Average rents in San Diego County were at exactly the same level in September ($1,322 per month) as they were in March, according to MarketPointe Realty Advisors’ biannual rent survey, released today.
March’s survey, though, had marked the first drop in the 21 years that the firm has been tracking apartment complexes with at least 25 units.
Both March and this current survey showed a 1.5 percent drop from last September’s average rents of $1,344.
The vacancy rate slipped to 4.39 percent countywide, after shooting up to 5.29 percent in March.
The firm attributed the relatively high vacancy rate to multiple people splitting a place to live, or kids moving back in with their parents.
The firm surveyed 809 rental projects totaling 116,770 units, a figure that has grown since 2007 with some condo conversions coming back on the market as rentals, and some new condo projects renting units out during the market slump.
The average square footage of those units surveyed across the county was 864 square feet. Here’s a breakdown by bedroom category:
- Studio (3.57 percent of the market): Vacancy rate of 4.27 percent; average rent $1,205
- One-bedroom (35 percent of the market): Vacancy rate of 4.02 percent; average rent $1,142
- Two-bedroom (53 percent of the market): Vacancy rate of 4.47 percent, average rent $1,395
- Three-bedroom (7.5 percent of the market): Vacancy rate of 5.56 percent, average rent $1,780
- Four-bedroom (0.13 percent of the market): Vacancy rate of 7.38 percent, average rent $2,194
These numbers deal with apartments in large complexes. If you didn’t catch it, I rolled in some experiences from local tenants of different kinds of properties for this story in June.