California rental market analysis

California comparison · Method reviewed October 14, 2026

California cap rates need property NOI, not just county rent

A property’s cap rate is annual net operating income divided by its price. This county dataset has home-value and rent indexes, not property-level NOI or verified transaction cap rates. Use it to screen markets, then obtain the rent roll, expenses and sale evidence for the property type you intend to buy.

For dated multifamily benchmarks and pricing trends, read the California cap-rate research report: regional comparisons, Los Angeles submarket sales, compression and expansion scenarios, and buyer-specific NOI.

45 of 58 tracked counties have positive price and rent references with matching September 2026 observation periods. Selected markets from that group appear below; this is not a ranking of all California investments. Missing or older observations are excluded from this comparison, not treated as zero.

Method: monthly ZORI × 12 ÷ ZHVI. Source: Zillow’s home-value and observed-rent indexes, with observation dates retained in our dataset. These indexes cover different housing samples; the ratio is not a matched-property gross yield and is not a net cap rate. Displayed dollars are rounded; ratios use full stored precision.

Worked example: $1,000,000 price, $48,000 scheduled annual rent, 5% vacancy and $18,000 operating expenses gives $27,600 NOI and a 2.76% cap rate. These are assumed inputs, not California market observations. See the expense comparison and calculation.