Apartment occupancy in California’s Stockton-Lodi soared to 99.1% in November, the tightest reading among the nation’s largest 150 markets. Occupancy in Stockton-Lodi climbed 30 basis points month-over-month and was up 190 basis points year-over-year, the third-best annual performance nationally. Located about 80 miles east of the Bay Area and roughly 50 miles south of Sacramento, the smaller Stockton-Lodi has seen exceptionally tight occupancy over the past decade and has performed ahead of the national norm during most of that period. Over the past seven years, the market has registered occupancy rates above 96%. Stockton-Lodi’s apartment market has been especially resilient during the pandemic. Occupancy climbed 200 basis points between March and November, the nation’s seventh-best performance. Tight occupancy has given apartment operators pricing power. In the year-ending November, effective asking rents in Stockton-Lodi climbed 8.1%, the third-best performance among the top 150 markets in the country. In fact, for the past six months, Stockton-Lodi has ranked among the nation’s top 10 rent growth leaders.
