Report: Silicon Valley and L.A. Apartment Rent Falls by 8%

A new study finds that Silicon Valley and Los Angeles basin apartment rent prices are in steep declines after four years of spiking costs.

For the last five years, the high tech communities of Silicon Valley, Seattle and the Los Angeles’s Silicon Beach have led the nation in rent inflation. But recently the nationwide average cost of rent has also begun to creep up faster than inflation, with the average rental cost of a one-bedroom-apartment rising from $932 in August to $940 in September.

A new Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University analysis of American Community Survey data found that 49.3 percent, or about 21.3 million American renters, reported being “cost-burdened,” meaning they paid 30 percent or more of their income in rent and utilities. A quarter of U.S. renters were “severely cost burdened,” which means they were paying at least 50 percent of their income on housing costs.

But the Abodo National Apartment Report indicates that America may be on the verge of a huge trend change in rent inflation as San Jose, San Francisco, Long Beach and Los Angeles made the Top 10 list for “Biggest Fall” in rents for a one-bedroom apartment.

The Abodo website documents that among U.S. cities, the fastest falling rent cost was Seattle, plunging 13 percent, from $2,170 to $1,890. San Jose saw the second-largest decrease, with rent plunging from $2,790 to $2,455, a 12 percent decline.

Los Angeles rents fell 8 percent — the third largest decline in America. Long Beach rents fell by 7 percent — the sixth largest fall, according to Abodo. San Francisco, the most expensive rental market in the nation, saw rent cost fall by 6 percent, from $3,952 to $3,698 — the seventh-largest decline.

On the other hand, three low-wage inland California cities that enjoyed some of the least expensive rent in the state made the Abodo’s Top 10 list for “Biggest Rise” in rents last month: 1)  Bakersfield — up 9 percent; Fresno — up 6 percent; and Riverside — up 6 percent.