California
Where in California do renters stay the longest?
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:
CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. (KABC) — An Amber Alert was issued Friday by the California Highway Patrol for a 3-year-old child out of California City believed to be in imminent danger.
Emaria Peel, 3, was last seen Friday at about 7:17 p.m. in the area of Redwood Boulevard and 83rd Street in California City, according to police.
Authorities believe 31-year-old Charnay Mclin took Emaria. Investigators have not yet said what relationship, if any, Mclin has to the child.
The suspect was described as being 5 feet 9 inches tall, 185 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
The child was described as being 1 foot 6 inches, 20 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
Police believe they’re traveling in a gold-colored 2021 Kia Sorento with the California license plate: 36095DV
Mclin is considered armed and dangerous. Authorities wants anyone who sees them to call 911.
No further details were immediately known.
Copyright © 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
A 17-year-old suspect has been arrested in Texas in connection with the deadly shooting after a high school graduation ceremony in Fairfield, California last month, police said.
Fairfield police said U.S. Marshals, accompanied by department detectives, served search and arrest warrants Friday morning at a home in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The teen was taken into custody without incident on suspicion of murder and related offenses.
Investigators said the suspect fled California and traveled to Texas within days of the June 3 shooting. He will remain in custody while awaiting extradition to Solano County.
The shooting happened after Sem Yeto Continuation High School’s graduation ceremony, which was held on the Fairfield High School campus.
Police said 18-year-old graduate Jamario Baker died at the scene. Three others – an 11-year-old child and two adults, ages 20 and 25 – were wounded.
Authorities have not released the suspect’s name because he is a minor.
Although an arrest has been made, police said the investigation remains active and detectives continue to pursue additional leads.
“While today’s announcement may provide a measure of relief to some, it does not lessen the pain felt by our community,” the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District said in a statement.
Police plan to hold a news conference Monday at 4 p.m. to discuss the case and arrest.
Fairfield is a Northern California city about 40 miles northwest of San Francisco.
A California bill would let insurers monitor customers’ driving data in exchange for discounted premiums.
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, the author of AB 311, said the digital monitoring, known as telematics, rewards good driving and would improve safety. In real time, telematics technology would track data such as speed, location and how a vehicle is being driven.
“We have to slow people down,” McKinnor said. “That is the whole purpose for this bill, is driver safety.”
A voter-approved law from 1988, Prop 103, required insurance rates to be based mainly on driving record, miles driven and experience. It made California the only state in the country to prohibit telematics.
McKinnor believes the law is outdated. She argued that her bill would also help good drivers who pay higher rates because of where they live.
“Where I live definitely brings my insurance up,” McKinnor said. “If we both drive the same way, we’ll get charged the same way, instead of by our ZIP code.”
California’s Department of Insurance and consumer groups oppose the bill, citing privacy concerns.
“We can’t look behind the algorithm and see what weight it’s giving to different criteria, which is a big problem,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. “Auto insurance, otherwise, is transparent. This is why the Department of Insurance is opposed, because of the lack of transparency in the algorithm.”
The proposed savings in exchange for good driving might not be guaranteed. Telematics data from the Maryland Insurance Administration showed that 31% of drivers who opted into the program saw a drop in rates, 24% saw an increase and 45% saw no change to their premiums.
“This collects an awful lot of data about people, more than they know, and it’s like having Big Brother in your back seat,” Court said.
McKinnor insisted that drivers will not be forced to enroll in the program.
“It’s still opt-in in the other 49 states,” she said. “We’re not going to make this mandatory. It’ll be a per-volunteer situation.”
McKinnor’s bill passed through the legislature’s insurance committee. It’s expected to be presented to the full Senate in August.
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