By Andrew Khouri From Los Angeles Times The era of pandemic rent declines appears to be over. After falling through much of the COVID-19 crisis as people relocated to suburbs or moved in with relatives, rents in big cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York are now on the rise. And experts say that prices are likely to keep swinging upward. “Landlords are really eager to charge more rather than charge less,” said Rob Warnock, research associate with rental website Apartment List, whose data show the median rent in Los Angeles is up 3.6 percent from the bottom. He said he expects the rise to continue, taking until the end of summer for prices in the city to hit February 2020—or pre-pandemic—levels. In Los Angeles, the median rent for a vacant apartment hit a low of $1,717 in January and has risen ever since, according to data from …