Report finds apartment rents in Mountain View are highest in the Bay Area

While California is known for its steep housing prices, a recent trade report puts Mountain View as the most expensive city for apartment rentals in the Bay Area.

The report found that the median asking price for one-bedroom apartments in Mountain View was $3,620 last month, while the price for two-bedroom rentals was $4,280, according to Zumper, an online rental search marketplace.

The findings put Mountain View well above other cities. Cupertino and Palo Alto ranked second and third for one-bedroom apartments, with median asking prices of $3,070 and $2,960, respectively. In California, the median asking price for a one-bedroom rental was $2,020.

Out of 28 cities, Mountain View also had the fastest-growing rent with a nearly 15% increase from last year, the report said.

“Mountain View dethroned San Francisco about a year ago,” said Crystal Chen, Zumper senior public relations manager. San Francisco now ranks fourth in terms of the highest median rentals in the Bay Area, she said.

A report by Zumper last year had similar findings: Mountain View’s rents topped the charts and rose at double-digit rates annually.

In the past, city officials have said that median asking price is not the same as average rent people are actually paying to live in Mountain View, and that the difference can be significant.

Kevin Ma, who is a member of the city’s Rental Housing Committee, cautioned against reading too much into the Zumper report. “I see a lot of listings for the more newly constructed development whose asking rates are generally higher than older ones,” he said. There also is the possibility of bias in terms of who lists their properties on the site, he added.

The Rental Housing Committee posts regular reports about the city’s market conditions and activities, which includes information from CoStar, a reputable commercial real estate information company. “It gives that the current average market rate of all units is $3,094,” Ma said, referring to a report from the committee’s Feb. 22 meeting.

Mountain View’s report uses average rents rather than median asking price. Additionally, most of the city’s rental housing stock, built before 1995, is fully covered by its rent control laws. In the same report, the average rent for a fully covered rent-stabilized unit is $2,627; for a one-bedroom it is $2,302. Newly built units are averaging $4,160.

Still, when compared to other cities, the Zumper report highlights the relatively high asking price for new rentals in Silicon Valley, which Chen attributed to the region’s tech industry.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the three cities that are priced above San Francisco have some of the big tech giants. Google, Microsoft and Apple are all headquartered in those cities, and they all have hybrid work policies in place now,” Chen said.

“So, I think a demand for housing has really grown significantly in those areas, and rent has just shot up a ton,” she added.