Santa Clarita ranked No. 18 for having the fastest year-over-year rent growth among medium-sized cities, according to recent Apartment List data.
The report tracked rent growth, median prices and market trends for the month of March, showing that rents increased over the past month.
“Santa Clarita rents have increased 1.7 percent over the past month and have increased moderately by 3.1 percent in comparison to the same time last year,” the report read. This placed the city in 18th place among the median-sized cities across the nation with having the fastest growth rate and the city with the fastest rent growth in the Los Angeles metro area. For comparison, the national rent index grew by just 1.3 percent over the past year.
As of this month, median rents in Santa Clarita hit $2,030 for a one-bedroom apartment and $2,600 for a two-bedroom apartment. Data showed that the city’s year-over-year rent growth leads the state average of 1.1 percent and the national average of 1.3 percent.
The average rental rates have been rising by 3 percent to 4 percent during 2018, according to the 2019 Santa Clarita Valley Economic Outlook report prepared by Mark Schniepp, director of the California Economic Forecast, which was released in March.
At a larger glance, rent increases have occurred across the entire metro throughout the past year. The Apartment List report, which gathered data for 10 cities across the Los Angeles metro, found that Irvine had the most expensive rents, with a two-bedroom averaging at $2,670. Santa Clarita placed second most expensive and Lancaster had the least expensive rents in the metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,580.
On a national level, Santa Clarita’s two-bedroom rent price of $2,600 was above the national average of $1,170.
“Renters will generally find more expensive prices in Santa Clarita than most large cities,” the report read. “For example, Houston has a median (two-bedroom) rent of $1,020, where Santa Clarita is more than two-and-a-half times that price.”
When it comes to apartment vacancy across the Santa Clarita Valley, rates were flat throughout 2018, according to the Outlook report. As of January of this year, only just more than 4 percent of all apartments in the area were vacant.
