San Diego, CA
To find California’s biggest rent hikes, see who’s hiring
If you want to see where California rents are rising the most – follow the paychecks.
Let’s peek inside rent swings in California counties to see what landlords are charging and who’s hiring. My trusty spreadsheet looked at Zillow rent data for 30 big counties, comparing this spring (averages March to May) with 2023 and pre-coronavirus 2019. Those gyrations were matched up with the ups and downs of state employment tallies in those counties – counting how many residents have a job.
Think about the past year and how rents and work gyrated.
Of these 30 counties, the 12 with employment gains during the last 12 months averaged 3.8% rent increases. Meanwhile, the 18 counties with fewer workers had only 3.1% average rent hikes.
Lots of factor move rents – from how many folks need rentals to how many new units are built. But often we forget a force that helps drive housing – you need a paycheck to afford a place to live.
Puzzle pieces
Employment surges and retreats are key puzzle pieces to understanding the demand and pricing for housing.
It’s especially true in a crazy expensive place like California.
Look at the counties where rent rose the most last year. Yes, these five counties had mixed employment performance.
San Luis: Rents up 6.5% but 1.3% employment loss.
Monterey: Rents up 5.8% with 2.9% employment gain.
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Shasta: Rents up 4.9% with 1.1% employment gain.
Fresno: Rents up 4.8% with 0.5% employment loss.
Santa Cruz: Rents up 4.8% but 0.4% employment loss.
But to see that jobs matter in real estate, focus on the counties with the smallest rent hikes. All had shrinking job markets.
San Bernardino: Rents up 2.2% with 0.6% employment loss.
Butte: Up 2.2% with 0.4% employment loss.
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Los Angeles: Up 1.9% with 0.7% employment loss.
San Francisco: Up 0.5% with 2.5% employment loss.
Alameda: Down 1% with 1.2% employment loss.
Longer lens
The job market’s sway on rents is even clearer over the longer run.
Take a long lens and go back to spring 2019, well before the pandemic upended the economy.
The 14 counties with employment gains over these past five years averaged 43% rent increases. Meanwhile, the 16 counties with fewer workers had just 25% rent hikes.
Look at the counties with the biggest five-year rent hikes – and their paychecks …
Kern: 52% rent increase with 0.8% employment rise.
Santa Barbara: 52% rent increase but 1.8% employment dip.
Fresno: 51% rent increase with 1.8% employment rise.
Riverside: 48% rent increase with 4.4% employment rise.
Tulare: 47% rent increase with 4.9% employment rise.
Next, look at the counties with the weakest rent pricing since 2019. All had stumbling job markets in the period …
Contra Costa: 20% rent increase as employment dipped 3%.
Santa Clara: 11% rent increase as employment dipped 2.6%.
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San Mateo: 7% rent increase as employment dipped 4.3%.
Alameda: 7% rent increase as employment dipped 3.4%.
San Francisco: 3% rent increase as employment dipped 4.9%.
Bottom line
Affordability matters, too, in an age where many workers can do their jobs remotely and relocate to cheaper locales.
Contemplate the 10 cheapest counties, as of this past spring. Rents averaged $1,974 – up 41% in five years, as employment rose 1.5% since 2019.
Contrast that to the high end, the 10 counties with the priciest rents.
These landlords get an average $3,297 a month cost – 67% higher than the cheapest markets.
And California renting’s upper crust only got 26% increases over five years. Why? Well, employment dropped by 3.3% in these job markets.
Now housing “bargains” are rare in California. So is it much of a surprise that four of the five cheapest counties for tenants have more employees than 2019?
Fresno: $1,922 rent, up 51% in five years, as employment rose 1.8%.
Kern: $1,809 rent, up 52% in five years. Employment up 0.8%.
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Tulare: $1,802 rent, up 47% in five years. Employment up 4.9%.
Butte: $1,633 rent, up 25% in five years. Employment off 6.5%.
Shasta: $1,577 rent, up 41% in five years. Employment up 2.2%.
Conversely, California’s priciest spots for rentals are counties clustered near the Bay Area. It’s not been a pretty place for employment of late.
Marin: $3,914 rents were up 21% in five years. Meanwhile, employment dropped 5.3%.
Santa Cruz: $3,575 rent, up 36% in five years. Employment off 6.5%.
Santa Clara: $3,356 rent, up 11% in five years. Employment off 2.6%.
San Francisco: $3,323 rent, off 3% in five years. Employment off 4.9%.
San Mateo: $3,306 rent, up 7% in five years. Employment off 4.3%.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
San Diego, CA
Judge sentences rapper to time served in 2023 San Diego arrest
Rapper Boosie Badazz was sentenced Friday to credit for time served in the case stemming from his 2023 arrest in San Diego for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The 43-year-old, whose real name is Torence Ivy Hatch Jr., was arrested in Chollas View after police found two guns inside a vehicle in which he was riding.
Hatch was in town to shoot a music video and perform at a Gaslamp Quarter nightclub.
In a social media video clip recorded during the video shoot, Hatch was spotted with a gun in his waistband. Police then used a helicopter to track down his vehicle, after which officers conducted a traffic stop and discovered the firearms.
He pleaded guilty to a federal gun possession count last year. As part of his sentence, Hatch will also serve 300 hours of community service.
Defense attorney Meghan Blanco said in a statement released after Friday’s hearing, “The resolution brings a sense of relief, allowing him to finally put this chapter behind him. He can now focus on continuing his music career, dedicating time to his family, and being a positive and inspiring presence for his children and the wider community.”
Federal prosecutors sought a two-year prison sentence, arguing in court papers that custody was warranted due to Hatch’s “insistence on carrying a weapon despite his status as a convicted felon” and allegations that he threatened his security detail shortly after his arrest.
Blanco, in her sentencing memorandum, denied any such threats occurred, noting that the statements are not included in any police reports stemming from the arrest and that no recorded evidence of the threats exist.
The defense attorney wrote that Hatch’s gun was never fired, brandished or used to threaten anyone. She also said there have been no allegations that the weapons were intended for any other offense and that Hatch’s last criminal case had occurred around 10 years prior.
“The case represents an isolated lapse in judgment, not a pattern of ongoing criminal conduct,” Blanco wrote.
Hatch was initially charged by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. His defense attorneys have stated that Hatch intended to plead guilty at the time and was expected to be sentenced to probation, but the state’s case was dismissed before that plea deal could be reached and federal prosecutors took up the case.
U.S. District Judge Cathy Bencivengo, who sentenced Hatch on Friday, previously dismissed the case against him following a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that said it was unconstitutional to prohibit convicted felons who served sentences for nonviolent drug offenses from possessing firearms.
But a larger panel of the 9th Circuit overturned its earlier ruling and San Diego federal prosecutors re-filed the charges against Hatch.
Hatch was previously convicted in Louisiana of marijuana possession. He also was indicted in an alleged murder-for-hire plot, but was acquitted by a Baton Rouge jury in 2012.
San Diego, CA
Mayor Gloria defends Balboa Park paid parking, blames council for rocky rollout
San Diego will put off issuing citations for paid parking in Balboa Park for about one month while improvements are made, but Mayor Todd Gloria says the new system is functioning well and being “actively adopted.”
In a long and harshly worded memo released Thursday, Gloria said recent calls by City Council members to suspend the program were politically motivated and examples of bad governance and erratic decision-making.
Gloria also deflected blame for the chaotic way enforcement began Monday, when city officials raced to put stickers about resident discounts on parking kiosks and lobbied a vendor to deliver crucial missing signs.
The mayor said the council had “shaped, amended and approved” paid parking in Balboa Park and contended an accelerated timeline chosen by the council made it hard for his administration to implement it flawlessly.
The mayor’s memo came in response to a Tuesday memo from Councilmembers Kent Lee and Sean Elo-Rivera in which they called implementation of paid parking “haphazard” and “not ready for prime time.”
Lee and Elo-Rivera said the process for city residents to get approved for discounts was so complex, cumbersome and confusing that Gloria should waive fees for residents until they have had time to adapt and learn.
While Gloria rejected that suggestion in part of his memo, he later said “enforcement remains focused on education, not punishment, during this early phase, to ensure park users are aware of the new parking fees.”
Dave Rolland, a spokesperson for Gloria, said Thursday that no specific date had been set for when the city would shift from education to enforcement. But he added that “about a month” would be an accurate timeline.
City officials have already corrected one key mistake: Signs that were missing Monday — alerting drivers that the 951-space lower Inspiration Point lot is free for three hours — have since been installed.
Lee and Elo-Rivera in their memo decried “an inadequate effort to educate the public on how to use this new system.”
They said San Diegans had not been clearly informed about when a portal for city resident discounts would go live or how to use it.
And they complained that residents weren’t told they couldn’t buy discounted parking passes in person, or when enforcement with citations would actually begin.
City residents must apply for discounts online, pay $5 to have their residency verified, then wait two days for that verification and choose the day they will visit in advance.
Lee and Elo-Rivera called the city’s efforts “a haphazard rollout that will surely lead to San Diegans missing out on their resident discount and paying higher parking rates than they have to.”
Gloria said the city collected $23,000 in parking fees on Monday and Tuesday and another $106,000 in daily, monthly and quarterly passes — mostly from residents who get discounts on such passes.
“Early data shows that the program is functioning and being used,” he said. “These are not the metrics of a system that is failing to function. They are the metrics of a system that is new, actively being adopted, and continuing to improve as public familiarity increases.”
While Gloria conceded that some improvements are still necessary, he rejected calls from Lee and Elo-Rivera for a suspension, citing his concerns it would jeopardize city finances and confuse the public.
“Your proposal to suspend paid parking for residents two days into the new program would have immediate and serious fiscal consequences,” Gloria said. “This reversal could introduce confusion among park users and would disregard investments already made to establish the system, potentially compromising the program’s effectiveness.”
Paid parking in Balboa Park is expected to generate about $3.7 million during the fiscal year that ends June 30, but revenue is expected to rise substantially when the fees are in place for a full fiscal year.
Gloria said the money is a small part of the city’s overall solution to recurring deficits it faces of more than $100 million per year.
“What we will not do is reverse course days into implementation in a way that undermines fiscal stability, creates uncertainty, and sends the message that addressing a decades-old structural budget deficit that has plagued our city is optional because it is politically uncomfortable,” he said. “That kind of erratic decision-making is not good governance, and San Diegans deserve better.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo said Thursday that paid parking there has continued to go smoothly since it began on Monday.
The zoo, which is using Ace Parking for enforcement, opted for immediate citations instead of an educational grace period.
San Diego, CA
Barricaded individual in custody following police response in Mission Valley
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diego Police responded to a barricaded individual in the Mission Valley area Thursday afternoon, prompting a heavy law enforcement presence.
- The Nexstar Media video above details resources for crime victims
The department confirmed around 1 p.m. that officers were on scene in the 1400 block of Hotel Circle North, and are working to safely resolve the situation. Authorities asked the public to avoid the area and allow officers the space needed to conduct their operations.
Police described the incident as a domestic violence restraining order violation. At this time, it’s unknown if the person is armed.
No injuries have been reported.
The suspect was taken into custody within an hour.
Further details about the barricaded person were not immediately released. Police say updates will be shared as more information becomes available.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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