A very tight market for California rentals means tenants move less frequently than the typical U.S. apartment dweller.
My trusty spreadsheet looked at a RentCafe scorecard tracking the challenges apartment seekers face in 139 U.S. markets – including 11 in California – as of early 2025. RentCafe’s math is based on data from Yardi that covers large apartment complexes.
These numbers tell us that a California renter lives in the same unit for 33 months, according to the median stay of the 11 Golden State markets. Nationally, a 28-month stay is the norm. That’s 18% longer for California renters.
Californians are unlikely to move because it’s so challenging to find a rental. Only 5.1% of Golden State apartments were empty as 2025 started, compared with a 6.7% vacancy rate nationwide.
That gap is a key reason why RentCafe’s national rankings have five California markets among its 25 “hardest to rent” list compiled from a collection of data points: Orange County (No. 14), Silicon Valley (No. 16), Eastern Los Angeles County (No. 17), San Diego (No. 22), and Central Valley (No. 24).
These headaches force Californians to shop harder for apartments. The typical vacant unit gets 10 looks from prospective tenants statewide vs. seven nationally.
However, Californians will relocate when the right spot becomes available. Just 51% of Golden State renters are renewing their leases this year vs. 63% nationally.
Regionally speaking
The length of a renter’s stay is not uniform across the state. Here’s how these 11 California markets compare, ranked by the length of the typical renter’s stay …
Eastern L.A. County: 40-month average stays as 51% of tenants renew. There are 4% empty units that get 13 looks from prospective tenants.
North L.A. County/Ventura County: 36-month stays, 54% renew, with 4.9% vacancies getting 10 looks.
San Francisco Peninsula/North Bay: 35-month stays, 48% renew, with 6.4% vacancies getting 7 looks.
Orange County: 35-month stays, 61% renew, and 4.4% vacancies getting 10 looks.
Central Valley: 34-month stays, 51% renew, with 4% vacancies getting 9 looks.
Sacramento: 33-month stays, 51% renew, with 5.2% vacancies getting 10 looks.
East Bay: 33-month stays, 51% renew, with 6% vacancies getting 8 looks.
Inland Empire: 33-month stays, 55% renew, with 5.1% vacancies getting 12 looks.
Silicon Valley: 31-month stays, 54% renew, with 4.9% vacancies getting 10 looks.
San Diego: 31-month stays, 54% renew, with 5.4% vacancies getting 9 looks.
Western L.A. County: 30-month stays, 42% renew, with 7% vacancies getting 8 looks.
Any help?
Sadly for apartment seekers, any noteworthy relief is not coming as California’s construction of fresh rental supply severely lags the nation.
U.S. developers are adding 75 new rentals for every 10,000 existing units. Currently, just one of these 11 California markets tops that pace – Silicon Valley at 93 new units per 10,000.
The rest of the state, ranked by their construction rate? Eastern L.A. and the Inland Empire at 63 per 10,000, followed by East Bay (62), San Diego (58), North L.A./Ventura (42), San Francisco/North Bay (33), Sacramento (23), Central Valley (20), Western L.A. County (18), and Orange County (15).
Jonathan Lansner is business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com