With homeownership falling and the number of tenants growing, Southern California rents will continue to rise over the next two years, USC’s Casden Multifamily Forecast said Wednesday, Oct. 11.

That translates into rent hikes of $149 a month over the next two years in Orange County, $136 a month in Los Angeles County and $124 a month in the Inland Empire, according to the forecast, produced by the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate.

Specifically, the forecast estimates:

The average Orange County rent will rise by 3.6 percent to $2,080 a month in 2018 and by another 3.7 percent to $2,157 a month in 2019.

The average Los Angeles County rent will rise by 3 percent in each of the next to years, increasing to $2,304 in 2018 and $2,373 in 2019.

The average Inland Empire rent will rise 4.1 percent to $1,509 a month in 2018 and by another 4.2 percent to $1,573 in 2019.

Those are sharp increases compared with 2017, but not previous years.

This year’s Southern California rents are projected to be up 1 percent from 2016, the Casden figures show.

But rent gains averaged 4.5 percent a year in Orange County and the Inland Empire from 2011 through 2016. The average annual gain was 5.7 percent in Los Angeles County in that period.

“Southern California markets have been among the least affordable for some time,” the forecast report said.

Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk center, said high rent and high demand for rentals will have an adverse impact on the local econony.

“Available units are becoming more scarce and more expensive,” he said.