The Brief
- A new report shows rents in a few Bay Area cities have fallen, while others have seen huge increases.
- Menlo Park and Antioch were ranked as the most expensive and most affordable cities, respectively.
- Median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in California is $2,067.
OAKLAND, Calif. – Renters throughout the region are well-aware of the Bay Area’s high cost of living, and a new report shows that rents throughout the region have, with a few exceptions, continued to climb.
Rental marketplace platform Zumper last week released its April report for one- and two-bedroom apartments. According to the report, only three cities fall below the median rent for a one-bedroom in California, $2,067:
- Oakland, at $2,000
- San Leandro, at $1,960
- Concord, at $1,940
- Vallejo, at $1,560
- Antioch, at $1,520
Antioch reportedly saw a 14.6% decrease in rent over the last year. The city has in recent years adopted several measures to limit rent increases, which likely contributed. In 2022, the Antioch City Council adopted a Rent Stabilization Ordinance, which capped annual rent increases to a percentage of the consumer price index – if the CPI increases by more than 5%, rent increases are capped at 3%. If CPI growth is less than 5%, rent growth is capped at 60% of that number.
Menlo Park is ranked as the most expensive city in the region, with the median single-bedroom rent at $3,290, beating out both Mountain View and San Francisco, where single-bedroom median rents are $3,230 and $3,200 respectively.…