Fresno Rents Climb as San Francisco & Oakland See Record Drops

Rental listing platform Zumper’s latest report shows Fresno as the 45th most expensive rental market in the nation last month with the prices of one and two bedrooms settling at medians of $1,090 and $1,320.

Fresno rents are up around 15% since this time last year.

“Fresno’s affordable rents, with one-bedrooms priced at $1,090 and two-bedrooms at $1,320, both below the national medians, make it a desirable city for renters to move to during COVID, which is why we are seeing rents up 15% in this market,” Zumper’s Crystal Chen tells GV Wire℠.

The report showed the gap in median prices between historically expensive rental markets and cheaper ones continued to decrease last month, but slowed slightly.

Oakland had the largest decrease in 1-bedroom median rent from the prior month at -5.2%. Median 1-bedroom rent was $2020, but Oakland still ranked as the 5th most expensive rental market.

San Francisco’s Monthly Decreases Have Slowed Down

San Francisco’s monthly decrease slowed to -1.1% from -6.9% the month prior. Similarly, New York’s was at -1.9% compared to -3.7%.

The Zumper report says the slowed monthly decreases in the two cities last month could be an indication that price drops in these places are reaching their floor, and prices could stabilize in the near future.

Top 5 Rental Markets

1. San Francisco 1-bedroom median price dropped 1.1% from the month prior to $2800. The 2-bedroom median dropped 2.9% to $3690. Both the 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom medians were down about 21% from last year.

2. New York City 1-bedroom median price dropped 1.9% from the month prior to $2550, and the 2-bedroom median decreased 3.0% to $2900. The 1-bedroom median and 2-bedroom median were down 15.0% and 17.1% from last year, respectively.

3. Boston 1-bedroom median price was down 3.9% from the month prior to $2210. The 2-bedroom median rent dropped 4.3% to $2680. The 1 and 2-bedroom medians dropped 12.6% and 8.5% from last year, respectively.

4. San Jose 1-bedroom median decreased 4.9% to $2120 from the month prior and the 2-bedroom median decreased 3.2% to $2680. 1 and 2-bedroom medians decreased 13.5% and 9.2% from last year, respectively.

5. Oakland was the 5th priciest rental market with the 1-bedroom median decreasing 5.2% from the prior month to $2020, and the 2-bedroom median decreased 2.6% from the prior month to $2630. Oakland 1 and 2-bedroom medians decreased 19.2% and 12.3%, respectively.

Nationally

Overall, the national 1-bedroom median rent decreased 0.5% last month to $1225, while the 2-bedroom median decreased 0.4% to $1483. In year-to-date terms, the 1-bedroom median was flat and the 2-bedroom median increased 0.3%.

Report Methodology

The Zumper National Rent Report analyzes rental data from over 1 million active listings across the United States. Data is aggregated on a monthly basis to calculate median asking rents for the top 100 metro areas by population, providing a comprehensive view of the current state of the market. The report is based on all data available in the month prior to publication.