Modesto rents continue to rise. But have they reached a plateau?
Modesto apartment rents increased 3.9 percent in the past year to an average of $1,193 per month, according to RentCafe, a nationwide apartment search website.
RentCafe tracks rental prices for complexes with at least 50 apartments in the 252 largest cities in the United States. And these are for market-rate apartments.
A roughly 4 percent increase sounds about right for the rest of the local market, said Ben Sweet, owner of Modesto-based Sweet Properties, which manages about 300 rental properties — mainly single-family homes — from Ripon to Turlock and from Modesto to Oakdale.
The 3.9 percent increase comes after several years of steep increases.
RentCafe reported the average rent for a Modesto complex with at least 50 apartments was $781 in December 2012. That means rents increased by more than 50 percent in six years, with the average rent increasing by $412 a month over that time frame.
But Sweet said he believes rents are beginning to level off. He noted that while a lot of tenants got rent increases in 2017, the increases this year tended to occur after a tenant moved out and a new tenant moved in as owners raised rents to market rates.
“I think it’s going to plateau,” he said. “We are starting to see the inventory creep up. ... We are bumping up against the top of the wage base for our area. We’ve had all of these increases.”
RentCafe does not provide a breakdown based on the number of bedrooms. But it reported the average rent for Modesto is $919 a month for an apartment of 400 to 600 square feet, $1,136 for an apartment of 601 to 800 square feet and $1,315 for an apartment of 801 to 1,200 square feet.
Bay Area workers in search of cheaper housing have been a factor in rising rents in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. RentCafe reported the average rent is $2,424 in Fremont (a 4.3 percent increase in the past year), $2,158 in Hayward (a 6 percent increase) and $2,723 in San Jose (a 4.5 percent increase).
RentCafe reported the cities it analyzes must have at least 2,900 apartments in complexes that have at least 50 units each.
This story was originally published December 19, 2018 at 1:27 PM.
