Will Fresno rents level off after hitting all-time high? What latest apartment data reveals
The average monthly rent for new leases in Fresno have leveled off over the past few months, retreating slightly after reaching all-time highs last fall.
March estimates by analysts at ApartmentList.com indicate that the median lease rate for market-rate apartments in Fresno was $1,380 per month. That median price at which half of apartments cost more and half cost less was up by $18 from February’s estimate of $1,363 per month.
But it’s less than the peak of $1,396 per month that reported in September 2021.
It’s something of a respite after rents soared by more than 20% since the first local cases of the COVID-19 pandemic were reported two years ago. Rents now are an average of almost $280 per month higher than they were at the start of 2020.
The March trends carry through to all sizes of apartment rental units, from studios at $1,094 per month to four-bedroom apartments at a median rent of $2,189 per month. All categories were up from February but lower than last fall’s peaks.
Fresno not only had the lowest median overall rent across all apartment segments among California’s largest cities, it also was the lowest-priced rental market among 79 large and mid-sized cities included in the ApartmentList analysis – more than $200 per month below the next-lowest market, the Arden-Arcade community east of Sacramento where the monthly median rent was $1,609.
Over the past 24 months – a time frame that generally coincides with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in California – the median rent in Fresno has climbed by more than 20%, faster than any other big city in the state. In March 2020, the median rent estimated by ApartmentList was $1,102; a year later, by March 2021, it had climbed to $1,230.
In California’s largest cities included in the analysis, the median rents last month were:
- Los Angeles, population 3,959,657 people, $1,995 per month.
- San Diego, population 1,401,932 people, $2,363 per month.
- San Jose, population 1,026,658 people, $2,388 per month.
- San Francisco, population 870,044 people, $2,331 per month.
- Fresno, population 522,277 people, $1,380 per month.
- Sacramento, 495,011 people, $1,805 per month.
- Long Beach, 468,883 people, $1,790 per month.
- Oakland, 421,042 people, $1,815 per month.
- Anaheim, 349,668 people, $2,185 per month.
- Santa Ana, 333,499 people, $2,179 per month.
Bakersfield, California’s ninth largest city, was not included in the ApartmentList data.
