The average monthly rent of apartments in California increased substantially 2021, followed by a period of stabilization. In May 2024, the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment cost over ***** U.S. dollars, up from ***** U.S. dollars in December 2020 before rents started to rise. Nevertheless, not all cities saw rents rise at the same pace.

The average monthly rent in California for a two-bedroom apartment was ***** U.S. dollars in 2024, while a one-bedroom unit cost ***** U.S. dollars. Only renters who earn the area median income (AMI) can afford two-bedroom housing in California. Rent affordable to renters with full-time jobs at mean renter wage, or 30 percent area median income, was lower than the fair market rent of a two-bedroom and one-bedroom apartment in California, making this housing in this state not affordable for them. The rent in California ranked highest among all other states in the United States for a two bedroom apartment in 2024.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR List Rents (EC9)

FULL MEASURE NAME List Rents

LAST UPDATED October 2016

DESCRIPTION List rent refers to the advertised rents for available rental housing and serves as a measure of housing costs for new households moving into a neighborhood, city, county or region.

DATA SOURCE real Answers (1994 – 2015) no link

Zillow Metro Median Listing Price All Homes (2010-2016) http://www.zillow.com/research/data/

CONTACT INFORMATION vitalsigns.info@mtc.ca.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator) List rents data reflects median rent prices advertised for available apartments rather than median rent payments; more information is available in the indicator definition above. Regional and local geographies rely on data collected by real Answers, a research organization and database publisher specializing in the multifamily housing market. real Answers focuses on collecting longitudinal data for individual rental properties through quarterly surveys. For the Bay Area, their database is comprised of properties with 40 to 3,000+ housing units. Median list prices most likely have an upward bias due to the exclusion of smaller properties. The bias may be most extreme in geographies where large rental properties represent a small portion of the overall rental market. A map of the individual properties surveyed is included in the Local Focus section.

Individual properties surveyed provided lower- and upper-bound ranges for the various types of housing available (studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, etc.). Median lower- and upper-bound prices are determined across all housing types for the regional and county geographies. The median list price represented in Vital Signs is the average of the median lower- and upper-bound prices for the region and counties. Median upper-bound prices are determined across all housing types for the city geographies. The median list price represented in Vital Signs is the median upper-bound price for cities. For simplicity, only the mean list rent is displayed for the individual properties. The metro areas geography rely upon Zillow data, which is the median price for rentals listed through www.zillow.com during the month. Like the real Answers data, Zillow's median list prices most likely have an upward bias since small properties are underrepresented in Zillow's listings. The metro area data for the Bay Area cannot be compared to the regional Bay Area data. Due to afore mentioned data limitations, this data is suitable for analyzing the change in list rents over time but not necessarily comparisons of absolute list rents. Metro area boundaries reflects today’s metro area definitions by county for consistency, rather than historical metro area boundaries.

Due to the limited number of rental properties surveyed, city-level data is unavailable for Atherton, Belvedere, Brisbane, Calistoga, Clayton, Cloverdale, Cotati, Fairfax, Half Moon Bay, Healdsburg, Hillsborough, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno, Moranga, Oakley, Orinda, Portola Valley, Rio Vista, Ross, San Anselmo, San Carlos, Saratoga, Sebastopol, Windsor, Woodside, and Yountville.

Inflation-adjusted data are presented to illustrate how rents have grown relative to overall price increases; that said, the use of the Consumer Price Index does create some challenges given the fact that housing represents a major chunk of consumer goods bundle used to calculate CPI. This reflects a methodological tradeoff between precision and accuracy and is a common concern when working with any commodity that is a major component of CPI itself. Percent change in inflation-adjusted median is calculated with respect to the median price from the fourth quarter or December of the base year.

Rents in California's most populous cities briefly decreased in 2020, but swiftly headed for recovery in the following year. In San Jose, the average rent amounted to ***** U.S. dollars in May 2024, higher than the previous peak of ***** U.S. dollars in August 2019. In May 2024, the average monthly rent of a two-bedroom apartment in California was close to ***** U.S. dollars.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR
Rent Payments (EC8)

FULL MEASURE NAME
Median rent payment

LAST UPDATED
January 2023

DESCRIPTION
Rent payments refer to the cost of leasing an apartment or home and serves as a measure of housing costs for individuals who do not own a home. The data reflect the median monthly rent paid by Bay Area households across apartments and homes of various sizes and various levels of quality. This differs from advertised rents for available apartments, which usually are higher. Note that rent can be presented using nominal or real (inflation-adjusted) dollar values; data are presented inflation-adjusted to reflect changes in household purchasing power over time.

DATA SOURCE
U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census - https://nhgis.org
Count 2 (1970)
Form STF1 (1980-1990)
Form SF3a (2000)

U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey - https://data.census.gov/
Form B25058 (2005-2021; median contract rent)

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index - https://www.bls.gov/data/
1970-2021

CONTACT INFORMATION
vitalsigns.info@mtc.ca.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator)
Rent data reflects median rent payments rather than list rents (refer to measure definition above). American Community Survey 1-year data is used for larger geographies – Bay counties and most metropolitan area counties – while smaller geographies rely upon 5-year rolling average data due to their smaller sample sizes. Note that 2020 data uses the 5-year estimates because the ACS did not collect 1-year data for 2020.

1970 Census data for median rent payments has been imputed from quintiles using methodology from California Department of Finance as the source data only provided the mean, rather than the median, monthly rent. Metro area boundaries reflects today’s metro area definitions by county for consistency, rather than historical metro area boundaries.

Inflation-adjusted data are presented to illustrate how rent payments have grown relative to overall price increases; that said, the use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) does create some challenges given the fact that housing represents a major chunk of consumer goods bundle used to calculate CPI. This reflects a methodological tradeoff between precision and accuracy and is a common concern when working with any commodity that is a major component of CPI itself.

This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (247 items: Carbonear; Newfoundland and Labrador; Corner Brook; Newfoundland and Labrador; Grand Falls-Windsor; Newfoundland and Labrador; Gander; Newfoundland and Labrador ...), Type of structure (4 items: Apartment structures of three units and over; Apartment structures of six units and over; Row and apartment structures of three units and over; Row structures of three units and over ...), Type of unit (4 items: Two bedroom units; Three bedroom units; One bedroom units; Bachelor units ...).

Residential rental rates by municipality, year, and type of unit (bachelor suites, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units) in non-subsidized rental buildings that have three or more rental units.

The median rent for one- and two-bedroom apartments in Los Angeles, California, amounted to about ***** U.S. dollars in January 2025. Rents soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, with rental growth hitting **** percent in March 2022. This trend has since reversed, with growth turning negative in May 2023. Among the different states in the U.S., California ranks as the second most expensive rental market after Hawaii.

This chart shows the monthly housing cost expenses for renters. Gross rent is the agreed upon rent plus the estimated average monthly cost of utilities (electricity, gas, and water and sewer) and fuels (oil, coal, kerosene, wood, etc.) if these are paid by the renter.

The median rent for one- and two-bedroom apartments in Sacramento, CA, amounted to about 1,643 U.S. dollars at the end of 2023. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, median rent has generally increased. Moreover, in December 2023, the annual rental growth in Sacramento fell by 3.28 percent. Among the different states in the U.S., California ranks as the second most expensive rental market in 2022.

The average rents for private row houses and apartments in urban centres with 2,500 to 10,000 people. Organized by province and number of bedrooms to help rental market professionals make informed business decisions. Note: Data in this series is updated every 5 years in advance of each Census year. This table has been updated from January 28, 2021 to now reflect final data.

Quarterly Average Apartment Rent

This chart shows the monthly housing cost expenses for renters. Gross rent is the agreed upon rent plus the estimated average monthly cost of utilities (electricity, gas, and water and sewer) and fuels (oil, coal, kerosene, wood, etc.) if these are paid by the renter.

This chart shows the monthly housing cost expenses for renters. Gross rent is the agreed upon rent plus the estimated average monthly cost of utilities (electricity, gas, and water and sewer) and fuels (oil, coal, kerosene, wood, etc.) if these are paid by the renter.

The median rent for one- and two-bedroom apartments in San Jose, CA, amounted to about ***** U.S. dollars at the end of 2023. Rents decreased after the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, by ** percent between March 2020 and March 2021. This trend reversed later that year, and in June 2022, the annual rental growth peaked at **** percent. Among the different states in the U.S., California ranks as the second most expensive rental market in 2023.

This chart shows the monthly housing cost expenses for renters. Gross rent is the agreed upon rent plus the estimated average monthly cost of utilities (electricity, gas, and water and sewer) and fuels (oil, coal, kerosene, wood, etc.) if these are paid by the renter.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Primary Residence in San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA (CBSA) (CUURA422SEHA) from Dec 1914 to Jun 2025 about San Francisco, primary, rent, urban, CA, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

Average asking rent price in select Census Metropolitan Areas by rental unit type. The breakdown by number of bedrooms is provided only for apartments. The results are based on an experimental approach, meaning they are derived from recent methodologies and may be subject to revisions. Quarterly data are available starting from the first quarter of 2019.

Average rents for areas with a population of 10,000 and over

The median rent for one- and two-bedroom apartments in San Francisco, CA, amounted to about ***** U.S. dollars at the end of 2023. Rents decreased drastically after the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic - by over ** percent between December 2019 and December 2020. This trend reversed in 2021, and as of December 2021, the annual rental growth stood at ** percent. Among the different states in the U.S., California ranks as the second most expensive rental market in 2023.