Bay Area Rents, October 2026: Oakland Leads the Nation in Monthly Growth; SF Up 25.7% in a Year
Apartment List's October data puts Oakland first nationally for monthly rent growth, while San Francisco rents are up 25.7% from a year ago.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 3 min read
Oakland skyline across Lake Merritt. Photo: Daniel Ramirez / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
Bay Area rents kept climbing in October, according to Apartment List's latest monthly reports.
The numbers
Oakland: median rent is $2,366. It rose 1.5% in a month, the fastest monthly growth among the large cities Apartment List tracks. Rent is up 16.3% from a year ago and 17.5% so far this year.
San Francisco: median rent is $3,878. It rose 1.1% in a month, ranking fourth nationally. Rent is up 25.7% year over year and 23.4% year to date.
San Jose: median rent is $3,154. It rose 0.6% in a month, ranking 12th, and is up 7.6% year over year.
For comparison, rents rose 2.5% statewide over the year and fell 0.4% nationally.
Sources
This article is an original summary based on the following reporting. We encourage readers to visit the original sources for full coverage.
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The Oakland utility's GAAP EPS fell to $0.34 from $0.37 and core EPS to $0.41 from $0.50 as revenue slipped 1% to $6.19 billion. Guidance was unchanged.
California's unemployment rate held at 5.1% in September as the state shed 9,300 jobs, while Bay Area metro rates edged lower, led by a 4% rate in San Francisco-San Mateo.
Altus Group data shows San Francisco market rents up 8.6% and Oakland up 6.0% in the year ending in June, with SoMa, Civic Center and the Western Addition leading.
