A new report dissecting rent trends across the Bay Area is full of bad news for tenants. With a handful of exceptions, today’s rents are higher in most of the region’s cities than they were a year ago.
The fastest rent growth was in Concord, where year-over-year rents were up 7.3 percent, according to the report from the ApartmentList.com website. A median two-bedroom apartment in Concord now rents for $3,010 and a one-bedroom fetches $2,400.
The region’s highest rents are in Cupertino, where a one-bedroom costs $3,990 monthly and a two-bedroom brings $5,000. The cheapest rents are in Oakland, where a one-bedroom costs $1,760 and a two-bedroom rents for $2,210. Almost as cheap is Campbell, where a one-bedroom fetches $1,890 and a two-bedroom goes for $2,370.
Of course, the year-over-year increases are not nearly what they were a couple of years ago, when debilitating double-digit increases were the norm. But the fact remains: Even so-called modest increases are hard to handle for many renters.
For instance, the year-over-year rent increases in San Jose were up 3.0 percent, compared with 2.7 percent nationwide. Yet San Jose’s median rent for a two-bedroom unit — $2,570 — is more than double the national median of $1,160.
Likewise San Francisco rents were up just 1.8 percent year-over-year, but that doesn’t spell much relief for tenants. A median one-bedroom apartment costs $2,450 while a two-bedroom costs $3,070.
Here and there, rents fell on a year-over-year basis: In Berkeley by 3.2 percent, the biggest drop in the Bay Area; in Daly City by 2.2 percent; and in Campbell by 0.3 percent.
But everywhere else, the trend was up, according to the report.
Here is where you can read about rents in the San Francisco metro area, which includes San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
And here is where you can read about rents in the San Jose metro, which includes Santa Clara and San Benito counties. (Scroll down and click on “View full San Jose Rent Report”.)
Photo: An apartment complex rising in downtown San Jose in 2015. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
