Shilpa Desai thought Orange County rents would be cheaper.

The 33-year-old pediatrician and her husband had been living in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo Arts District, where rents reach nearly $3,000 a month. Surely, Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle would be economical by comparison – especially since there are so many apartments under construction there.

“But that’s not driving the rents down,” Desai said of all the new building. The two-bedroom she and her husband rent for more than $2,000 a month at the Stadium Lofts is “much lower than what I was paying in L.A., but not as low as I expected.”

Despite having about 10,800 new apartments under construction in Orange County, and 25,000 new units in the works in Los Angeles County, rents continue to climb throughout the region.

The average asking rent for an Orange County apartment hit $1,781 a month this summer, following 61/2 years of steady hikes, according to Reis Inc. In the past 41/2 years alone, rents are up 14.3 percent, or $223 a month. In Los Angeles County, the average asking rent hit $1,676 a month, rising nearly 18 percent over the past 41/2 years, Reis reported. In the Inland Empire, rents were up 17 percent to $1,239.

For all three metro areas, rents are at all-time highs.

“These new properties coming online don’t have that much impact on the middle- and lower-end product because that is so vast,” said Greg Willett, chief economist for RealPage, which owns apartment tracker MPF Research. “There’s no way you’re going to lose tenants from the middle- to low-end to the high-end (apartments).”

Southern California isn’t alone. Apartment rents increased in all 79 major U.S. metro areas Reis tracks. The average for all 79 metros was $1,271 a month, up 19 percent over the past 41/2 years.

Orange County rents were the ninth highest among the top 79 U.S. cities, trailing metro areas such as New York, San Francisco, Boston and Silicon Valley. Los Angeles County had the 12th highest rent among large U.S. cities; the Inland Empire ranked 23rd out of 79.

To afford the average Orange County apartment, a tenant needs to earn at least $71,000 a year, assuming an affordable unit costs no more than 30 percent of a renter’s gross pay.

In L.A. County, the minimum annual income to afford an average unit is $67,000; in the Inland Empire, it’s just under $50,000.

MORE RENTERS

Job growth and low homeownership rates are key reasons why apartment vacancies remain low, Willett said. Additionally, demographics play a role. Millennials, or 19- to 35-year-olds, are the biggest portion of the population, and as they move into homes of their own, they tend to rent.

And since millennials are delaying marriage and waiting longer to have children – key triggers to becoming homeowners – they are expected to continue renting for years to come, economists say.

As a result, Southern California vacancy rates ranged from 2.6 percent this summer in the Inland Empire, to 3.5 percent in Los Angeles County and 3.6 percent in Orange County, according to Reis. The national vacancy rate – based on the top 79 metro areas – was 4.4 percent.

In most places, a vacancy rate of 4 percent or less is considered full.

“Renters are going through so much. It’s such a nightmare,” said Hugo Gonsalez, manager for Nextrent.com, a Santa Ana rental listing service. “In 16 years, I’ve never seen such a shortage of properties.”

RENTERS SCRAMBLING

Renters said they had no trouble finding an apartment in Anaheim’s Park Varidian complex, where rents start at $1,700 a month for a studio and top $2,300 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit.

But there’s still some sticker shock after realizing how much it costs for a unit with underground parking, a pool, gym, business center and weekly cooking demonstrations, said Rashelle McCarroll, 26, who moved there in May after four years exploring the West in a 37-foot travel trailer.

“For a two-bedroom, it was expensive,” McCarroll said of the apartment she shares with her husband, a utilities lineman, her 31/2-year-old son and Bochy, a chocolate Labrador. “It’s pricy, but I like the people, the (nearby) park, and I like all the restaurants around here.”

But it’s a scramble to find a rental for tenants seeking a more affordable price, landlords say.

NextRent’s Gonsalez said he only has about 10 two-bedroom listings for under $1,500 a month.

“We used to have hundreds of them,” he said. And when a desirable unit pops up, there are at least 30 applicants. “That’s why the landlords are having a field day.”

Property owner Rachel Oronoz said she got nine or 10 calls a day on her two-bedroom Fullerton apartment in August. It rented for $1,400 a month in just a few days, but she continued to get calls for about a month.

Landlord Ken Clements, 73, of Temecula also got swamped with calls for his one-bedroom “honeymoon cottage” in Buena Park that he listed for the bargain price of $1,250 a month. He rented it out on the first day, but continued getting five to 10 calls a day for more than a week.

One property manager said he’s getting “crazy money” for a Garden Grove one-bedroom unit with old carpet and outdated appliances after dropping the price to $1,400 a month. He said he got more than 100 calls for that unit, one of three vacancies out of 950 apartments he manages.

“I think it’s one of the worst times (for renters),” said Gonsalez. “Now, the incomes have risen. But whatever income they’re getting, it hasn’t risen as much as rents.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com