San Jose, Calif. is famous for tech startups and good living. Corporate heavyweights including , and are headquartered there, and some of the country's brightest minds flock to the southern end of the San Francisco Bay to make their careers.
But geographic desirability and concentration of highly skilled workers don't come cheap. Rents in San Jose are the highest in the country--and they keep climbing. The city's $1,340 median monthly rent is up 5% over last year.
Pinched housing supply in the city keeps leases pricey--and as the local housing market recovers, rents in sought-after spots like San Jose have shot up faster than home prices.
In Pictures: Where The Rents Are Highest
Using the latest data from the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey--a study performed every year with a sampling of American citizens that represents the total population--we ranked the country's 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas by their median monthly contract rent (base rent, not including extras like utilities and fuel).
About 350 miles south of San Jose, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, is the city with the second highest rent in the country: Thousand Oaks, Calif., with median rent of $1,301 per month. In fact, half of our high-rent cities are located in the state of California; the state's desirable weather and cultural amenities amplify demand, and its coastal location means there's limited space to build, cutting down on supply. A recent drop in homeownership and shift toward renting compounds the increase.
"In California, apartment rental rates remain relatively strong," says Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for real estate at the University of California Los Angeles, who also cites "dampened expectations of returns to homeownership over the coming years and record low levels of rental housing development" as reasons rental costs are high.
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