A very tight market for California rentals means tenants move less frequently than the typical U.S. apartment dweller.

My trusty spreadsheet looked at a RentCafe scorecard tracking the challenges apartment seekers face in 139 U.S. markets – including 11 in California – as of early 2025. RentCafe’s math is based on data from Yardi that covers large apartment complexes.

These numbers tell us that a California renter lives in the same unit for 33 months, according to the median stay of the 11 Golden State markets. Nationally, a 28-month stay is the norm. That’s 18% longer for California renters.

Californians are unlikely to move because it’s so challenging to find a rental. Only 5.1% of Golden State apartments were empty as 2025 started, compared with a 6.7% vacancy rate nationwide.

That gap is a key reason why RentCafe’s national rankings have five California markets among its 25 “hardest to rent” list compiled from a collection of data points: Orange County (No. 14), Silicon Valley (No. 16), Eastern Los Angeles County (No. 17), San Diego (No. 22), and Central Valley (No. 24).

These headaches force Californians to shop harder for apartments. The typical vacant unit gets 10 looks from prospective tenants statewide vs. seven nationally.

However, Californians will relocate when the right spot becomes available. Just 51% of Golden State renters are renewing their leases this year vs. 63% nationally.

Regionally speaking

The length of a renter’s stay is not uniform across the state. Here’s how these 11 California markets compare, ranked by the length of the typical renter’s stay …

Eastern L.A. County: 40-month average stays as 51% of tenants renew. There are 4% empty units that get 13 looks from prospective tenants. This region includes areas that lost housing to January’s Eaton wildfire.

North L.A. County/Ventura County: 36-month stays, 54% renew, with 4.9% vacancies getting 10 looks.

San Francisco Peninsula/North Bay: 35-month stays, 48% renew, with 6.4% vacancies getting 7 looks.

Orange County: 35-month stays, 61% renew, and 4.4% vacancies getting 10 looks.

Central Valley: 34-month stays, 51% renew, with 4% vacancies getting 9 looks.

Sacramento: 33-month stays, 51% renew, with 5.2% vacancies getting 10 looks.

East Bay: 33-month stays, 51% renew, with 6% vacancies getting 8 looks.

Inland Empire: 33-month stays, 55% renew, with 5.1% vacancies getting 12 looks.

Silicon Valley: 31-month stays, 54% renew, with 4.9% vacancies getting 10 looks.

San Diego: 31-month stays, 54% renew, with 5.4% vacancies getting 9 looks.

Western L.A. County: 30-month stays, 42% renew, with 7% vacancies getting 8 looks. January’s Palisades fire was in this area.

Any help?

Sadly for apartment seekers, any noteworthy relief is not coming as California’s construction of fresh rental supply severely lags the nation.

U.S. developers are adding 75 new rentals for every 10,000 existing units. Currently, just one of these 11 California markets tops that pace – Silicon Valley at 93 new units per 10,000.

The rest of the state, ranked by their construction rate? Eastern L.A. and the Inland Empire at 63 per 10,000, followed by East Bay (62), San Diego (58), North L.A./Ventura  (42), San Francisco/North Bay (33), Sacramento (23), Central Valley (20), Western L.A. County (18), and Orange County (15).

Jonathan Lansner is business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

Originally Published: March 26, 2025 at 7:24 AM PDT

TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — For the first time in 14 years, California’s fire hazard severity zones maps have been updated by the state fire marshal.

Based on fire history and conditions of locations, areas across the state rank from Moderate to High and Very High fire risk.

“The hazard maps are being updated to more accurately reflect areas of California that have a higher risk of wildfires, and it’s a good tool for the public to know how prepared to be,” said Savanna Birchfield-Gernt, with CAL FIRE in Tulare County.

“While it is helpful to be prepared, it is helpful to know to see a marker for where you are and see a risk of hazard.”

Action News asked about the biggest change from the old maps to the new ones.

“The addition of moderate and high fire hazards severity zones, and with that is a new requirement as of January 1st 2026, for new development to construct homes to chapter 7-A in the high fire hazard severity zones,” explained Jim McDougald, assistant deputy director for Wildfire planning and risk reduction with CAL FIRE.

In both Kings and Tulare counties, the fire hazard zones that made the list include Avenal, Woodlake, and parts of Porterville.

Plus, several unincorporated areas.

The land spans about 27,000 acres in Tulare County and close to 59,000 in Kings County, which sit between Moderate and High Risk.

“What I will tell people is we always want you to be aware of wildfires, especially when you are living in the foothills of Tulare County, where you will likely see CAL FIRE,” said Birchfield-Gernt.

In Tulare County’s unincorporated communities, nearly 500 acres are considered Very High risk, compared to none in 2011.

“A lot of people are worried about insurance when it comes to the fire hazard severity zones, so insurance companies use a different rating — they use a risk rating, and ways that people can reduce their ratings where they live is by doing things like home hardening and defensible space,” explains Birchfield-Gernt.

Cal Fire says people should work on defensible space year-round.

The first rounds of inspections are currently underway for foothill communities, including Springville, Posey or California Hot Springs, and Three Rivers..

People will have three rounds of defensible space inspections before citations are issued.

Cal Fire says their primary goal is to give people the opportunity to learn more about wildfire readiness.

You can visit this website to find the Fire Hazard Severity Zones.

The latest severity zone recommendations in California can be found here.

For news updates, follow Kassandra Gutierrez on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

It was a plain little under-the-radar cracker, but the quiet demise of Ak-mak has saddened fans far beyond its Central California birthplace.

The crisp sesame cracker, made in the Fresno area for more than 70 years, has disappeared from store shelves and online platforms in recent weeks. The bakery’s website remains live, with no mention of the shutdown, but there has been a low buzz on social media from devotees realizing that Ak-mak is no more.

Reached by the Fresno Bee, Tanny Soojian — of the third of Ak-mak’s four generations of Armenian-American proprietors — reportedly said simply, “I got old and closed it.”

The family moved to California in 1936 and established a bakery specializing in Armenian breads and crackers, the company’s website says. The Ak-mak cracker’s selling point was its simplicity — whole wheat, low fat, made with honey rather than refined sugar. A paean on the foodie website Epicurious describes it as “sturdy” and “nourishing,” and (though exaggerating its longevity) sums up: “That Ak-Mak has remained popular for centuries will only surprise people who haven’t had it.”

In recent years, its Sanger factory, between a used-car lot and a tire store, sent out the yellow-and-blue boxes of crackers to purveyors including Safeway, Raley’s, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, New York’s Gristedes and the cult favorite Southern California grocer Erewhon.

The cracker became an asterisk to a Los Angeles-area homicide case in 2015. Sparkle Soojian, who claimed to be an heiress to the Ak-mak business, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after a former roommate’s ex-boyfriend died in her Glendale home.

Originally Published: March 25, 2025 at 8:43 AM PDT