By Jorge Casuso

April 29, 2025 -- Santa Monica rents remained relatively flat in April, inching up 0.2 percent and furthering the streak of monthly increases this year, according to Apartment List's rent report released Tuesday.

Local rents have risen 4.6 percent this year, compared to a -0.5 percent decrease during the first four months last year, according to the report.

Researchers attribute the sudden rise in rents in Santa Monica -- which saw rates drop -1.5 percent last year -- to the city's proximity to Pacific Palisades, where wildfires destroyed 6,837 structures in January.

The fires in the LA area caused a "significant shock to the local housing market as those who have been displaced look for new homes," the report said.

It noted that Pasadena, which was "heavily impacted" by the nearby Eaton fire, "has seen prices increase by 6 percent year-to-date."

"These increases do not indicate evidence of widespread rent gouging, but they do seem to indicate that the trajectory of the area’s rent prices has been altered by the fires," the report said.

The streak of rent increases in Santa Monica this year has resulted in a rent increase of 4.5 percent over the past 12 months, outpacing both the State (1.8 percent) and national (-0.3 percent) averages.

The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica is currently $2,430, while a two-bedroom goes for a median rent of $2,912, according to the report based on listings posted on the popular website.

Santa Monica's overall median rent of $2,567 is 16.1 percent higher than the metro-wide median rent of $2,211 for the Los Angeles metro area, which includes the 27 cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties included in the Apartment List database.

The city's annual rent growth of 4.5 percent is higher than the 1.0 percent increase for the metro area, according to the report.

Calabasas remains the area's most expensive city, with a median rent of $3,452, while Long Beach remains the most affordable, with a median rent of $1,759.

The metro's fastest annual rent growth is taking place in Pomona (5.9 percent) while the slowest is in Laguna Niguel (-3.1 percent).

Nationwide, the median rent increased by 0.5 percent in April, marking the third straight monthly increase and now stands at $1,392.

"Since the second half of 2022, rent prices have continued to ebb and flow with the seasons as they typically do, but with the overall trajectory trending modestly downward," the report said.

Meanwhile, the national vacancy index inched up to 7 percent, the highest since vacancy data was first tracked in 2017.

"After a historic tightening in 2021, multifamily occupancy has been slowly but consistently easing for over three years amid an influx of new inventory," researchers wrote.

They noted that 2024 saw the most new apartment completions since the mid-1980s and there remain 750,000 multifamily units under construction.

"So even as the level of new supply hitting the market falls sharply from last year, it will continue to be robust by historic standards," the report predicts.

Based on the site's millions of listings, the report "aims to identify transacted rent prices, as opposed to the listed rent prices." For the report click here