"California's Housing Future 2040." (Photo: hcd.ca.gov)
California’s Big Cities Offer Tiniest Apartments for $1,500 Monthly Rent
Where can renters get the most & least space for $1,500?
By Katy Grimes, August 7, 2024 2:55 am
A new analysis of 200 U.S. cities which looked at the balance between space, budget, and location, found that 32 out of the 50 cities with the least apartment space are in California.
Ouch.
The RentCafe analysis is interesting, even within California.
They start out with a monthly rent budget of $1,500. “In one city, it unlocks the door to a spacious 1,400-square-foot apartment. In another, it barely buys you a 200-square-foot micro-unit,” RentCafe says.
200 square feet – imagine one of those itsy-bitsy apartments featured at Ikea…
In California RentCafe found:
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San Francisco, for instance, $1,500 secures you 334 square feet (the least amount of space), enough only for a studio or a tinier 1-bedroom apartment.
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“For the roomiest apartments on this budget, look for Bakersfield where you can get 878 square feet for $1,500. This city offers significantly more room compared to others in California. Here, you can get as much as 2 bedrooms for this sum.”
The Central Valley region offers more spacious apartments away from the coast, they report.
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Fresno: 854 square feet for $1,500.
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Visalia: 828 square feet
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Modesto: 705 square feet
RentCafe breaks down by 100 large cities and 100 small cities.
Small California cities include:
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Sunnyvale: 406 square feet for $1,500, and ranks #100 apartment size for $1,500 per month in 100 Small U.S. Cities.
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Pasadena: Renters can expect approximately 427 square feet for $1,500.
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Stockton: 727 square feet
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Fresno: 854 square feet
For those considering major hubs in California, this is how much space you can get for $1,500:
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Los Angeles: 439 square feet for $1,500.
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San Diego: 442 square feet
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San Jose: 440 square feet
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San Francisco: 334 square feet for $1,500, and ranks #97 apartment size for $1,500 per month in 100 Large U.S. Cities.
The first small California city in the lineup is Visalia at 828 square feet for $1,500.
The first large California city in the lineup is Bakersfield is 878 square feet for $1,500, which is actually larger than the average Bakersfield apartment size of 856 square feet for $1,462.
RentCafe reported that California had 16 cities among the top 20 small towns offering the least apartment space, including Fullerton, Oceanside and Oxnard, all of which offer renters around 500 square feet for a monthly budget of $1,500.
This is what a tiny 224 square foot apartment in Manhattan looks like compared to a spacious 1,359 square foot apartment in Wichita:
RentCafe is a nationwide apartment search website. Read more about this apartment analysis here.
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If you look at the rent affordability being 30% of your income you would need to earn approximately $60k a year to afford this apartment. In the smaller towns you listed most wage earners are not near the $60k a year salary. The sad thing is that this pushes folks towards government subsidized units. Once you are in that trap, they dictate how much you earn (if you go over the allotted amount you lose the subsidy and are forced to move) and how you live. Folks then lose the motivation to advance their lives and end up settling for this trap of living in a substandard environment of having enough to exist but not having enough move up. What a racket
Hal, you encapsulated the whole thing!
Now they try to convince the younger generations this is good for them to live in less, earn less. have less and be happy!
The rest of the story is that those prices will get you an apartment in a neighborhood where you risk your life every single day. A quality apartment is going to be a Lot more.