For the first time since 2010, the average rent price in the San Diego region ended the year lower than where it started, according to new rental market data from CoStar Group.
Analysts say the rare dip may be small — 0.2% on an annual basis and more than 1% during the second half of the year — but it signals a shift that could give renters more leverage as the trend is expected to continue in the new year. Average monthly rent across the San Diego region now sits at $2,522, according to the data.
However, rents vary depending on the neighborhood, including areas bordering Balboa Park, where residents told NBC 7 they pay anywhere from $1,500 to $2,700 per month.
“I have to think, because I share the house with two other people,” one renter, Kensley Barber, said, “We pay like around — we’re really lucky — $2,500 [total].”
“I pay $1,500,” another renter, Angela Johnson, said.
“Well, I live with my boyfriend, and we pay $2,700 a month,” a third renter, Jacqui Alvarez, said.
Josh Ohl, senior director of market analytics for CoStar Group, said one of the factors behind the decline is a surge in new housing supply.
“We had about 6,100 market-rate units open in 2025, so we’re at about a 25-year high in those additions, and that outpaced demand by about 40 or so percent last year,” Ohl said.
Ohl added that “pocketbook issues” are also part of what is causing this, including continued inflation and people choosing to downsize their living spaces. He also mentioned that the decrease in average rents coincided with increased vacancies across the region that are “rising to the highest level since 2009.”
Ohl and other market experts who spoke to NBC 7 say landlords are increasingly offering concessions to keep reliable tenants or attract new ones, shifting negotiating power toward renters.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.