Oakland Rents Fall Fastest Among Large US Cities

Apartment rents in Oakland have fallen faster than in any large city in the nation.

Median rent for a one-bedroom pad in the East Bay city fell 7.2 percent in September from a year earlier, the largest drop among the 100 biggest cities in the U.S., the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing figures from Apartment List.

The median asking rent last month for a one-bedroom unit in Oakland was $1,430, more than $100 lower than in September last year. That’s the lowest rent since at least 2017, the earliest year of data available from the listing site.

At the same time, median rents in Greater San Francisco fell to $1,880, from $1,960, a drop of 4.1 percent.

The declines follow the exit of many renters from Bay Area downtowns at the dawn of the pandemic in 2020 for cheaper and larger digs during a shift to remote work, according to Apartment List.

But while some cities such as Fremont and San Jose saw an uptick in rents as tech companies called workers back to offices, rents in Oakland showed few signs of recovery. Among the nation’s 100 largest cities, 71 saw rent declines.

Median rent for a one-bedroom flat across the U.S. fell 1.3 percent last month to $1,170, from $1,190 in September 2022.

Oakland saw the steepest rent decline, followed by Austin, Texas, and Boise, Idaho, where rents fell 6.4 percent. In California, rents fell 5.2 percent in Moreno Valley and 5.1 percent in Long Beach.

Prices in San Francisco remain well below pre-pandemic levels, falling by 4.3 percent over the past year. In Fremont, where rents shot up in 2022, according to the Chronicle, they’ve fallen by the same percentage.

The rate of empty apartments across the U.S. rose to 6.4 percent in September, from 5.2 percent the year before. The vacancy rate in Oakland was 9.4 percent last month, from 7.6 percent a year earlier.

Developers in Oakland have built a large amount of market-rate housing in recent years, and the city plans for even more units than state regulators require, while failing to meet its previous affordable housing goals.

— Dana Bartholomew