If it’s April, it’s time for new housing figures. There’s good news and bad news about District rental properties. The real estate industry reports that we’re the only city in the nation seeing fewer vacancies, driven by the area’s healthy job growth. Of course, supply and demand means Washingtonians are paying more for a place called home. The average apartment renter pays $1,256 a month, up 5.2% over last year. The national average is a $939 a month. Rents in Northern Virginia and Maryland only saw increases of 3.4% and 3.5%, respectively.

It’s tough to tell from this little blurb from the AP how exactly this report is measuring apartment size — is this a figure for what each individual person pays, or the average cost of an “average” sized apartment? Most individuals here on the DCist staff pay less than $1,256, but very few of us live in rental units that cost less on total.

How much do you pay? Do you think D.C. residents can still find housing deals, or is this city officially Too Expensive? Are you packing up the U-Haul and moving to Manassas? Let us know in comments.

Photo by Flickr user Eye Captain.