Rental rates in Los Angeles and Orange Counties have now surpased even San Francisco:

As of June 30, apartment owners collected an average monthly rent of $1,336 in Los Angeles and Orange counties — by far the most populous section of Southern California. The rental price represented a 3.7 percent increase from the same time last year, according to RealFacts, a Novato research firm that has been monitoring Western apartment rents since 1989.

In a five-county cluster within the San Francisco Bay area, June apartment rents averaged $1,310 per month, a 1 percent decrease from the same time last year.

None of the other 17 Western markets surveyed by RealFacts have average apartment rents above $1,300. The metropolitan areas surveyed are in California, Washington, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, Utah and New Mexico.

The rapidly growing Southern California swath of Riverside and San Bernardino counties generated the West’s biggest rent increase. Apartment rents in the region averaged $978 in June, 6 percent higher than last year.

Of course, The Bay Area is still reeling from the collapse of the Clinton Bubble. But, throughout California, the expense and time required to do residential development, as well as a tax scheme which grossly favors localities undertaking commercial development (frequently fueled by coercive redevelopment programs), has created a chronic housing shortage.