The area seems to be artificially inflated right now, and the home prices vs. rental income just do not seem to work. 

Unlike the last recession, this recession is an "artificial" recession all based on the virus itself.

Are you saying that this is artificially propping up values in Los Angeles? 

Unless you want to artificially increase the rent and then give them a discount, but I agree with Joe-they signed a document saying they'd pay the rent on time and they should do so.

At the moment, interest rates are artificially being kept low.Should new investors worry?

Essentially, your rents are held artificially low, so that the management company can tack on their own fees and the total comes out to something that sounds reasonable.   

Back then, unscrupulous lenders stimulated housing demand artificially by making lending unrealistically over-available leading to rise in home prices well beyond their actual value. 

@Eli Sunderland,Here's what you need to remember about the crash and the housing market before and after it ...Leading up to the crash, virtually unlimited access to lending created an artificially high demand which drove prices skyward, even in the face of the highly speculative development and home building.In the crash, some 80% of home builders went under.

I have seen the stats that in San Diego the new listings are down ~30% for April and where down over 30% for March versus a year ago.That the effect of $0 STR rents have not resulted in many LL already placing the RE on the market.That any result of lost LTR rents (which we have had 0 lost LTR rents so far) or difficulty finding new tenants for LTR units has not yet resulted in units hitting the market.Logic seems to be that if it were not for artificially holding units off the market, that we should see more RE on the market in 2020 that 2019 because of the various lost incomes (not just lost rent, but people making less money due to layoffs, reduced hours, etc.). 

Everyone is looking at the last 5+ years where rates were artificially low and the pickings were easy.