California renters have the least space in the country — here’s where SLO ranks
California renters have the least personal space of anywhere in the country, according to data from apartment rental website RentCafe.com.
And they often pay more for what little they have.
A recent market insight from RentCafe.com based on U.S. Census and RentCafe data found that the state was home to all of the worst cities for space per renter.
And San Luis Obispo — with its coastal location and high cost of living — was no exception.
Although its population size was below the threshold to make the list, SLO came in at 320 square feet per renter, which would land it in a tie for the third worst spot in the nation, along with Fremont and Santa Ana, RentCafe told The Tribune.
It was worse than other locations like Fresno, San Francisco, Santa Maria and Los Angeles, which average 400 square feet or more per renter. It also fell short of neighbors like Sacramento and its average of 463 square feet or Modesto’s 425 square feet.
The national average is 540 square feet, according to RentCafe.
No city in the state — with the exceptions of Bakersfield and Roseville — averages more than 500 square feet of personal space per renter.
In fact, the bottom 10 spots on the report’s list of national square footage per renter were all occupied by California cities, with Fontana ranking last at an average of just 295 square feet of personal space per renter.
“The notoriously high cost of living in California — combined with crowded cities and a lack of available apartments — is pushing more people to live under the same roof,” the report said. “As a result, a renter’s private space decreases dramatically throughout the Golden State.”
California cities also performed poorly in another related measure: room per renter.
Three of the worst-ranking cities — Salinas, Fremont and Santa Ana — actually averaged less than one room per renter, vs. the state average of 2.08.
This means while renters in these cities have slightly more personal space than last-ranked Fontana in their homes, their personal space is not private more often than not.
San Luis Obispo fared only marginally better than the worst of the worst, at 1.09 rooms per renter.
A third metric measured the average number of renters per apartment, where SLO landed at 2.47. Fontana averages 2.68, while Salinas is at 2.74.
On the other end of the scale, the best city in the country for amount of space per renter is Independence, Missouri, which boasts a whopping 731 square feet per person, 1.13 renters per apartment and 2.24 rooms per renter.
“Compared to the No. 1 contender in our ranking — Independence, MO — more than twice as many renters get about one-third of the personal space in this industrial city in the Inland Empire,” the report said. “To put that into perspective, the amount of private space in Fontana is also about 25% below the minimum square footage a person needs to feel comfortable.”
Compared to national trends, California failed to crack the top 50 cities by average personal space per person.
In fact, looking at a map of those most spacious cities, only three were west of the Great Plains: Billings, Montana; Spokane, Washington; and Scottsdale, Arizona.
Here’s a look at RentCafe’s 10 worst cities for space per renter: Personal Space per Renter by State.
