Rents climbed in just nine of the 41 Southern California cities tracked by Zumper in July, a stark sign that the region's rental market has cooled even as a handful of college towns and inland pockets buck the trend. San Marcos posted the sharpest one-bedroom increase in the region, up 10% to $2,430, while San Bernardino two-bedroom units jumped 8% to $2,000. Meanwhile, cities from Los Angeles to Redondo Beach saw asking rents fall, continuing a pattern that has left landlords across much of Southern California competing harder to fill vacant units.
The figures come from a analysis of Zumper's July rent data by The San Diego Union-Tribune, written by business columnist Jonathan Lansner, who tracked median asking prices for new one- and two-bedroom listings — including both apartment complexes and rental homes — across 41 Southern California cities. Only nine of those cities, representing 22% of the markets studied, recorded increases for both rental sizes, according to the report. In those nine hike cities, one-bedroom rents rose an average of 3% from the prior year to roughly $2,000 per month, while two-bedroom rents in the same cities climbed 4% to an average of $2,700.
By contrast, the report found that 32 Southern California cities saw rent reductions for one or both unit sizes. In those discount cities, one-bedroom rents averaged $2,200 per month after falling 2% from the prior year, while two-bedroom rents averaged $3,000 after slipping 0.5%. The pattern suggests renters in most of the region have more leverage than landlords right now, even as a minority of markets — several of them near major colleges — kept pushing rents higher.
Where Rents Went Up
San Marcos led the region's increases, with one-bedroom rents up 10% to $2,430 and two-bedroom rents up 7% to $2,990, per the Union-Tribune's analysis. Encinitas one-bedroom rents rose 6% to $2,950, and Orange one-bedroom rents increased 3% to $2,380. San Bernardino's two-bedroom rent jumped 8% to $2,000, while Corona two-bedroom rents rose 8% to $2,590. Riverside one-bedroom rents ticked up 3% to $1,800, Oceanside recorded gains of 3% to $2,290 for one-bedrooms and 4% to $2,850 for two-bedrooms, and Irvine two-bedroom rents rose 4% to $3,950.
Where Rents Fell
Los Angeles two-bedroom rents dropped 7% to $2,970, and several nearby cities followed suit: Burbank two-bedroom rents fell 7% to $2,870, Glendale two-bedroom rents dropped 7% to $2,710, and West Hollywood saw both sizes decline, with one-bedrooms down 6% to $2,620 and two-bedrooms down 6% to $4,100. Pasadena one-bedroom rents fell 6% to $2,290, and Redondo Beach one-bedroom rents dropped 7% to $2,500. Oxnard two-bedroom rents fell 10% to $2,770, and Lancaster posted the steepest one-bedroom drop in the region, down 12% to $1,560. Coronado, despite carrying the highest median one-bedroom rent in the San Diego metro at $4,200 according to Zumper's August 2026 San Diego Metro Area Report, still saw that same rent fall 7% year over year. Cities near last year's wildfires experienced some of the steepest rent discounts, the Union-Tribune report notes, as the temporary demand spike from displaced residents continues to fade.
What's Driving the Divide
The report attributes the broader softness to a shaky economy that may be weakening demand for rental housing, alongside a modest burst of new construction that has given renters more options. That framing lines up with regional data: CoStar figures cited in prior Hoodline reporting on apartment construction showed San Diego County's under-construction pipeline grew 10% over three years, while Los Angeles County's pipeline dropped 33% to an 11-year low amid local fee structures and discretionary approval hurdles. The USC Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast has separately projected near-flat rent growth of just 0.5% to 0.6% in Los Angeles County through 2027, citing rising vacancy among luxury apartments that offsets tight supply in lower-cost units, as reported by the Commercial Observer.
Post-wildfire rent hikes across the region are fading, according to the Union-Tribune's analysis, a trend consistent with earlier reporting from the Southern California News Group that tracked how displacement from the early 2025 firestorms, which destroyed more than 12,000 structures, temporarily pushed Consumer Price Index rent inflation to 5.1% in the Inland Empire and 5.8% in San Diego in May 2025 before demand normalized this year. Statewide rent caps under California's Tenant Protection Act still allow landlords in Los Angeles and Orange counties to raise rents as much as 8.7% annually through July 2027, per WIRE Associates, though Los Angeles's own Rent Stabilization Ordinance keeps covered units capped far lower, at 3% through mid-2027.
A Sharp Contrast With the Bay Area
Southern California's flat-to-falling rents stand in stark contrast to Northern California, where an influx of money and jobs tied to artificial intelligence competition has sent prices soaring. San Francisco's median two-bedroom asking rent jumped 26% since July 2025 to an all-time high of $6,020, while one-bedroom rents there rose 23% to $4,180, according to Zumper's July 2026 national rent report. Nationally, Zumper's two-bedroom median asking rent turned positive year-over-year for the first time since June 2025, rising 0.1% to $1,906, while the national one-bedroom median held flat at $1,520 — underscoring just how far Southern California's rental market has diverged from both the Bay Area's boom and the modest national uptick.
