Where is Southern California’s only Top 50 city in US for apartment hunting?

”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: Riverside was ranked the 38th most popular US city for apartment hunting, the region’s best grade in a nationwide scorecard.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet looked at RentCafe’s desirability scorecard for 150 major apartment markets, tracking swings in rental statistics in 2024’s first six months vs. the same span in 2023. We compared 16 Southern California cities for availability (change in vacancy rates), online interest (an average of gradings for searches, favorites and saved), and their national ranking.

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Riverside was top-ranked in Southern California because it had strong demand – 26% fewer places to rent, the No. 3 drop in the region – while it was No. 1 for online searches locally.

But remember, 37 US cities scored higher – including California’s Sacramento (No. 16), San Jose (No. 23), Elk Grove (No. 35), and Fremont (No. 37).

The least-desirable big Southe...