By Jorge Casuso

July 31, 2024 -- Santa Monica rents dipped again in July, marking the sixth monthly drop this year amid modest rent growth nationwide, according to the monthly rent report by Apartment List.

Prices in Santa Monica are now down 4.9 percent year-over-year with the median monthly rent price currently standing at $2,437 after dropping $25 this month, according to data based on the site's listings.

Santa Monica's year-over-year rent drop is steeper than the -0.7 percent dip in California and 0.8 dip nationwide, where rents ticked up for the sixth straight month.

Still, national growth rent this year remains "modest" overall, "signaling ongoing sluggishness in the market," which is seeing rent growth "decelerating," according to the report.

In July, the average rent nationwide increased by only 0.2 percent with the median rent standing at $1,414.

"Today we are nearing the end of that busy summer season, but this year’s trend is not bringing elevated rent growth," the report noted.

The modest growth is expected to "turn flat or negative in August, and stay there for the remainder of the year," Apartment list researchers predicted.

Despite the streak of monthly price dips, Santa Monica rents have fallen only 1.3 percent this year, compared to 3.1 a percent drop from January to July 2023.

What's more, Santa Monica's median rent is 10.4 percent higher than the $2,207 median rent for the Los Angeles metro region, which is composed of 26 area cities included in Apartment List's database.

Calabasas remains the most expensive city to rent an apartment, with a median rent of $3,448, while Long Beach is the metro’s most affordable, with a median rent of $1,764.

The metro's fastest annual rent growth is taking place in Aliso Viejo in southern Orange County where rents rose 3.5 percent, while the slowest is in West Hollywood, which saw a -5.3 percent drop.

Rent increases nationwide "are currently being moderated by a robust construction pipeline expected to deliver a decades-high number of new apartment units in 2024," according to the report.

As has been the case this year, "improving consumer sentiment about broader macroeconomic conditions may be driving a modest rebound in rental demand, but that bounceback has so far been outweighed by the impact of incoming supply," the report concluded.

Apartment List Rent Report data are drawn monthly from the millions of listings on the site, according to the rental website.

The report calculates one-bedroom and two-bedroom rents and "aims to identify transacted rent prices, as opposed to the listed rent prices." To view the full report click here.