Silicon Valley's rental market remains strong, rents highest in the state

Apartment occupancy rates are holding steady in the Silicon Valley and average rents remain the highest in the sate, according to a report released Thursday.

The rate of increase, however, has dipped below the double-digit pace of recent years, a quarterly report by Novato-based rental research company RealFacts shows.

The report shows the average rent at complexes with 50 units or more in the San Jose area is $1,660 a month, up 9.1 percent from the same period a year ago. That's down from an 13.2 percent rate of increase reported in the third quarter of last year.

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"Santa Clara County and San Francisco have very high occupancy rates, given that we are in a recessionary downturn," said Gerald Cox, director of sales and marketing for RealFacts. "That's a sign that your local markets remain strong."

The yearly increase was the second largest in the state, led by the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont region, where rents increased 9.4 percent.

San Jose's occupancy rate was 96.5 percent, flat from a year ago. In the San Francisco area the occupancy rate was 95.6 percent, up 0.8 percent from a year ago.

The five most expensive rental markets in the state were: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, at $1,660; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, at $1,651; Santa Cruz-Watsonville, at $1,606; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, at $1,596; and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, at $1,552.

The least exepnsive rental market in the state was El Centro, at $758.