Fresno-area rents reached an all-time high in June. Where do prices stand now?
The median monthly rent to lease a two-bedroom apartment in Fresno in July was about $1,319, and someone looking to a lease a one-bedroom unit could expect to find a median rent rate of $1,074 per month.
Both prices represent a retreat from all-time highs reported in June in a recent report released by online apartment-listing firm ApartmentList.com.
Overall, the median rent for an apartment, regardless of size from studio units through four-bedroom spaces, was $1,360 – a drop of $30 per month, or more than 2%, from June’s estimate.
“Fresno rents have declined 2.2% over the past month, but have increased significantly by 4.5% in comparison to the same time last year,” states the report from ApartmentList for Fresno. “Fresno’s year-over-year rent growth lags the state average of 11.7%, as well as the national average of 12.3%.”
“Our national index rose by 1.1 percent over the course of July, a slightly slower rate of growth than we observed last month,” the company’s researchers said. “So far this year, rents are growing more slowly than they did in 2021, but faster than they did in the years immediately preceding the (COVID-19) pandemic.”
In June, the median rent – the price at which half of apartments cost more and half cost less – across all types of units in Fresno was estimated at $1,390. A year ago, in July 2021, it was $1,301. And before the COVID-19 pandemic reached Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley in March 2020, the median rent was $1,045 – a figure that translates to an increase of more than 30% from the onset of the pandemic to now.
Analysts for ApartmentList said earlier this year that economic mechanics of supply and demand were primarily responsible for higher rents in the Fresno area. Low vacancy rates for apartments in the city, combined with an increase in the number of people looking to rent, have created a seller’s market that’s more favorable for landlords.
The ApartmentList methodology does not include public or subsidized affordable housing for low-income renters.
Rents and incomes
At $1,360 per month, the median amount that a household may expect to pay to rent an apartment in Fresno with a one-year lease is $16,320, plus utilities. In the meantime, the median income for renter households in Fresno was estimated at $34,357, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey. Half of renter households made more than that, and half made less.
The federal Department of Housing & Urban Development considers households that pay 30% or more of their income on rent plus utilities to be “rent-burdened. According to the Census data, almost 60% of Fresno’s renter households meet that standard. At least 49% pay at least 35% of the household income on rent and utilities.
Renters at the lowest end of the income spectrum, with household income less than $20,000 per year, are also the most rent-burdened: almost 95%, the Census data reveals.
As income brackets rise, the percentage of rent-burdened households paying 30% or more of their income falls:
- Annual income $20,000 to $35,000: 86.8% rent-burdened.
- Annual income $35,000 to $50,000: 57.8% rent-burdened.
- Annual income $50,000 to 75,000: 27.6% rent-burdened.
- Annual income $75,000 or more: 3.2% rent-burdened.
Fresno’s place among large California cities
Despite the steep increase over the past couple of years, Fresno continues to see the lowest-median apartment rent rates of any of California’s large cities in the ApartmentList data:
- Los Angeles, population 3,966,936: median rent $1,914 per month, up 11.3% from a year ago.
- San Diego, population 1,409,573: $2,450 per month, up 17.6% from a year ago.
- San Jose, population 1,027,690: $2,509 per month, up 13.6% from a year ago.
- San Francisco, population 874,961: $2,281 per month, up 4.4% from a year ago.
- Fresno, population 525,010: $1,360 per month, up 4.5% from a year ago.
- Sacramento, population 500,930: $1,678 per month, up 7.2% from a year ago.
- Long Beach, population 466,776: $1.725 per month, up 13% from a year ago.
- Oakland, population 425,097: $1,712 per month, up 3.8% from a year ago.
- Anaheim, population 349,964: $2,219 per month, up 14% from a year ago.
- Santa Ana, population 332,794: $2,168 per month, up 18.9% from a year ago.
“As rents have increased significantly in Fresno, a few large cities nationwide have seen rents grow more modestly. Fresno is still more affordable than most large cities across the country,” the ApartmentList report states. “Fresno’s median two-bedroom rent of $1,319 is slightly below the national average of $1,358. Nationwide, rents have grown by 12.3% over the past year compared to the 4.5% increase in Fresno.”
“While Fresno’s rents rose significantly over the past year, many cities nationwide also saw increases, including Miami (+23.0%), New York City (+21.2%), and Dallas (+16.0%),” the report adds. “Renters will find more reasonable prices in Fresno than most large cities. For example, New York City has a median (two-bedroom) rent of $2,231, which is more than one-and-a-half times the price in Fresno.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
