High demand and low vacancies continue to drive rents higher for Southern California apartments, condos and houses this year, according to property managers and new rent data.

During the first quarter of the year, the average asking rent for a vacant apartment hit $1,898 in Los Angeles County, the priciest jurisdiction in the region with the fastest-rising rents, according to market tracker Reis Inc. That’s up $114 a month, or 5.2 percent, from L.A. County apartment rents a year ago.

Orange County asking rents were $1,885 a month in the first quarter, up $73 a month or 3.8 percent year over year. In the Inland Empire, apartment rents averaged $1,319 a month, up $42 monthly or 3.0 percent from the first quarter of 2017.

Vacancies in the region, meanwhile, ranged from 3.2 percent in the Inland Empire to 3.4 percent in L.A. County and 3.8 percent in Orange County, according to Reis. Vacancy rates have been under 5 percent for the past six years, a major factor in why rents have gone up steadily since late 2010.

When new rentals come on the market, they fill up within weeks, property managers say.

“It’s crazy,” said Scott Colette, broker for San Pedro-based Harbor Property Management, which manages rentals throughout the South Bay. “We are seeing (rents for apartments) I used to see for single-family homes.”

Two- and three-bedroom apartments that rented in the $1,400 to $1,600 range now “are approaching the $2,000 mark,” he said. And tenants aren’t blinking.

Colette said he’s averaging three to five applications for every vacancy. The December-January slowdown has disappeared.

“In the last two to three years, we have not had a slowdown in the rental market,” Colette said. “People call me and ask, ‘When is a good time to put my home on the market?’ I say, ‘Now.’ ”

Southern California rents outstripped incomes, rising 19 to 27 percent from 2010 through 2016. U.S. Census figures show median incomes, however, rose from 10 to 16 percent in that period.

Rising rents have sparked rent control ballot drives in at least eight California cities as well as a statewide initiative to repeal rent control restrictions.

Reis figures show Los Angeles County had the 10th highest rents among 82 big-city metro areas in the nation the company tracks. Orange County rents ranked 11th, while Inland Empire asking rents were the 25th highest among big-city metros.

The Big Apple remains the nation’s priciest rental market. The average New York metro apartment rent was $3,611 a month in the first quarter, followed by San Francisco ($3,052), Silicon Valley ($2,578), Boston ($2,272) and the Oakland-East Bay area ($2,177).

Nationwide, apartment asking rents averaged $1,382 a month in the first quarter, up 4.4 percent year over year.

“This demand for apartments is supported by stronger job growth in recent months,” said an analysis by Barbara Denham, Reis senior economist. “Metros that have seen the strongest job growth over the last 12 months include San Bernardino-Riverside, Austin, Orlando, Seattle and San Jose.”

Demand for rental houses and condos are just as hot, data show.

The new CoreLogic Single-Family Rental Index shows house rents up 2.7 percent year over year in Orange County as of February, 3.5 percent in Los Angeles County and 5.6 percent in the Inland Empire.

A separate report shows single-family rents up even more: Average house rents rose 4.5 percent — to $2,690 a month — in the four-county region, according to Irvine-based HomeUnion, a rental house investment firm.

Denise Smith of Garnet Property Services said vacancies at the Tustin condo complex she manages don’t stay empty long.

“I don’t have to list anything because I keep getting calls,” Smith said. Each time a tenant moves out, she’s able to re-rent it from the backlog of people wanting to get into her complex of two-story condos with attached garages.

Tenants are desperate, she said, and they’re eager to upgrade from denser apartment buildings with smaller units. One unit that rented for $2,450 recently re-rented to a new tenant for $2,700.

“My rents have gone up,” Smith added. “There’s a shortage of nice, quality housing.”