 22 | 25% | 5.50 |
| Affordability | 3 | 15% | 0.45 |
| Supply pressure | 39 | 15% | 5.85 |
| Climate risk | 7 | 15% | 1.05 |
| Published score | 25 | ||
Los Angeles, CA scoreRank #544
25Job growth41/100
CES jobs fell 0.1% year over year -> the current employment signal does not support rental demand.
Rent trend22/100
Asking rent rose 1.4% year over year -> rent performance was positive, but the 3.63% gross yield remains thin.
Affordability3/100
A 10.09 price-to-income ratio and 36.61% rent-to-income burden -> both purchase entry and tenant affordability are strained.
Supply pressure39/100
Permits totaled 36,862 -> buyers need submarket pipeline checks because permit locations are not published.
Climate risk7/100
Earthquake is the dominant hazard and the annual loss ratio is 0.3683% -> insurance, retrofit needs, and seismic condition require property-level verification.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$968k
YoY ▲ 0.6%
ZORI Median Rent
$2,927
YoY ▲ 1.40%
Gross Rental Yield
3.6%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$2,927 × 12 ÷ $968,028
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 0.1%
CES payrolls
Job signal 41/100
Median Household Income
$96k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
36.6%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
10.1x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$3,070
Market rent 95.4% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark5 of 5 reported values
Zero-based scale$2,927Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$2,760−$167 vs ZORI
2026-05
Studio, 1BR and 2BR listings
The median advertised rent in Realtor.com's 50-largest-metro rental report; source NAs remain unavailable.
View source release ↗$2,537−$390 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$3,070+$143 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$2,063−$864 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Los Angeles as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Los Angeles, CA
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 31080. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$2,1942026-07 · -1.0% year over year
Rental vacancy5.4%2026-07 · +0.1 percentage points year over year
Time on market30 days2026-07 · +3.4 days year over year
Measured rent retention
How much of gross yield survives the first two measured deductions?
This bridge subtracts direct rental vacancy and effective property tax only. It is not net yield, NOI, cap rate or property cash flow.
measured retention property tax vacancy
- Gross yield
- 3.6%
- Vacancy
- 5.4%
- Effective tax
- 0.7%
- Retained yield
- 2.8%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Los Angeles
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$52,710 median wage
66.6%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$38,460 median wage
91.3%
Healthcare Support Occupations$35,630 median wage
98.6%
Sales and Related Occupations$45,230 median wage
77.7%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$45,330 median wage
77.5%
Management Occupations$136,490 median wage
25.7%
Supply pipeline
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
35,114 units authorised in 2026, 63% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
Net Household Move
−50,730
142,048 in vs 192,778 out (IRS SOI)
▼ 35.7% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$711
Arriving $93,891 vs leaving $94,602
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
13.5%
8,054 of 59,609 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
earthquake
0.368% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: other
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: San Bernardino County · Riverside County · San Diego County · Ventura County · Clark County
✓ 142,048 in − 192,778 out = -50,730 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Riverside, CA26,275 arriving
- New York, NY8,964 arriving
- San Francisco, CA8,569 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Riverside, CA41,500 leaving
- San Diego, CA10,455 leaving
- San Francisco, CA8,041 leaving
Directional moving briefs
Relocation routes involving Los Angeles
Each route begins with a direct IRS tax-return household flow and then tests what changes in housing, income, jobs, regional prices and climate evidence.
Los Angeles → Riversidehome value · asking rent · gross yield41,500 householdsLos Angeles → San Diegohousehold income · climate loss exposure · net IRS migration10,455 householdsNew York → Los Angeleshome value · asking rent · gross yield8,964 householdsSan Francisco → Los Angeleshome value · asking rent · household income8,569 households
The other side
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- CES jobs declined 0.1% year over year and net migration was -50,730 households, leaving weak demand-side evidence.
- The $968,028 median value, $2,927 monthly asking rent, and 3.63% gross yield leave returns exposed to operating costs that are not published.
- Earthquake is the dominant hazard, while property-level seismic condition, retrofit needs, and insurance costs are not published.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
County records
Cities in this market
City · CALos Angeles$949k home · $2,773 rentCity · CALong Beach$863k home · $2,364 rentCity · CAAnaheim$955k home · $2,674 rentCity · CASanta Ana$871k home · $2,785 rentCity · CAIrvine$1538k home · $3,390 rentCity · CASanta Clarita$798k home · $2,806 rentCity · CAHuntington Beach$1370k home · $3,078 rentCity · CAGlendale$1198k home · $2,732 rent
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Los Angeles
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles, CA (Target) | 25 | $968k | $2,927 | 3.6% | ▼ 0.1% |
| San Diego, CA | 37 | $941k | $2,991 | 3.8% | ▲ 0.3% |
| New York, NY | 48 | $735k | $3,573 | 5.8% | ▲ 0.1% |
| Seattle, WA | 31 | $745k | $2,269 | 3.6% | ▼ 0.1% |
| Boston, MA | 35 | $747k | $3,210 | 5.2% | ▼ 0.8% |
Provenance
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |