San Diego has emerged as the most active real estate market in California.
Our latest report, covering construction trends from 1980 to 2023 — a time frame that spans a millennial’s lifetime — reveals fascinating insights into the key drivers shaping the city we see today.
Ranked tenth in the nation for overall development, America’s Finest City is making waves with impressive expansion in the multifamily and office sectors. This growth cements San Diego as a real estate powerhouse in California, ahead of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and one of the nation’s most dynamic economic centers in the country.
Key highlights from the study:
- Single family sector: In the past 44 years, San Diego has issued permits for over 76,000 single family homes, the highest number in California. Although the market remains active, the momentum has dramatically waned from the construction boom of the 1980s. In the first half of the 2020s, the average number of single family home permits issued annually is around 500, representing just 14.7% of the yearly output during the 1980s.
- Multifamily growth: San Diego ranks ninth in the nation for apartment construction, having issued nearly 173,000 permits over the past five decades. Although still below the 1980s peak of 6,700 units per year, apartment construction has made a strong comeback, averaging an impressive 4,400 permits annually in the 2020s.
- Office space expansion: In the last 44 years, San Diego has added over 77 million square feet of office space, leading California and ranking eighth nationally. Driven by thriving software and biotechnology sectors, this impressive growth solidifies San Diego’s role as a major economic hub.
- Addressing the need for extra space: San Diego leads California in the self storage sector, adding over 7.3 million square feet in the past 44 years. Despite this substantial growth, demand remains high, with average rents for San Diego storage units hovering around a steep $183 per month.
- Industrial revival: In the past five decades, San Diego has added over 56 million square feet of industrial space, placing sixteenth nationally. The recession caused a sharp slowdown, with annual deliveries falling from over 1.2 million square feet in the previous decade to just 280,000 square feet in the 2010s. However, the 2020s have sparked a remarkable comeback, with more than 1.9 million square feet delivered annually, marking a robust revival in the city’s industrial sector.
- Retail sector slowing down: The retail sector has been San Diego’s slowest-growing area, with just 24 million square feet added since the 1980s, placing the city twenty-fourth nationally.
*Full report here: https://www.storagecafe.com/
