Southern California’s renters have little to celebrate this holiday season when it comes to market conditions that favor the landlord.

Apartment seekers have few options. Construction of new residences isn’t making much of a dent in the region’s long-running shortage of decently priced housing. As a result, rents continue to rise to levels that are high not only on a national scale but even a global one.

I grabbed data from several recent studies of rental conditions across the region and placed the figures in my trusty spreadsheet to put the pain tenants are feeling into some perspective.

I feel a bit like Grinch reporting this, but here are five trends that offer little cheer for Southern California’s apartment dwellers.

1. RENTS UP BRISKLY

Rents at larger apartment complexes are rising at some of the fastest rates in the nation in eight Southern California cities.

That’s according to data from RentCafe and Yardi Matrix, tracking what landlords were seeking in November for rent in 250 larger U.S. cities. The median in these markets was $1,167 a month, up 3.9 percent in a year. Among the 62 California cities tracked, the same rent yardstick was $1,731, up 3.9 percent in a year.

Here are the local cities with one-year hikes in average apartment rent that ranked among the Top 40 nationally:

No. 4: Lancaster, $1,167 a month, up 11.3 percent in a year.

No. 9: Victorville, $1,037, up 8.1 percent.

No. 10: Ventura, $1,866, up 7.9 percent.

No. 11: West Covina, $1,718, up 7.8 percent.

No. 21: Thousand Oaks, $2,052, up 6.6 percent.

No. 26: Corona, $1,625, up 6.4 percent.

No. 40: Riverside, $1,441, up 5.7 percent.

No. 40: San Bernardino, $1,132, up 5.7 percent.

It could be worse. Just look at two examples from the Texas oil patch: Odessa, up 33 percent to $1,111, and Midland, up 26 percent to $1,274. Ah, the boom-bust energy business!

2. FEW IN U.S. PAY MORE

RentCafe and Yardi Matrix also found 13 Southern California cities having among the nation’s highest rents:

No. 13: Irvine, $2,401 a month, up 3.9 percent in a year.

No. 14: Glendale, $2,393, up 3.3 percent.

No. 16: Pasadena, $2,380, up 3.3 percent.

No. 18: Los Angeles, $2,285, up 5.2 percent.

No. 19: Burbank, $2,210, up 5.5 percent.

No. 23: Thousand Oaks, $2,052, up 6.6 percent.

No. 27: Huntington Beach, $2,007, up 2.8 percent.

No. 28: Costa Mesa, $1,998 , up 2.8 percent.

No. 30: Orange, $1,953, down 0.7 percent.

No. 34: Long Beach, $1,871, up 2.4 percent.

No. 37: Santa Ana, $1,836, up 3.9 percent.

No. 38: Santa Clarita, $1,830, up 1.4 percent.

No. 40: Oxnard, $1,820, up 4.2 percent.

Don’t moan too much. You could be paying Manhattan rents of $4,089 a month or San Francisco’s $3,432.

3. PRICEY WORLDWIDE

In the 100 major cities tracked by global apartment tracker Nestpick, Los Angeles looked pretty pricey on the worldwide scale.

The city ranked from seventh-highest to 20th in four key rental categories. But, local renters can rejoice … a bit: At least L.A. isn’t priciest in all four rental niches tracked — like San Francisco!

Here’s how Los Angeles ranked in the study results, tracking average asking rents from online apartment-search services, and how local rent compared with the 100-city median, San Francisco and the global high.

For one-person rentals …

Unfurnished: L.A. ranked 20th highest out of 100 with rents 54 percent above the global median but 49 percent below San Francisco and 30 percent cheaper than the global high set in London.

Furnished: L.A. ranked ninth; 74 percent above the median; 41 percent below San Francisco; 15 percent cheaper than global high in Hong Kong.

And for family-size units …

Unfurnished: L.A. 16th; 71 percent above the median; 51 percent below San Francisco; 35 percent cheaper than global high in Sydney.

Furnished: L.A. ranked seventh highest; 133 percent above the median; 26 percent below San Francisco; 9 percent cheaper than the global high in Sydney.

4. LIMITED CHOICE

Just finding an empty Southern California rental is a challenge.

A recent report by the Marcus & Millichap brokerage suggests only modest help is coming as a decent local job market creates new renters at a pace nearly equal to the number of new apartments builders are bringing online.

Vacancy stats for the third quarter reveal a slight increase in available units in major complexes across Southern California. But empty units remain a rarity as even the U.S. vacancy rate — 4.5 percent — runs below the historic 5 percent norm.

Here’s how rental availability breaks down by Southern California’s major markets.

Los Angeles County: Vacancy bounced up from last year’s post-recession low, rising 1 full percentage point to 3.6 percent. Why? Construction outpaced landlords ability to fill rentals. In the past year, 9,800 new units came to the market — most in Downtown L.A. — up from a previous 8,000-a-year pace.

The report gives little hope to apartment hunters, noting in L.A. “job gains have fueled household formations during a time of out-of-reach home prices for many. This combination of factors keeps vacancy below 4 percent in most submarkets.”

Orange County: Landlords could not lease up all the newly built units, so the vacancy rate rose from last year’s post-recession low. Still, that 0.8 percentage-point increase pushed Orange County vacancies all the way up to 3.5 percent, the tightest in the region.

Developers added 6,175 units in a year and are working on 9,300 more but the report notes Orange County’s “household formations and a sizable millennial populace, will prevent an uncontrolled rise in vacancy.”

Inland Empire: It’s been eight years, but there’s actually more choice this year! Oh, that’s 3.6 percent empty units vs. 2.7 percent vs. a year ago. New supply is limited, with 1,535 units added in a year vs. 2,600 units in the previous period. But more than 2,400 apartments are under construction — most in Ontario, Chino or Riverside — with opening dates that run to mid-2019.

The report says, “pent-up household formations should backfill any recently vacated apartments.”

5. BUILDERS BEHIND

Using apartment tracker RentHop’s compilation of population growth and housing permits from 2010 to 2016, I found developers in the four-county region filed permits for 205,959 residential units in the period while the population grew by 770,829.

All that construction translates to new Southern California housing that holds, on average, 3.7 extra people in each permitted unit. But please note the typical Southern California household is home to three people. So, we’re losing ground!

I estimate the region’s construction since 2010 is 51,000 homes short, assuming a 3-to-1 ratio of people to permits is what the market needs just to stay at in the ballpark of status quo. That’s means we should have built 25 percent more homes! (FYI: In 30 large metros tracked by RentHop, the median people-to-permit ratio was 3.1 in 2010-2016.)

Here’s what RentHop’s stats say about the individual counties meeting a 3-to-1 ratio of people to permits …

Orange County: Doing the best, as it’s 55,575 units permits vs. 154,885 in population growth adds up to a 2.8 people-per-permit ratio. Assuming the 3-to-1 target, it’s actually 4,000 ahead of pace.

Los Angeles County: Ranks next with 97,549 units and 319,310 in population growth for a 3.3 people-per-permit ratio. That’s roughly 9,000 short.

San Bernardino County: Third, with 19,680 units vs. 98,534 more people, or five people per permit. The county missed my target by about 13,000.

Riverside County: Worst, with 33,155 units permitted and 198,100 more residents. The six people-per-permit ratio is 33,000 less than the target and also was third worst among 30 large markets tracked.

So, can you see why Southern Californians double up as housing costs soar?