Last week, the 2014 USC Casden Multifamly Forecast informed us that median rent in Los Angeles County had shot up to $1,716 in the second quarter of 2014, making for the biggest annual rent increase in four years. What makes that especially shocking is that, in that same period from the second quarter of 2013 to the second quarter of 2014, more new housing units opened in LA County (more than 7,500) than at any other time in the last four years. It’s simply not enough—the vacancy rate in the county has actually plummeted since last year, falling 10.8 percent since last year, to just 3.3 percent. Read full article.