San Francisco and Pasadena tie for 2nd-hardest spot to find a rental in US​on March 11, 2025 at 2:54 pm

The only tougher spot for renters was New York City.   

 

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Pasadena is the nation’s second-hardest spot to find a rental, another example of how January’s firestorm is altering the region’s real estate markets.

My trusty spreadsheet looked at ApartmentList’s monthly rental vacancy report for 149 big U.S. cities.The study took a peek into a fundamental apartment seeker challenge: What’s available for rent?

The Los Angeles County wildfires created extra housing demand in the region’s already tight rental market. The disaster destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 structures in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.

So only 3.7% of Pasadena rental units were empty in February, according to this math. That tied San Francisco for the No. 2 fewest vacant units among the cities tracked. The only tougher spot for renters was New York City, with a 3.2% vacancy rate.

Now, Pasadena is rarely an easy spot to find a rental.

Its 4.9% vacancy rate in December 2024 was ninth-lowest nationally. And its 1.2 percentage-point drop in vacancies in the two months surrounding the wildfires was the second-largest dip among U.S. cities.

Ponder a longer-term view. Pasadena vacancies are running 0.8 percentage points below their 4.5% average over the past five years. That’s the 19th largest decline in empty units among the 149 cities.

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Let me remind you California challenges apartment seekers.

The statewide 5% vacancy in February was fourth lowest among the 42 states tracked. That was down 0.1 percentage points from December, but even that small decline ranked eight-biggest nationally.

California’s February vacancies also were 0.1 percentage points above their 4.9% average over five years, the ninth-worst change for renters.

Nationally, rental hunters enjoy the benefits of an apartment construction boom.

That supply surge meant the typical American renter saw a vacancy rate of 6.9% in February. That was 0.1 percentage points higher than December and 1 point above the 5.9% five-year average.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com