Sacramento Apartment Fundamentals Cooling Rapidly

Throughout the pandemic, Sacramento apartment fundamentals surged as work-from-anywhere residents seeking a lower cost of living flocked to the market from nearby, pricier markets. In late 2022 and early 2023, however, Sacramento’s fundamentals softened considerably, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. As of April, Sacramento operators cut rents 1.2% on an annual basis – the third worst reading among the nation’s 50 largest apartment markets, ahead of only Phoenix and Las Vegas. That compares to annual effective rent growth of 3.2% on a nationwide basis in April. Meanwhile, after easily outpacing the national norm both before and throughout the pandemic, apartment occupancy in Sacramento now sits just below the national norm. As of April, Sacramento occupancy clocked in at 94.5%, compared to 94.7% nationwide. That trend is marketwide as occupancy has fallen in every Sacramento submarket, with only Central Sacramento seeing a negligible occupancy cut on an annual basis.