data from ApartmentList that tracks how long vacant units go unrented <\/a>in 46 large U.S. metropolitan areas \u2013 including six from California. The focus was on the six-month average through November, compared with 12 months earlier and with the average pace dating back to 2019.<\/p>\nThis \u201ctime on market\u201d benchmark can give renters a sense of how quickly their decision-making must be\u00a0 \u2013 and how that timing varies by market. When markets are tight, empty units usually rent quickly. When conditions favor tenants, vacancies sit longer.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with a national yardstick. The average American vacancy was 31 days in the past six months \u2013 that is two days less than 12 months earlier. So, it\u2019s slightly more competitive than late 2024.<\/p>\n
However, empty units are sitting unrented three days longer than the seven-year average. That\u2019s a sign the national market is slower than normal.<\/p>\n
Golden State renters will be disappointed to see that vacant units in all six California metros studied have been renting faster than the U.S. pace. In much of the Southern U.S., for example, heavy apartment construction has created numerous renter-friendly markets with plentiful empty units.<\/p>\n
Here are the California renting speeds, ranked from fastest to slowest, which vary by as much as eight days \u2026<\/p>\n
Sacramento: 22 days average over the last six months, third-lowest nationally. That\u2019s half a day slower than a year ago, but it\u2019s one day longer than the seven-year average.<\/p>\n
Inland Empire: 24 days, No. 5 nationally \u2013 up two days in a year and three days above average.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles-Orange County: 29 days, No. 11 nationally \u2013 off two days in a year but one day above average.<\/p>\n
San Francisco: 29 days, No. 11 nationally \u2013 off six days in a year and two days below average.<\/p>\n
San Diego:\u00a0 29 days, No. 11 nationally \u2013 off two days in a year but five days above average.<\/p>\n
San Jose: 30 days, No. 20 nationally \u2013 off five days in a year and two days below average.<\/p>\n
By the way, units in Columbia, South Carolina, and Virginia Beach, Virginia, were quickest to rent in 2025 \u2013 20 days on the market. Tucson, Arizona, was the slowest at 43 days.<\/p>\n
Statewide, the typical empty unit was rented in 28 days over the last six months, the 10th-fastest among 34 states tracked. California\u2019s rental speed is three days slower in a year \u2013 but one day faster than the seven-year average.<\/p>\n
Fastest-to-rent state? Michigan at 22 days. Slowest? Utah at 37 days.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How swiftly must a California apartment seeker act to grab a new residence? Well, my trusty spreadsheet reviewed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,7,100,388,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-94355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-real-estate","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}