A San Diego Apartment Association report finds rents are below where they were five years ago, but they are trending higher.
Even so, vacancy rates for rental units in San Diego are at 95 percent, meaning it is hard to find available units. When there are not a lot of available units, market pressure pushes prices up.
Real estate analyst Alan Nevin has done two in-depth surveys of the rental market this year.
"I was really taken aback by the fact that many of the projects that I visited had no vacancies at all and didn't have any coming up," said Alan Nevin of The London Group. "So we know it's a really tight market."
Nevin said there are some new apartment projects coming online in the coming year, but he doesn't think that will have a huge impact on vacancy rates.
He worries the expansion will be muted by the loss of some rental homes. The homes could leave the rental pool as they are bought up by new homeowners.
