The coronavirus has hammered the state economy, and the once rock-solid residential rental market has been especially hard hit. Data from the Consumer Price Index shows us that business limitations designed to slow the pandemic’s spread have dramatically changed consumer spending habits — just as California voters will weigh a rent-control measure Nov. 3.
In San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties, rental costs rose by 2.2% in the year compared with 3.1% a year earlier. The last time rents rose slower, by this measure, was 2011.
And in the Inland Empire, where the CPI has tracked inflation for just two years, rents rose at a 3.6% annual rate vs. 4.7% in September 2019. Read more via SiliconValley