By Jorge Casuso

August 1, 2025 -- Rents in Santa Monica declined for the third straight month in July, reflecting a nationwide trend that has seen a sluggish market during the normally active peak moving season, according to Apartment List's rent report released Wednesday.

Santa Monica's -0.7 percent decline last month follows decreases of -0.7 and -0.9 percent in May and June, after a fast start this year attributed to the city's proximity to fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades.

The current median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica is $2,350 and $2,817 for a two-bedroom unit, based on local listings posted on the popular rental website.

Nationwide, the average rent remained flat in July after dipping in each of the previous three months, based on the site's millions of listings.

"The late spring and summer months are normally the peak season for moving activity, and rent growth tends to ramp up at this time of year in tandem with demand," the report noted.

"The fact that we’ve instead seen rent growth get increasingly sluggish indicates softness in the market, possibly reflecting declining consumer confidence amid a more uncertain macroeconomic outlook."

In July, the national vacancy rate rose slightly to 7.1 percent, the highest since the site began tracking the metric eight years ago, while in Santa Monica it stands at 4.7 percent.

"The most important driver behind the soft rent growth of recent years has been a historic surge of multifamily construction," Apartment List researchers wrote.

Last year, more than 600,000 new multifamily units hit the market, a 65 percent increase over 2022 and the most in a single year since 1986, according to the report.

"As a result of all this new inventory, more vacant units are sitting on the market, meaning that property owners face more competition for renters and have less pricing leverage."

Despite the recent declines, Santa Monica's rental market has picked up over the past year, with annual growth currently standing at 3.3 percent, up from a negative -5.9 percent last July.

The local rent growth over the past year has outpaced both California's 1.2 percent increase and the nation's -0.8 percent drop, according to the report.

Currently, the overall median rent in the city stands at $2,483, or 12.1 percent higher than the $2,215 median rent for the region, which includes the 28 cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties included in the Apartment List database.

Culver City easily topped Santa Monica's median rent, with a one-bedroom unit going for $2,692, or $342 higher than Santa Monica, and $3,189 for a two-bedroom, or $372 higher.

Newport Beach in Orange County is now the most expensive city in the metro region, with a median rent of $3,354, after posting the metro's fastest growth rate at 3.9 percent.

Calabasas, which had secured a place at the top of the list, remained LA County's most expensive city despite posting the slowest growth rate at -4.1 percent. Meanwhile, Long Beach remained the most affordable city with a median rent of $1,796.

Nationwide, the multifamily rental market is expected to begin seeing monthly declines as it enters the slow moving season and the construction boom slows, possibly heightening competition, researchers predict.

"All of our key indicators are pointing toward ongoing sluggishness in the multifamily rental market," researchers wrote, adding that "with construction expected to slow further in the second half of this year and into 2026, conditions are likely to shift."

Apartment List's monthly report "aims to identify transacted rent prices, as opposed to the listed rent prices." For the latest report click here