Los Angeles renters are the sixth happiest in the nation but they also have the sixth highest rent, according to recent reports by a rental website.
Rental website Zumper's annual State of the American Renter Report, published in early November, ranked LA sixth for its percentage of happy renters. The report cited survey respondents' tendency to keep their apartments for several years and a large portion of respondents who felt satisfied with their living situation.
However, Zumper's November National Rent Report showed that LA had the sixth highest rent in the country for one-bedroom apartments. LA's median rent of $2,300 for one-bedroom units had increased by 1.3% since the beginning of October but was 5.3% lower than it was last November. The median two-bedroom rent of $3,260 had risen compared to both points in time.
Last month, the LA City Council approved an emergency ordinance intended to prevent "no-fault" evictions and rent increases until next year. The ordinance was passed to address renters' concerns after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill meant to protect renters in non-rent stabilized housing from the same occurrences. Soon after the state bill was passed, LA reported many renters were being evicted before it could go into effect next year.
Neither report broke down the individual rents of LA's neighborhoods, but Zumper reported in June that Santa Monica, Venice and Marina del Rey had the highest median rents by far, at an average of over $3,200 per month. Downtown LA's median rent was recorded as $2,775.
LA had broken into the nation's top five cities by rent prices in June, according to Zumper, but by the beginning of November had been pushed out by Oakland and San Jose, which had median rents of $2,500 and $2,450, respectively.
Oakland was also listed by Zumper as being home to the second most satisfied renters in the nation, ranking first for its percentage of people who had retained their apartments for five or more years. It was beat in the overall ranking only by Miami. San Jose placed at fourth.
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Though a higher percentage of renters in both Bay Area cities reported satisfaction with their living situation than in LA, a lower percentage said that they weren't planning to relocate from their apartments. LA renters were ranked 29 out of 50 for the metric, which was weighted less than other factors, compared to Oakland's 32 and San Jose's 37.
However, LA was listed in Zumper's report as one of the top 10 cities that respondents reported relocating from.
Few other Southern California cities made the top 50 in Zumper's Renter Report. Long Beach was ranked 15th, with renters reporting high satisfaction but many planning to relocate. Anaheim was listed 41st, with a low satisfaction rating but a third-place ranking for residents retaining their apartments.
For those wondering, LA also ranked 20th in the percentage of respondents who owned at least one pet.
