Apartment dwellers in major Golden State coastal cities who have been thinking about becoming homeowners while mortgage rates remain low might find additional motivation in the fact that rents are up uniformly in January from one year earlier.
As it has for many consecutive months, Zumper’s latest rent report puts San Francisco as America’s most expensive rental market in January, with the median $3,500 one-bedroom unit up by 2.9 percent year over year. No. 3 San Jose’s $2,490 rent rose by 1.2 percent on an annual basis, while costs have increased by 8.8 percent in No. 6 Oakland to $2,350.
In Southern California, monthly rents in No. 5 Los Angeles have risen to $2,420, up by 5.2 percent from the same time in 2018. Rents for two-bedroom apartments also increased from last January in all four of those California cities, ranging from 0.6 percent in Los Angeles to 15.4 percent in Oakland.
