Newport Beach Rent Highest in O.C.

Fine dining restaurants, million-dollar mansions, luxury yachts and the beach right on your doorstep—when it comes to living the high life, Newport Beach is definitely the place to go. But it all comes at a price, as studies by apartment tracking firm RealFacts showed last week.

According to the report, Newport Beach apartments have the highest rent in Orange County, with the average flat costing $1,902 per month as of the last quarter of 2009—and that’s after a $43 cut from 2008’s figures, a result of the housing crash and the 5.8% vacancy rate that followed.

The Newport Beach rent is a mere $400 below the average monthly mortgage payment in Orange County, both figures excluding other costs such as electricity and heating. Local mortgage rates are naturally significantly higher, pegged at over $2,500 a month.

Countywide, the average rent is $1,473. Besides Newport Beach, only four other O.C. cities—Aliso Viejo, Costa Mesa, Irvine and Laguna Niguel—had higher average rents. All the cities had lower averages than in 2008, with Newport Beach showing the smallest drop at only 2.2%.

The RealFacts survey studied 491 properties composed of at least 90 units each, which make up about one-third of all O.C. apartments. Researchers focused on 23 of the 83 O.C. cities, where there are at least five apartment complexes that meet these criteria.

The cities with the most affordable apartments were Santa Ana, Buena Park, Anaheim, La Habra and Stanton, with average rents ranging from $1,155 to $1,276 and year-by-year drops from -5.1% to -8.2%.