San Diego Multifamily Report – November 2025
While asking rent gains are lagging, occupancy is faring well.
The San Diego multifamily market ended the third quarter with a mixed performance, as economic uncertainty pressured fundamentals. Average advertised asking rents ticked down 0.2 percent, on a trailing three-month basis through September, to $2,732, 10 basis points below the national figure. Despite 2023 and 2024 being decade peaks for San Diego deliveries, overall occupancy continued to climb. It inched up 10 basis points year-over-year, to 96.3 percent as of August, a sizable 160 basis points above the U.S. average.
Employment growth clocked in at 0.7 percent as of July, just 10 basis points below the national rate. San Diego continued to close the gap, as job additions have steadily recovered since the start of the year. Unemployment reached 5.0 percent in August, in line with seasonal trends, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the 12 months ending in July, San Diego gained 6,300 net jobs, mostly due to additions in education and health services and government. Major projects expected to impact the job market in the long term include an upcoming redevelopment of the U.S. Navy’s 70-acre campus in Point Loma, as well as UC San Diego Health’s ongoing multibillion-dollar Hillcrest campus rebuild.
Construction slowed down, but remained relatively healthy, with 12,474 units underway as of September. Meanwhile, nearly $1.2 billion in multifamily assets traded in the first three quarters of 2025.
