Los Angeles: Rent
Median home price: $489,700
Median annual rent: $24,900
Price-to-rent ratio: 20
Los Angeles is a huge city with wide disparities in housing markets, from very affluent to strictly working class. Leslie Appleton-Young, the chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, said that the moderate and lower-priced markets, especially the distressed-properties markets, are very strong.
"Investors and first-time home buyers are buying up distressed properties and any other affordable housing," she said.
Like other U.S. cities generally thought of as "world class," like New York, Boston and Chicago, demand tend to be from a more affluent buyer class, driving up sales prices more than rents.
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Last updated January 25 2011: 8:31 AM ET
