Steve Heri

Surpassing Los Angeles, Orange County now has the highest apartment asking rents in Southern California. According to new research from NAI Capital, average apartment rents in Orange County are $2,024 per unit, the highest rate in Southern California.

"The Los Angeles market had always had higher rents than Orange County, but the rental market has been really strong in Orange County and there has been a lot of new construction," Steve Heri, SVP at NAI Capital, tells GlobeSt.com. "That new construction has been the driving factor of the rental growth."

Although Orange County rents are now the highest in Southern California, rents in the market increased nominally in the second quarter, up 1.9% quarter-over-quarter and 3.2% year-over-year. According to Heri, this is actually a sign that rent growth is slowing, not increasing. "The actual rent increase is 3.2%, which is about what the consumer price index is," he says. "So, I don't see, at least in the last year, that we have had a huge jump in rents. It is supply and demand, and rent increases are slow down."