Average asking rents for apartments hit $2,004 a month in Orange County this year and $1,907 a month in Los Angeles County after rising steadily in the region for more than eight years, one of three recent rent reports show.

Orange County rents were up 2.3 percent from a year earlier during the first quarter of 2019, according to commercial market tracker CoStar. Los Angeles County’s asking rent rose 2.8%.

Rents are rising even faster in the Inland Empire, according to CoStar.

Riverside County’s average asking rent – or the amount landlords seek for vacant units before concessions — was $1,429 a month as of the first quarter, up 4.9%. San Bernardino County’s rent increased 4.5% to $1,450 a month.

Rising rents and tenant displacement have spurred a flurry of efforts over the past 2 ½ years to enact rent control and other tenant protections. Voters rejected most of those proposals, including a statewide ballot measure to expand rent control provisions.

But efforts continue this year amid reports that rent is rising faster than incomes. Those efforts include a proposed rent cap that the California Assembly passed on Wednesday, May 29, that would limit rent hikes to 7 percent a year, plus the cost of living, on properties that are at least 10 years old.

The Los Angeles-Orange County area was ranked the fourth most unaffordable region for renters among U.S. metro areas, and the Inland Empire ranked fifth, according to a recent University of Southern California study.

CoStar’s latest survey included data from more than 1.3 million apartments, or three-fourths of all apartments in the four-county region.

A separate survey by New York-based Reis Inc. shows the highest and fastest-rising rents are in Los Angeles County, not Orange County. Reis, which doesn’t disclose the number of units it surveys, reported L.A. County’s average asking rent jumped 6.1% in the first quarter to $2,029 a month. Orange County rent, according to Reis, averaged $1,962 a month, up 3.4%.

L.A. County rents ranked 10th highest among 82 U.S. metro areas tracked by Reis, and Orange County’s asking rent ranked 11th highest. The Inland Empire had the 26th highest asking rent among those 82 metro areas.

The government’s Consumer Price Index also shows rent rising steadily in the region since 2010. CoStar and Reis data show average asking rents rose between $341 and $500 a month over the past eight years. By county, CoStar figures show:

Orange County rents increased $497 a month since 2010, a 33% gain.

L.A. County rents rose $445 a month, or 30%.

Riverside County rents increased by $448 a month, or 46%.

San Bernardino County rents rose $462 a month, or 47%.

Low vacancy rates have been driving rents upward. CoStar reported just 3.9% of L.A. County apartments were vacant in the first quarter, compared with 4.9% in Orange County, 4.7% in Riverside County and 4.4% in San Bernardino County. Except for Orange County, those vacancy rates were below the average for the past 20 years.

Here’s a breakdown of monthly first-quarter asking rents by research firm: