Renting or buying? California is hotbed for looking at both options

Californians seeking new housing are roughly 1.3 times as likely as their American peers to search for both ownership and rental opportunities simultaneously.

New stats from Zillow paint another example of the housing pressures many Californians face. The real estate online search giant, which offers both purchase and rental listings, looked at who was searching for a new place in February. The analysis examined how many lookers pursued both living options across 50 large metropolitan areas, as well as a national benchmark.

My trusty spreadsheet tallied typical California searches as the average across the six Golden State metros in the study: 9.6% of Zillow users statewide looked at both ownership and rental housing. Contrast that to 7.6% nationally.

In California, it’s a decidedly coastal thing. Los Angeles-Orange County had the highest share of dual search at 12%. San Diego County was No. 2 at 10.8%. Then came San Francisco at 10.1% (No. 3) and San Jose at 9% (No. 5).

Yet the two inland metros, often seen as “affordable” ownership spots, were below the national norm: Sacramento at 7.2% (No. 14) and the Inland Empire at 6.1% (No. 31).

Zillow suggests that two-track home shopping is about price comparisons. But California housing-cost stress is so high that these folks use a wide lens to seek bargains in a state where the rent-vs.-buy gap is narrow.

Comparing local rents to a broad measure of monthly ownership cost for a buyer – mortgage, taxes, insurance and maintenance – Zillow found the typical California renter in the six metros theoretically saved $191 monthly compared with owning. Nationally, it’s $193.

Remember, this calculation does not include the large down payment required to achieve a relatively low monthly house payment.

Why are there so many L.A.-Orange County searches for ownership and rental options?

Perhaps it’s the state’s biggest rent-vs.-buy savings at $203 monthly. But note that these potential savings ranked just 22nd best among the 50 metros.

Next came Sacramento at $190 (No. 27), San Diego County at $187 (No. 31), and the Inland Empire at $182 (No. 32).

But in the Bay Area, the dual searches can’t just be about savings, because, by Zillow’s math, there’s not much to save.

The San Francisco rent-vs.-buy savings were just $38 monthly – the nation’s smallest. San Jose’s $67 was the second-smallest.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 11:04 AM.