By Jorge Casuso

January 7, 2025 -- Santa Monica rents dipped in 2024, reflecting state and national trends that saw apartments renting for less than they did a year ago, according to Apartment List's monthly report.

The local median rent fell 1.5 percent over the past 12 months, a steeper drop than the state average of -0.8 percent and the national average of -0.6 percent.

Still, Santa Monica's annual rent decrease was less steep than the -5.8 percent drop in 2023, following a nationwide period of "record-setting rent growth in 2021 and the first half of 2022," according to the popular rental site.

Santa Monica's current median rent is $2,449 after a slight decrease of -0.4 percent in December, based on listings on the popular rental website. December marked the ninth monthly rent drop last year.

"The end of the year, in particular, generally sees the slowest rental market activity, as few households move during the holiday season," the report notes.

"As moving activity picks back up in the new year, we are likely to see these monthly declines moderate and then flip back to positive growth in the coming months," researchers predict.

Santa Monica's overall median rent of $2,449 is 12.8 percent higher than the $2,171 median for the Los Angeles metro area, which includes the 26 cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties included in the Apartment List database.

In December, Calabasas surpassed Newport Beach as the metro's most expensive city, with a median rent of $3,344, while Long Beach remained the most affordable city, with a median rent of $1,729.

The metro's fastest annual rent growth is taking place in Orange, which saw a 4.1 percent increase, while Santa Ana, along with Santa Monica, saw the biggest annual decrease, dropping by -1.5 percent.

Nationwide, vacancies "have been opening up steadily for over three full years" after bottoming out in October 2021 and currently stand at 6.8 percent, according to the report.

The rising vacancy rate is largely due to the biggest influx of new multifamily inventory to hit the market in 30 years, marking a "supply boom (that) should continue well into 2025," researchers wrote.

As a result, it is taking longer for vacant units to be leased, with those that rent having stayed on the market a median of 36 days in December, up from 34 days in November.

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

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

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