Home › Average Rent in California › San Diego

Average Rent in San Diego, California

By the AverageRentCost Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

The FY2027 Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom home in San Diego is $2,823 a month, on HUD's gross-rent scale that includes utilities. San Diego sits in the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA MSA, and its figures place it #11 among the 58 county rent listings published for California — $1,098 (64%) above the California county median. With a 2024 population of about 3,288,774, it is one of the rental markets we track in depth: below is the full bedroom-by-bedroom table, the income each size implies under the 30% rule, and how the county compares with its state and the country.

FY2027 Fair Market Rents in San Diego

The gaps between sizes tell you how this market prices space. In San Diego, stepping up from an efficiency to a one-bedroom adds $143 a month; stepping up from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom adds $488 a month; and stepping up from a two-bedroom to a three-bedroom adds $920 a month. Families feel those steps directly, because voucher size standards and the 30% math both key off the bedroom count: a household approved for a 2-bedroom voucher that rents a 3-bedroom pays the difference itself unless the unit still passes the agency's rent-reasonableness test.

The 30% rule in San Diego

Housing is considered affordable when gross rent takes no more than 30% of gross household income. At the FY2027 2-bedroom FMR of $2,823, that means an income of about $112,920 a year — $33,876 of rent spread over twelve months. A 1-bedroom at $2,335 fits an income of $93,400, while a family-sized 4-bedroom at $4,526 needs $181,040. Remember that FMRs are gross rents: if a lease leaves utilities in the tenant's name, the housing agency applies a utility allowance so the combined cost is what gets compared with the payment standard. For workers, the 2-bedroom figure works out to about $54 an hour at full-time hours — a useful yardstick when weighing a job offer against local rent.

How San Diego, California compares

Against its own state, San Diego's 2-bedroom FMR sits above the statewide ACS median gross rent of $2,104, and $1,098 (64%) above the California county median. Against the country as a whole it is $1,805 above the national median area figure of $1,018. The state's priciest county listing is Santa Cruz at $4,254 and its least expensive is Modoc at $1,084, so San Diego sits within the California range. The full county-by-county table is on the California average rent page.

Vouchers and Fair Market Rents in San Diego

This is a metropolitan rent area. In a small number of the largest metro areas HUD also publishes Small Area FMRs by ZIP code, which housing agencies in those areas must or may use for vouchers; the figures here are the standard area-wide schedule. For Housing Choice Voucher holders, the number that matters day to day is the payment standard: the local housing agency sets it between 90% and 110% of the FMR for each unit size, and the subsidy is calculated from the lower of that standard or the actual gross rent. An FMR is not a rent control and not a quote — homes in San Diego lease both above and below these figures — but it is the benchmark every voucher lease is tested against, and a good neutral summary of where the modest end of this market sits.

San Diego rent questions

Sources: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents FY2027 (county-level data file, effective October 1, 2026), huduser.gov; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table B25031 (median gross rent), census.gov. Last verified: October 2026.