Los Angeles rents dropped just the tiniest skosh between February and March, falling .7 percent, but for the first quarter of 2015 they were up .7 percent over the last three months of 2014, according to the latest rental report from renting site Zumper. Los Angeles is now just the ninth most expensive big city in the US for renting, but still the least affordable, so don't get too excited there. Zumper uses the oddball metric of price per bedroom, and pegged LA's average in March at $1,440. That's not the same as price per one-bedroom, which averaged $1,730 (down 1.7 percent since last month) and it's not the same as half of a two-bedroom—two-bedrooms averaged $2,550 in March (up 2 percent over February).

Downtown Santa Monica remains the most expensive place to rent in Los Angeles and it's getting expensive-er: one-bedroom (NOT per-bedroom) rents averaged $2,800 in January; in March, that number was up to $3,000. Nearby Marina del Rey and Venice also made the top five, with one-bedrooms averaging $2,500 in March in both 'hoods, and Downtown LA slid into number six with an average of $2,380. The cheapest rents in March were in Glassell Park (one-bedrooms averaged $1,155 in March) and Cypress Park ($1,200), Mid-City ($1,200), and throughout South LA (Zumper's stats don't go east of Downtown). Here's the full map and all the data on the top 30 most expensive neighborhoods:



· Zumper National Rent Report: March 2015 [Zumper]

· Mapping the Cheapest and Most Expensive Places to Rent in Los Angeles Right Now (January 2015) [Curbed LA]

· Los Angeles Housing Now More Screwed Up Than San Francisco [Curbed LA]