Rents in parts of Southern California were up as much as 18% year-over-year, with Orange County’s rents leading the way.

The average rent in Orange County reached $2,476, an 18.2% jump over the same time period the year before, the Orange County Register reported. Rents in the Inland Empire were up to $1,941, a 17.4% rise over the previous year. In LA County, average rents were up 12.8% over the same time the previous year, reaching $2,332.

The Register’s numbers were a composite of Q1 2022 data for average vacant unit rents from three sources: RealPage Analytics, CoStar and Moody’s Analytics-Reis.

These sources also showed vacancy rates in the low single digits: roughly 2.4% in both Orange County and the Inland Empire and, in LA County, 3.1%.

That data does skew toward bigger complexes with professional management, the Register noted, so the averages might be higher than the increases found at smaller apartment complexes run by mom-and-pop operations. But similar trends are being found at the national level, and rising rents are being met with people willing and able to pony up.

Nationwide, March’s median monthly asking rent increased 17% over a year ago, Redfin found, pushing the median to $1,940 in March.

Not all renters are able to pay, though. A tenant in a 4-year-old building in Huntington Beach told the Register that his new rent would be $3,500 a month — $1,100 higher than it was prior.

“We are now forced to relocate out of the area to find affordable housing, causing us to leave our jobs,” he told the Register.