Average of 24 rental applicants for every rental in San Diego
Yardi Matrix (Rent Cafe) states there is average of 24 rental applicants for each rental unit in San Diego. This seems crazy high. This is up from 14 applicants per available unit a year ago. Note this is not number of inquiries but number of applicants. I typically get over 10 times more inquiries than I get applications.
It does explain why the rents have appreciated on average over 20% in the last year (which at San Diego's rent point would be over $500/month increase at today's rental average).
In April, the average price property in San Diego hit $1M. With the significant interest rate increases the payments have increased significantly. Add this huge demand/supply issue to the new risk identified due to COVID eviction moratoriums, high mortgage interest rates, high property values, robust job market, and significant general inflation and the rents in San Diego are very likely to continue to increase as a high rate.
Note, at the average monthly rent increase, the rent per unit is ~$6k/year more than a year ago. This is only the rent increase. Someone with 10 units would have $60K increase rent. Someone with 20 units would have average rent increase of $120K. We have 22 units so ...
It is expensive to live in an area as nice as San Diego, but we have to find a way to house the service industry. Not an easy problem, I am a strong advocate of a free market.
I wonder how Rent Cafe is able to determine rental applications per unit and what they define as an application.
For instance, I recently rented an Encinitas condo that I advertised through zillow, but did not accept any applications through their system. Applicants can do one zillow application and hit a button to apply over and over again to multiple rentals if the landlord permits it. I did not accept applications until after showing and used my own forms, not zillow's system. Showed it to eight prospects in one day and got three applications.
Prior to showings I got well over a hundred generic e-mails asking to submit an application. I probably would have received over a hundred applications from prospects who only had to hit a button if I had allowed zillow applicants to submit an app without showing.