SAN DIEGO — When it comes to rental prices in San Diego, finding a good deal is hard to come by.
According to a new report released by rental search engine Zumper, San Diego is the eighth most expensive place to rent nationwide, behind cities like New York, San Francisco, Miami and Los Angeles.
“If you look at our national rent index, the median one bedroom is about $1500 a month. So, San Diego is still, you know, significantly more than that,” said Zumper spokesperson Crystal Chen.
Chen says one bedroom apartments in San Diego average $2,350 a month.
A separate report also looked at 12 cities in our metro area. The city of San Diego was ranked as having the 4th highest rent behind Coronado, Encinitas and Carlsbad.
"Coronado one beds run $3610 so that was the most expensive area," said Chen.
But, there is a bit of good news.
Prices either stayed flat or went down.
"One beds and two beds in San Diego are both down between one to two percent annually, and if you kind of zoom out and look at the metro part as a whole, the majority of the cities, 10 of the 12, either had flat or declining annual rates," said Chen.
The two local cities where rents did not go down year over year are Encinitas, which saw rents spike by 2.3 percent and Escondido where they rose by five percent.
As for why most places saw a decline, Chen says contributing factors include more supply as well as the season.
"We're entering slow moving season right now, where the demand is typically at its lowest, since a lot of renters who were planning to move this year already have done so, and property owners tend to price down units before the holidays."
So, if you're looking to rent a place, now is the time.
As for what we can expect in the coming months, Chen says,"We should expect rents in the area to continue to dip, at least through the winter. I think with new housing development, that should help continue to put downward pressure on future prices there as well."