San Jose’s apartment market closed out 2025 with what looked like movement on paper but felt like a holding pattern on the ground. Average asking rents slipped again in December while vacancies declined, marking a third straight month of small price drops. Even so, rents still finished the year higher than in 2024, keeping the city near the top of the national cost charts and leaving most renters wondering where exactly this relief is supposed to be.
According to CoStar, the city’s average asking rent in December landed at $3,740, a 0.14% dip from November. On a year over year basis, rents were up 3.5%. The report by Nigel Hughes, published January 7, 2026, also noted that multifamily vacancies declined in December, and is available to subscribers.
Yardi Matrix’s city snapshot captures the market from a slightly different angle. Its Matrix Multifamily San Jose Report, which tracks data through October, put advertised asking rents at about $3,310 on a three month (T3) basis and reported roughly $1.5 billion in multifamily investment volume year to date through October, as reported by Yardi Matrix. That T3 smoothing, combined with a focus on advertised listings, can yield a lower and less jumpy series than a single month snapshot.
Why the datasets diverge
Different data vendors slice the rent story in different ways. Some track single month averages of asking rents, while others favor smoothed advertised asking series, each applying its own property cutoffs, sample sizes and time windows. That methodological spread helps explain the roughly $400 per unit gap between CoStar’s December reading and Yardi’s T3 figure, according to CoStar.
What it means for renters and investors
For renters, the modest softening in the headline numbers does little to ease the squeeze. Month-to-month declines of a few tenths of a percent still leave typical asking rents well beyond what many working households can reasonably afford. Investors, on the other hand, have remained active. Yardi notes roughly $1.5 billion in metro multifamily investment through October, even as advertised rents showed some easing. Meanwhile, local officials continue to push preservation efforts and new affordable units. For instance, Santa Clara County invests $29 million in San Jose projects aimed at taking some heat off the market.
Analysts will be watching the spring leasing season and the pace of new completions to see whether the recent declines grow into a broader correction or simply reflect seasonal noise. For now, San Jose renters are still navigating a tight market defined by high prices and sustained investor interest, while preservation and subsidy efforts work to catch up in the months ahead.
