Sacramento Rent Prices: What the Data Shows

For most of the last decade, Sacramento absorbed the people the Bay Area pushed out. The pitch was simple. You could keep a California life, a couple of hours from San Francisco, at roughly half the rent. In 2026 the median rent in Sacramento is about $2,020, and the question worth asking is whether the discount that made the city a magnet still holds. Here is what the data shows on price, apartment size, five-year trend, the surrounding suburbs, and value.

What rent costs in Sacramento right now

The citywide median sits near $2,020, up about 1.9 percent over the past year, moderate growth rather than a spike. By apartment size, studios run about $1,644, one-bedrooms around $1,739, two-bedrooms near $2,159, three-bedrooms about $2,929, and four-bedroom and larger units close to $3,381. Against a median household income near $87,000, the typical renter spends roughly 28 percent of gross income on a median apartment, which lands right at the traditional affordability line.

The five-year picture

Sacramento rent is up about 20 percent over the past five years. A lot of that came in a burst during the pandemic, when remote Bay Area workers flooded in and pushed prices up fast, followed by a calmer stretch as the surge faded. Twenty percent over five years is restrained by California standards and below the 40 percent that Chicago saw. The current year-over-year figure of 1.9 percent confirms the market has settled into a steadier rhythm.

The suburbs: where the ratios get interesting

Here is the twist that surprises newcomers. Several Sacramento suburbs cost more than the city itself, because that is where the higher-income households and newer housing went. Folsom runs about $2,669, Elk Grove about $2,657, Roseville about $2,605, and Davis, the university town, about $2,554. These come with high incomes, often above $120,000, so their rent-to-income ratios stay comfortable despite the higher sticker. For value inside the metro, look instead to Rancho Cordova at about $2,306 or Citrus Heights at about $1,861, the most affordable of the bunch and well below the city median.

How Sacramento compares

The comparison that still drives the city is the one against the coast. San Francisco runs about $4,253 and San Jose about $3,413 at the median, so a Sacramento renter keeps a four-figure monthly difference while staying in-state. Even Los Angeles, at about $2,755, is meaningfully pricier. That gap is exactly why the city kept growing even as its own rents climbed.

Is Sacramento still a good deal?

By our Rent Reality Score, yes. Sacramento carries a score of 73, which means current rents are sitting comfortably below the city own long-term trend. That is the opposite of an overheated market. The honest caveat is that Sacramento is no longer cheap in absolute terms. A $2,020 median is higher than the typical rent in most of the country, well above the national figure of about $1,930. What it offers now is reasonable value for California, not value against the nation. If your reference point is Texas or the Midwest, Sacramento will feel expensive. If it is the Bay Area, it still looks like a release valve.

See the full Sacramento rent data, or run it against the Bay Area in the RentDataNow compare tool to see the gap in real numbers.

Sources

Rent figures: RentDataNow, June 2026, with medians and five-year history anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index. Median household income: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey.