SLO County ranks among California’s most expensive locations for solo renters
San Luis Obispo County is one of the toughest places in California for renters to afford to live alone, according to a new study.
The report from Rentcafe.com says that renters in the SLO County metro area have the 12th highest difference in monthly income between solo renters and renters who live with other renters in California.
The typical SLO County renter living alone makes an average of $46,186 a year — $913 a month more than the average renter who shares a unit with other renters, the study found.
Essentially, that means if a renter living with other renters makes $35,233 on average, they would need to make an additional $11,000 to afford living on their own.
According to the study, the share of people living alone has grown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of solo renters growing by 6.7% over that time, reaching a national record high of 17.7 million in total in 2020.
In SLO County, solo renters make up a 13% share of the renting population and are 61 years old on average, according to data included in the study.
That’s in line with most other California metro areas that ranked in the state’s top 19 locations with the highest differences in monthly income between solo and average renters.
Solo renters in those top 19 locations averaged 56 to 63 years old, indicating that they tend to skew older, the study found.
Baby boomers make up 32.4% of solo renters, followed by millennials at 29.5%, Gen X at 21.3%, the generation following the Greatest Generation at 12.8% and Gen Z at just 3.9%, the study found.
The following places in California had the largest monthly income gap between solo renters and renters living together:
Half of the country’s cities where this income gap was largest were located in California, the study found.
The San Jose metro area had an income gap of $2,448 a month leading all metro areas included in the study.
The San Jose, Santa Maria and Salinas metro areas ranked first, second and third, respectively, in monthly income difference between solo renters and renters living with other renters both statewide and nationally, the study found.
No California city made the study’s list of the 20 metro areas with the smallest difference in income between solo and congregate renters.
That list was topped by the Akron, Ohio, metro area, where renters living alone made just $261 more than renters living together.
This story was originally published October 10, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
