Stockton renters got a small bit of good news this fall: the typical apartment listed for rent in the city ran $1,600 in October, a modest dip from the year before. That figure, drawn from data firm Zumper, puts Stockton's rental market in a holding pattern rather than a free fall, even as certain pockets of the city tell a very different story.
The October median marked a $20 decrease from October 2025's median of $1,620, according to The Stockton Record. Month to month, the picture was even quieter — October's $1,600 figure was trending essentially the same as the previous month's $1,613 price, the paper reported, citing Zumper's data analysis. The numbers reflect what landlords are asking for apartments currently listed, not necessarily what every tenant across the city is paying.
The $1,600 listing figure is one snapshot; a broader regional measure has shown a market with more rental availability. HUD’s Stockton-Lodi housing analysis estimated the area’s apartment vacancy rate at 4.9% in the second quarter of 2024, up from 2.8% in 2021. Those figures cover the wider Stockton-Lodi housing market and an earlier period, so they provide context rather than a direct comparison with October’s city listing median. HUD’s Stockton-Lodi housing analysis attributed the easing partly to new apartments entering the market.
A Yahoo report put Stockton's November median listing rent at $1,650, unchanged from a year earlier, down from $1,700 the previous month, with 275 listings.
A Conflicting Read on the Yearly Trend
Not every account of Stockton's rental market agrees on direction. A separate report published by Yahoo put the November median apartment listing rent at that same $1,650 figure but described it as staying in line with last year's median of $1,650 — a flat year-over-year read. The Yahoo report also said the $1,650 figure was trending slightly downward from the previous month's $1,700 price, and noted that one-bedroom rental prices had actually risen 6% from $1,210 a year earlier.
Listing-based rent trackers capture asking prices at a particular time rather than a fixed citywide measure. What is consistent across the reporting is that Stockton remains well below the national median; the same Zumper data analysis found the city sits 13.2% more affordable than the $1,900 national median, while the Yahoo report described Stockton's typical listing as running 38% below California's statewide median.
Other measures help explain why a small dip in asking rents may not feel like relief to every household. The Census Bureau’s five-year estimate puts Stockton’s median gross rent at $1,577 for 2020-2024, a different time span and measure from a single month of advertised listings. In the city’s 2025-2029 housing plan, community stakeholders identified rising rents, utility and insurance costs, and low-wage jobs as factors behind housing cost burdens and residents being priced out. Census Bureau housing estimates and Stockton’s housing plan capture those broader pressures.
By Unit Size
A Yahoo report put Stockton's median one-bedroom rent at $1,280.
For now, Stockton's rental market looks like one easing gradually rather than dramatically, at least at the citywide level. Whether that holds through the winter remains to be seen in future data updates.
