Rent bargains in California: What you get for $1,500 a month

”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.

Buzz: Look inland if you’re seeking a rental bargain in California.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a curious study by RentCafe comparing city rents. It looked at how much space you typically get when spending $1,500 a month.

Topline

How expensive is California? The study tracked apartments in 200 U.S. cities with an average of 782 square feet for $1,500 a month. Only three California cities offer larger living quarters, relatively speaking: Fresno, Bakersfield and Visalia.

The three cities offer the typical renter at least double the space of the state’s costliest place, San Francisco, for that benchmark $1,500 rent.

Details

We divided the 44 California cities tracked by geography and found the best “bargains” – space for $1,500 rent – were farthest from the coast. Ponder the landscape …

Central Valley: The five cities averaged 825 square feet for $1,500 units, starting with the state leader, Fresno at 904 square feet. Then there was Bakersfield (902), Visalia (849), Stockton (759) and Modesto (712).

Inland Empire: The seven cities averaged 615 square feet average; San Bernardino (712), Fontana (695), Moreno Valley (639), Riverside (596), Corona (565), Ontario (565) and Rancho Cucamonga (536).

Los Angeles and Ventura counties: The 10 cities averaged 539 square feet average; Palmdale (701), Lancaster (693), Santa Clarita (598), Pomona (572), Oxnard (534), Torrance (529), Long Beach (468), Glendale (444), Pasadena (430) and Los Angeles (423).

Orange and San Diego counties: The 11 cities averaged 519 square feet average; Garden Grove (582), Escondido (570), Anaheim (557), Orange (543), Chula Vista (541), Santa Ana (516), Oceanside (512), Fullerton (504), Huntington Beach (485), San Diego (449) and Irvine (445).

Northern California: The 11 cities averaged 519 square feet average; Elk Grove (674), Sacramento (674), Roseville (659), Santa Rosa (558), Salinas (556), Hayward (519), Fremont (458), San Jose (445), Oakland (418), Sunnyvale (405) and San Francisco (336) – the second-worst deal in the nation, by this math.

Bottom line

Consider this: You could be apartment hunting in Manhattan where a New Yorker gets 243 square feet for $1,500 a month.

Still, this is just more proof of just how pricey it can be to rent in the Golden State, especially if you’d like a frequent whiff of a coastal breeze.

Ponder these rankings another way: 32 of the 50 U.S. cities where tenants get the least space for $1,500 are in California.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]