Rent is rising in most Southern California cities after falling earlier this year

Rent rose over the past year in 30 of 52 Southern California cities tracked by Apartment List, or 58%, according to a review of the company's September data by Jonathan Lansner, the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. In April, it was 37%. The region's median change flipped from a 1.5% decline in April to a 0.9% gain.

Orange County and the Inland Empire did most of the rising. Rent was up in 12 of 13 Orange County cities, with a median gain of 2.9%, and in 11 of 12 Inland Empire cities, up 1.4% at the median. It rose in just 3 of 14 Los Angeles County cities, where the median change was a 1.7% drop, in 3 of 7 San Diego County cities, and in 1 of 6 in Ventura County.

Laguna Niguel had the biggest gain at 7.6%, followed by Newport Beach at 6.7%. Santa Monica had the steepest drop, down 5.4% from a year earlier according to Apartment List's city report, followed by Pomona, down 4.6%, and Monrovia, down 4.2%. Lansner also found that rising rents clustered in pricier cities. A typical one-bedroom ran $2,100 a month in the cities where rent went up and $1,850 in the cities where it fell.

Zillow-based data shows a wider rise

RentDataNow's data, built on the Zillow Observed Rent Index, points the same way but goes further. In August 2026, typical rent was up from a year earlier in 100 of the 106 Southern California cities with at least 50,000 residents, or 94%, with a median gain of 2.3%. Every city that size in Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties was up. Los Angeles County was the softest, with rent up in 34 of 39 cities and a median gain of 1.7%.

Both trackers have two Orange County beach cities near the top. We have Laguna Niguel up 7.7%, to $3,383, and Newport Beach up 6.2%, to $4,375. Among cities that size, only Lakewood, up 7.9%, rose faster. Where they split is Los Angeles County. In our data, Santa Monica rent is up 1.7%, to $3,438, Pomona is up 1.6%, Monrovia is up 1.7%, and Glendale is up 0.4%. Of the cities on Lansner's list of biggest drops, only Inglewood is down in ours too, by 1.1%. In Los Angeles itself, typical rent is $2,778, up 0.8%.

The two measure different things. Apartment List's estimates mostly cover apartments and combine government statistics with listings on its own site, Lansner noted, and its national median was $1,388 in September, down 0.4% from a year earlier. The Zillow index tracks typical asking rent for houses, condos, and apartments listed on Zillow, smoothed and adjusted for the season, and our national figure was $1,948 in August, up 2.6%. Our numbers also run a month behind Apartment List's.

Even the national report Apartment List published September 29 says the market is turning. Year-over-year rent growth has climbed for five straight months after bottoming out at a 1.6% decline in April, and the multifamily vacancy rate slipped to 7%. For tenants already in a lease, California's statewide rent cap still limits how much most landlords can raise rent each year, which we covered in how the AB 1482 rent cap works. For where Los Angeles rent is lowest, see Los Angeles rent by neighborhood.

Sources

• Orange County Register (October 7, 2026), for Lansner's review of Apartment List's September city data
• Apartment List National Rent Report (September 29, 2026), for the national median, trend, and vacancy rate
• Apartment List Santa Monica rent report (October 2026), for Santa Monica's one-year change
• RentDataNow city rent data, anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, August 2026, for cities with at least 50,000 residents in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties