Rents in San Diego increased 0.6% in June, compared to a 0.4% increase nationwide.
Year-over-year rents in San Diego are down 0.1%, but that’s after a long stretch of rapid rises, according to an analysis by ApartmentList.com.
One year ago, rents were up 20.1%, continuing a trend that began near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Overall, since that time, citywide rents have jumped a total of 29.4%.
The median rent in San Diego for June was $2,012 for a one-bedroom unit and $2,594 for a two-bedroom. The citywide apartment vacancy rate stands at 4.7%, up 0.8 from this time last year.
Those numbers make San Diego the fifth most expensive large city in the U.S. for renters.
For comparison, median rent across the nation as a whole is $1,175 for a 1-bedroom and $1,346 for a 2-bedroom. The median rent in San Diego is 78.7% higher than the national figure, and has spilled over to the rest of the region. Chula Vista, for instance, has a median rent of $2,437.
Irvine tops the list, with a median rent of more than $3,000. Eight of the top 10 cities are in California.
Two of the most notoriously expensive markets in the country, San Francisco and New York City, sit in the 10th and 11th spots on the list.
Cleveland, Detroit and Des Moines clock in as the most affordable rental markets in the nation, with median rents of $800, $962 and $967 respectively. Spokane has the best rent in the west at $1,220.
On the national front, the rent index showed that year-over-year rent growth fell to zero for the first time since the early pandemic. Rents are still trending up month-over-month, but much more slowly.
In addition, rent growth normally peaks at this time of year, but right now it’s cooling during what should be the busy season. On the supply side, the national vacancy index matched peak availability from the height of the pandemic.
