Campfire’s octopus, chorizo, and celery-root entrée.
Gage Forster
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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%.
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%.
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
SANDY, Utah — SANDY, Utah (AP) — Sergi Solans had two goals and an assist, Diego Luna added a goal and two assists, and Real Salt Lake beat San Diego FC 4-2 on Saturday night to extend its unbeaten streak to six games.
Morgan Guilavogui scored his first goal in MLS and had an assist for Real Salt Lake (5-1-1). The 28-year-old designated player has five goal contributions in his first six career games.
RSL hasn’t lost since a 1-0 defeat at Vancouver in the season opener.
San Diego (3-3-2) has lost three in a row and is winless in five straight.
Luna opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he re-directed a misplayed pass by Duran Ferree, San Diego’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, into the net.
Moments later, Solans headed home a perfectly-placed cross played by Luna from outside the right corner of the 18-yard box to the back post to make it 2-0. Solans, a 23-year-old forward, flicked a header from the center of the area inside the right post and past the outstretched arm of Ferree to make it 3-1 in the 37th minute.
Guilavogui slammed home a first-touch shot to give RSL a three-goal lead in the 45th.
Marcus Ingvartsen scored a goal in the 14th minute and Anders Dreyer converted from the penalty spot in the 66th for San Diego.
Ingvartsen has five goals and an assist this season and has 10 goal contributions (seven goals, three assists) in 16 career MLS appearances.
Rafael Cabral had three saves for RSL.
Ferree finished with five saves.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer
When John Resnick opened Campfire on a quaint little street in Carlsbad, Calif., in 2016, some locals weren’t sure what to think. The coastal enclave wasn’t exactly awash in innovative, chef-driven establishments, so it was a shock to see the dining room consistently full. Early on, one woman wondered aloud to Resnick, “Where did all these people come from?”
It’s a moment he remembers vividly. “I was struck by her statement, because I think she was surprised that so many other people in Carlsbad were there,” Resnick says.
The rest of the culinary world would take some time to catch up to what was happening. In 2019, when Michelin expanded to rate restaurants throughout all of California—not just the San Francisco area—Addison was the only one in San Diego to earn a star. But since emerging from the pandemic, the region’s food scene has grown dramatically. Driven by outstanding farms, ingredients, a bumper crop of talented chefs, and a G.D.P. approximately the size of New Zealand or Greece, San Diego County has become one of America’s most underrated dining destinations.
Campfire’s octopus, chorizo, and celery-root entrée.
Gage Forster
Perhaps no single restaurant is a better emblem for this shift than chef William Bradley’s Addison, which opened in 2006. After landing his first star, Bradley knew he wanted more. To get them, he transformed his French-leaning fare to serve what he calls California Gastronomy, which combines the cultures of SoCal with impeccable ingredients and wildly impressive techniques, prizing flavor over flair. Michelin responded, awarding Addison a second star in 2022, and making it the first Southern California three-star restaurant just a year later. The accolade has created a halo effect, attracting culinary tourists from around the world.
Berry beet tartlets at San Diego’s three-star stalwart Addison.
Eric Wolfinger
“Earning three stars forces the global dining community to pay attention to a place that may not have been on their radar before,” says chef Eric Bost, a partner in Resnick’s four Carlsbad establishments.
Resnick recruited Bost, who spent time at award-winning outposts of Restaurant Guy Savoy, to run Jeune et Jolie, which he led to a star in 2021. They’ve since taken over an old boogie-board factory down the street and converted it to an all-day restaurant and bakery, Wildland. The space also hosts an exquisite tasting-counter experience called Lilo, which was given a Michelin star mere months after opening in April 2025. And as Resnick and Bost grew their successful Carlsbad operation, chef Roberto Alcocer earned a Michelin star for his Mexican fine-dining spot Valle in nearby Oceanside.
The stylish tasting counter at Michelin one-star Lilo in Carlsbad.
Kimberly Motos
About 25 miles to the south, another affluent coastal community is going through its own culinary glow up. In La Jolla, chef Tara Monsod and the hospitality group Puffer Malarkey Collective opened the stylish French steakhouse Le Coq. Chef Erik Anderson, formerly of Michelin two-star Coi, is preparing to launch Roseacre. And last year, Per Se alums Elijah Arizmendi and Brian Hung left New York to open the elegant tasting-menu restaurant Lucien, lured by the ingredients they’d get to serve. “A major reason we chose San Diego is the quality and diversity of the produce,” Arizmendi explains. “San Diego County has more small farms than anywhere else in the U.S., and its many microclimates allow farmers to grow an incredible range of ingredients year-round.”
Wildland’s spicy Italian sandwich.
Gage Forster
Chef Travis Swikard has also been a tireless advocate for the region’s ingredients since he returned to San Diego, his hometown, and opened Mediterranean-influenced Callie in 2021. There’s no sophomore slump with his latest effort, the French Riviera–inspired Fleurette in La Jolla, where he’s serving his take on classics like leeks vinaigrette and his San Diego “Bouillabaisse” with local red sheepshead fish and spiny lobster. Its food is bright, produce-driven, and attentive in execution, while the dining room maintains a relaxed and unpretentious style of service. And Swikard sees that approach cohering into a regional style with a strong network of professionals behind it.
“It’s really nice that we are developing our own identity, not trying to be like L.A. or any other market, just highlighting what’s great about the San Diego lifestyle and ingredients,” he says. “Similar to New York, a chef community is starting to develop where chefs are supporting each other. There is a true sense of pride to be cooking here.”
Top: In La Jolla, Lucien serves ocean whitefish with tomatoes turned into concasse, sabayon, and other expressions.
Little Debbie is officially expanding its doughnut range.
On April 14, the brand announced a new sweet snack: Chocolate Old Fashioned Donuts. The company says there was “massive consumer demand” for the original Big Pack Old Fashioned Donuts, which quickly became a top seller. Now, they’re just giving the people what they want.
The new snack is a chocolate old-fashioned cake doughnut finished with a sweet glaze and is launching in two formats:
The original, which includes six individually wrapped cake-style doughnuts with a vanilla glaze, first hit stores in June 2025 and, according to the brand, has been “consistently selling out.”
“We saw an incredible response to the Old Fashioned Donut we introduced last year,” said Scott Brownlow, Little Debbie’s brand manager, in a press release. We’re doubling down on what works and giving both loyalists and new fans an irresistible reason to head back to the store.”
Little Debbie’s Chocolate Old Fashioned Donuts are rolling out now to major retailers, grocery stores and convenience stores nationwide. As with the original Old Fashioned Donut, they become a permanent addition to the brand’s snack lineup.
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