San Diego's home rental rates are still going up, but they aren't climbing as fast as they did during the past couple of years.
A new national report finds San Diego the 13th most expensive rental market in the country. Rents are up just under 2 percent from a year ago. ApartmentList.com analyst Andrew Woo found the region may be in a period of moderate year-to-year rate increases.
"Rent prices in San Diego and the rest of California have started to moderate a little bit," Woo said. "In previous years, we were looking at 6, 7, 8 percent annual rent increases. Where as our latest rent report has rents in San Diego rising only 1.8 percent year over year."
The average cost of a two bedroom apartment is $2,010 with a one-bedroom going for $1,530, Woo reported.
Average rents actually fell two-tenths of a percent in San Diego last month, but Woo said that may be more of an aberration than a trend.
National rental tracking company Zumper also reviewed the numbers and analyst Tanguy Le Louarn said the slowdown in rental increases is somewhat surprising.
"This low vacancy rate, combined with an ever growing population should be a recipe for rate hikes, but since the beginning of the year there's definitely been a flattening in the rent hikes," Le Louarn said.
The market rate for rentals may have found its peak in San Diego and a number of other California cities, Le Louarn said.
He said the 5 to 7 percent year-to-year increase might have given way to more moderate price hikes.
San Diego had the fourth highest average rent among California cities.
