How expensive? tracks measurements of Californias totally unaffordable housing market.

The pain: Once again, California was found to be the high-rent state.

The source: Rentometers third-quarter report looked at rents in 757 US cities for three-bedroom single-family houses.

The pinch

This rent study had two Top 10 rankings, one for big cities – places with more than 250,000 residents – and one for mid-sized cities – with 100,000 to 250,000 people.

Of those 20 most-costly cities to rent a house across the nation, 18 are in California.

Pressure points

Not much analysis is needed. So heres the big-city tops

No. 1 San Francisco at $5,409 a month. Next was No. 2 Irvine at $5,280, No. 3 Los Angeles at $5,229, and No. 4 San Diego at $4,802.

Then, surprise, was somewhere in Massachusetts – No. 5 Boston at $4,304.

Back to California for No. 6 San Jose ($4,276), No. 7 Anaheim ($4,206), and No. 8 Long Beach ($4,107).

Florida was home to No. 9, Miami at $4,036. And No. 10 was Oakland, at $4,002.

Most affordable big city? Ohios Toledo at $1,214 a month for a three-bedroom house.

The 10 most expensive mid-sized cities featured an all-Golden State roster.

No. 1 was Huntington Beach at $5,724 a month, then Costa Mesa ($5,471), Burbank ($5,457), Carlsbad ($5,292), Glendale ($5,283), San Mateo ($5,196), Oxnard ($4,881)), Torrance ($4,876), Pasadena ($4,810), and Sunnyvale ($4,615).

Please note, No. 11 was from Florida – Pompano Beach at $4,477.

And the cheapest? Jackson, Mississippi at $1,239.

Spikes

California cities were also found high on another dubious house-rent scorecard: the biggest rent gains of the past year.

The fourth-largest hike for a big city was in Chula Vista, up 12% to $3,993. The only larger locales were Buffalo, New York (up 29%), Jersey City, New Jersey (up 18%), and Milwaukee, (up 13%).

The two biggest jumps for a mid-sized place were in Burbank (up 22% to $5,457) and Torrance (up 17% to $4,876).

Quotable

One of the biggest drivers of growth in this segment is the ongoing demand for rental housing in both suburban and urban areas, fueled by high mortgage rates and rising home prices, which have kept many would-be buyers in the rental market, the report stated.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com