OC Register recently published a report on the latest national rental market. Here’s the details on our Southern California market.

1. Nothing new: In 2017, 4.1% local units were empty, No. 7 nationally, after L.A.-O.C. had the nation’s lowest vacancy rate, 2.9%, in 2016. It’s a long-running theme: Vacancy levels averaged 4.7% from 2005 to 2016 making L.A.-O.C. the nation’s sixth-tightest market in this period.

2. Expensive shortage: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the slice of the Consumer Price Index tracking the cost of renting in Los Angeles and Orange counties rose at a 5.6% annual rate in March vs. 4.8% a year earlier. The last time rent inflation was greater in any March was 2007.

3. Spillover: L.A.-O.C.’s limited supply and soaring rents may help explain why Inland Empire rentals are filling up: vacancies in Riverside and San Bernardino counties fell to 5.1 percent in 2018, a 17-year low.

4. Not just here: Last year, 44 of the 75 U.S. markets tracked had fewer vacancies. Nationwide vacancies fell to 6.7% 2018 vs. 7% in 2017 and an average 8.9% in 2005-2018.

5: Tightest markets: Where’s the hardest place to find a rental? Last year it was Fresno with vacancies at 1.8%; then Akron, Ohio at 3.3%; and Worcester, Mass., at 2.6%.

6. California, 2018: 4.4% of rental units were empty — a tiny uptick from 4.3% in 2017. Both years the state was the sixth tightest in the nation. In 2016, the state’s 3.6% vacancy rate was the nation’s lowest.

7. California, long-term: Since 1986, empty units statewide have averaged 5.8% of rental supply. Only four states — Vermont, new York, Washington and Massachusetts — have historically had tighter rental markets.