By Jorge Casuso

October 4, 2024 -- After a brief monthly rise, Santa Monica rents dipped in September, reflecting a national trend as the slow rental season kicks off, according to Apartment List's monthly report.

Santa Monica's overall median rent remained relatively flat after decreasing -0.3 percent and now stands at $2,440, an increase of $11 over the August median, based on listings on the popular site.

Local rents have now fallen by -6.1 percent over the past 12 months, marking what remains the steepest decrease among the 26 Los Angeles and Orange County cities included in the site's database.

The decrease is steeper than those for the region (-0.9 percent), the State (-0.3 percent) or the nation (-0.7 percent), based on data drawn monthly from the millions of listings on the site.

"Since the second half of 2022, the seasonal declines in rent prices that take place during the fall and winter have been steeper than usual and seasonal increases of the spring and summer have been more mild," the site's researchers noted.

"As a result, apartments are on average slightly cheaper today than they were one year ago." Still, the nationwide median rent remains "more than $200 per month higher than it was just a few years ago."

Despite seeing constant drops in monthly rents over the past year, Santa Monica's median rent remains 10.8 percent higher than the $2,201 for the LA metro-wide region.

Calabasas continues to have the region's most expensive apartments, with a median rent of $3,373, while Long Beach has the lowest rents,
with a median rent of $1,757.

The metro's fastest annual rent growth is taking place in Rancho Santa Margarita, a master-planned community in Orange County where prices have risen 3.4 percent.

Los Angeles -- which saw its median rent drop -0.5 percent to $2,201 last month -- was one of 80 of the nation's 100 largest cities that saw rents decrease in September.

And it was one of 51 major cities that saw a decrease in rents over the past 12 months, marking "a massive deceleration from mid-2022, when all 100 were posting positive annual growth."

Apartment List researchers predict nationwide rents "should continue to dip for the remainder of the year" as a "sluggish" market persists.

"Rent increases are currently being moderated by a robust construction pipeline expected to deliver a decades-high number of new apartment units in 2024," researchers wrote.

"And while rental demand has bounced back a bit this year, recent signs of labor market softness could dampen demand going forward.

"With this in mind, we expect that new supply will continue to outstrip demand into 2025," the report concludes.

The report calculates one-bedroom and two-bedroom rents and "aims to identify transacted rent prices, as opposed to the listed rent prices."