San Jose Tops the Nation for Highest Rents

Forget trying to rent a cheap home in Greater San Jose — the market now leads the nation for highest rents.

The cost of renting a typical apartment, condo or single-family home in metro San Jose is higher than anywhere else in the U.S., with a median rent in June of $3,411, the San Jose Mercury News reported, citing figures from Zillow.

The hub of Silicon Valley now leads New York as the most expensive metro market, with typical rent in Gotham City trailing at $3,405.

Home rental prices in Greater San Diego now lead metro San Francisco, with rents in Padre Town at $3,175, followed by Fog City at $3,168 and Boston at $3,045.

Rents in Los Angeles are hardly more affordable, at $2,983. Rents in Riverside, in the Inland Empire, were ranked at No. 8, at $2,573, with Sacramento at No. 10 with $2,319.

While Greater San Francisco ranked No. 4 on Zillow’s list, rental prices in the region have been among the slowest nationwide to bounce back after plunging during the pandemic, when tens of thousands of residents left the city enabled by remote work.

The median rent within the City of San Francisco was $3,550 in June, 1 percent below pre-pandemic levels, according to Zillow.

At the same time, rents in Greater San Diego have jumped 43 percent since June 2019.“This was the first month on record in which typical rents in San Diego exceeded those in San Francisco,” Zillow said in its monthly rent report. “On the eve of the pandemic, in February 2020, San Francisco rents were 29 percent higher than those in San Diego.”

— Dana Bartholomew