{"id":437274,"date":"2026-08-19T12:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/437274\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T12:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:30:08","slug":"how-to-save-2000-a-month-in-l-a-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/437274\/","title":{"rendered":"How to save $2,000 a month in L.A.: rent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some Los Angeles-area renters may feel a secret shame of not owning their homes, but maybe they should be bragging. Right now, renting is a much better deal. <\/p>\n

People in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area looking to get into a smaller home on average would save more than $2,000 a month by renting rather than buying, according to the latest estimates from Realtor.com<\/a>. That\u2019s a lot of potential savings to invest and hold until interest rates and home prices cool. <\/p>\n

Last month, for homes with up to two bedrooms, the gap between the median rental cost per month and monthly cost of buying
was the highest in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to the real estate listing and data company. The median cost to buy in the Los Angeles area was $4,836 per month, while the median rent for the same size homes was $2,787, a $2,049 difference. <\/p>\n

The average gap in the U.S. was $858. In New York, it was $1,823.<\/p>\n

Jiayi Xu, a senior economist at Realtor.com<\/a>, said starting out with a rental may help those still hoping to buy a home in the long run. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe monthly savings, like the $2,000 renters enjoy relative to buying [in L.A.], can be put directly towards the down payment, which could create a faster path to homeownership,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Developers say there is limited supply of new homes because the costs of land and labor, as well as the regulations, taxes and fees connected to construction, make it difficult to profit from projects<\/a> in and around L.A.<\/p>\n

The gap favoring renting has persisted for years, according to Realtor.com data. Nationwide there has been 36 consecutive months of annual rent decreases nationwide, even as mortgage rates and home prices have remained stubbornly high in many metropolitan areas. <\/p>\n

Indeed, condominium prices have been cooling in L.A. , but people continue to prefer to rent. Condominium buying recently fell to a 20-year low<\/a> as potential buyers have been discouraged by high interest rates and building fees. <\/p>\n

The advantages of renting could be good news for many people in L.A. More than 60% of occupied housing units in L.A. County are occupied by renters. <\/p>\n

Of course, many residents rent because they can\u2019t get a mortgage. But even for those who have the ability to buy, renting can still be a better choice if renters invest the savings rather than spend it. <\/p>\n

Although people think they have to buy a home to avoid being exposed to rent hikes and to profit from rising real estate prices, the huge commitment of a mortgage sometimes isn\u2019t the best option, said Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still good reasons to buy, but is it a slam-dunk better investment than renting and taking the money that you would have put in a house and instead put it in an index fund or something?\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not clear that the financial benefits in Los Angeles of owning are superior to the financial benefits of renting, maxing out on your 401(k), and investing in some sort of diversified fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, renting leaves people the flexibility to buy later when conditions have improved. <\/p>\n

This is not to say that the costs of rent and homes in Southern California are reasonable. For years, the L.A. housing market steadily has grown more unaffordable. The environment for renters and buyers is \u201cterrible,\u201d and would require much more affordable housing to improve, Green said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t build stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, we really haven\u2019t for years. It takes forever to get anything built here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fewer people are moving into California because of the cost of housing, he said, and that is what is pushing rental prices lower. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think prices reached a point where people are just not moving here,\u201d Green said. \u201cThat relieves pressure on the market, and so we have seen vacancies go up, even though we\u2019re not building\u201d<\/p>\n

Xu said that in the L.A. area, the numbers suggest the advantage of renting, at least for smaller homes, could be increasing. Recent policies that make it easier to build accessory dwelling units could help create a new source of rental units, she said.<\/p>\n

San Francisco, in contrast, is seeing the gap narrow as the massive influx of investment and newcomers tied to the artificial intelligence boom has been ratcheting up rents. <\/p>\n

\u201cRenters in Los Angeles are actually in a much better position than renters in north California,\u201d Xu said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Los Angeles-area renters may feel a secret shame of not owning their homes, but maybe they should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3047,22314,1073,173524,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,3906,173522,592,388,100237,1010,75431,20230,173523],"class_list":["post-437274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-com","tag-gap","tag-home","tag-jiayi-xu","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-month","tag-monthly-cost","tag-people","tag-real-estate","tag-realtor","tag-rent","tag-renter","tag-renting","tag-richard-green"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}