San Diego rents and rental comps

The median asking rent across San Diego, CA sits at $2,824/month, pulled from active rental listings in 17 zip codes. That's down 5.1% from a year ago.

Rents aren't uniform across the city. ZIP 92115 tops the list at $3,400/month. ZIP 92105 comes in lowest at $2,000/month. That's a 70% spread between the top and bottom zip codes, which is wide. City-wide averages won't tell you much about a specific property here.

A 2-bedroom rents for $3,100/month at the median. 1-bedrooms run about $2,300. 3-bedrooms come in around $3,950.

Average days on market sits at 34 days. Pace is steady.

Rent-to-price math is tight in San Diego. The gross figure sits at about 3.6% ($2,824/month against $949,900 median price). Most investors here are betting on appreciation, not monthly cash flow.

HUD's Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom in the San Diego metro is $4,310/month. Asking rents come in about 34% below the federal benchmark, which can make Section 8 properties competitive here.

San Diego has the largest Navy base on the West Coast, a massive biotech industry, and serious rental demand. Supply is constrained, rents are high. La Jolla, Pacific Beach, and the Gaslamp are premium. City Heights, El Cajon, and National City run cheaper. California tenant protections are among the strictest in the country: statewide rent control under AB 1482, strict eviction procedures, long notice periods. You can make money here, but you need to understand the regulatory environment first. Rent-to-income ratios are already stretched, so pricing accurately is the difference between leasing fast and a long vacancy.

These numbers are city-wide averages. If you're pricing a specific property in San Diego, pull comps from the same zip code. The spread is usually bigger than people expect.