Housing

Report: Bay Area rents sluggish

By Mark Prado
Rents
Credit
Mark Prado

As we kick off a new year, a new RentCafé report shows the overall rental market is witnessing a rare slowdown.

The average rent in the Bay Area, currently $2,769 a month, had the slowest year-over-year growth in more than two and a half years at 1.2%.

Out of the 44 largest cities in RentCafé’s Bay Area report, though, two-thirds showed annual increases between 1% and 7.2%, and only three markets had rent drops throughout 2019.

Here are some more findings:

  • The steepest year-over-year increases among large renter hubs were recorded in Oakland ($2,908), where apartment prices jumped by 5.5% compared to December 2018.
  • Of the 44 Bay Area cities analyzed, Napa ($2,225) leads regional growth with a 7.2% increase. In terms of high net annual increases, new renters in Napa and Oakland would now have to pay an extra $150 and $151 per month, respectively, compared to a year prior.
  • Richmond ($2,151) and Petaluma ($2,292) showed the most significant rent drops in the Bay Area, 7.8% and 2.7% year-over-year respectively.
  • With rents 1.2% cheaper than last year, San Jose ($2,685) is one of only four markets (with a population of 100,000) in RentCafé’s National Rent Report where rents decreased at the end of 2019.
  • Currently at $3,688, rents in San Francisco are 2.1% higher than this time last year.

You can read the Bay Area Rent Report here or check out the national trends in RentCafé’s 2019 Year-End Report. Also, there is a comprehensive study on the main trends that shaped the rental market in the past decade here.

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