San Diego rents haven’t been this flat in decades.

The average San Diego County rent was $2,491 a month at the start of September, said real estate tracker CoStar, a growth of 0.5 percent annually. It wasn’t that long ago — in 2022 —when rents rose 13 percent in a year.

Not everyone is sharing in the rent slowdown, especially in outlying San Diego County. The rural areas of Poway, Santee and Ramona have seen their combined rent increase 2.6 percent. Also, just because rent is down in one area, doesn’t mean an individual landlord didn’t decide to finally raise rent after sitting out the big surge a couple of years ago.

Still, it is hard to argue there isn’t a slowdown in residential rent prices when you look at the region as a whole. The countywide vacancy rate is 5.2 percent, said CoStar, which is the highest its been since the first quarter of 2020 when the pandemic hit.

Lucinda Lilley, an apartment specialist who consults for three property management firms in San Diego County, said renters are finding it difficult to afford rents, instead deciding to leave the state or move in with roommates. She said many landlords are increasing concessions, such as one month free rent, to entice tenants.

“We’re becoming a concession-driven market,” Lilley said. “People are willing to sacrifice location and amenities for price.”

Lilley is the former president of the Southern California Rental Housing Association, and groups she consults for manage roughly 3,500 to 4,000 units across San Diego County. She said some renters’ wages haven’t kept up with cost of living, and landlords are increasingly coming to that realization.

Joshua Ohl, CoStar director of market analytics, said rent growth has slowed but it’s on the back of gigantic increases during the tail end of the pandemic.

“In 2022, we basically had three years of rent growth in 12 months,” he said. “Rents went up really, really quickly.”

Some experts also have pointed to rent growth slowing in some markets because of increased apartment construction. Apartment construction in the U.S. hit a 36-year high in 2023, said an analysis from RealPage, with 444,000 apartments constructed last year.

Still, most local landlords insist the issue has more to do with economics. While San Diego County wages rose mainly across the board last year, it’s not kept up with inflation for many workers.

Even though average rental rates have declined, rent prices for current tenants have not dropped. It is fairly rare for rents to go down. The last time the rent average dropped in San Diego County was during the Great Recession — a 2.1 percent drop in 2009.

Here’s how rent breaks down by area:

North Shore Cities (Del Mar, Encinitas, Solana Beach)
Average monthly rent: $3,537, up 1 percent in a year
Vacancy rate: 5 percent

La Jolla/UTC
Average monthly rent: $3,320, up 1.2 percent in a year
Vacancy rate: 5.2 percent

Downtown San Diego
Average monthly rent: $3,076, down 1.3 percent in a year
Vacancy rate: 11.2 percent

South I-15 Corridor (Sorrento Valley, Miramar, Mira Mesa)
Average monthly rent: $3,017, down 0.1 percent annually
Vacancy rate: 4.3 percent

Mission Valley/North Central (Clairemont, Kearny Mesa, Allied Gardens)
Average monthly rent: $2,845, flat year-over-year
Vacancy rate: 4.9 percent

North County (Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista)
Average monthly rent: $2,495, up 0.7 percent annually
Vacancy rate: 5.1 percent

Chula Vista/Imperial Beach
Average monthly rent: $2,383, up 0.2 percent in a year
Vacancy rate: 5.6 percent

Central Coast (Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Coronado)
Average monthly rent: $2,376, down 0.7 percent annually
Vacancy rate: 5.9 percent

Poway/Santee/Ramona
Average monthly rent: $2,236, up 2.6 percent in a year
Vacancy rate: 8.8 percent

Outlying San Diego County (Julian, Campo, Jacumba Hot Springs, Alpine)
Average monthly rent: $2,013, down 1.3 percent in a year
Vacancy rate: 6 percent

Balboa Park (North Park, University Heights, Hillcrest, South Park)
Average monthly rent: $1,972, up 0.5 percent in a year
Vacancy rate: 4.9 percent

East County (La Mesa, El Cajon, Grossmont, Rolando Village, Talmadge, College Area)
Average monthly rent: $1,957, up 1.2 percent in a year
Vacancy rate: 4.2 percent

National City/South Central
Average monthly rent: $1,912, up 2.1 percent annually
Vacancy rate: 3.7 percent

Source: SDuniontribune by Phillip Molnar