Affordability Crisis Is Impacting Renter Satisfaction

The affordability crisis is prevalent throughout Orange County. According to a recent report from Apartment List, Orange County’s top apartment submarkets receive low scores in affordability. Irvine and Anaheim both received an F rating from local rents and Santa Ana—a historically more affordable market—received a D rating from local renters. Affordability is one of the biggest deterrents in multifamily activity, but despite the low affordability scores, Irvine received an A+ in overall renter satisfaction and Anaheim received a C overall renter satisfaction score, while Santa Ana received the lowest score at a D rating.

“In Santa Ana, the people that are long-term residents are unhappy with the changes, and the new residents that are moving there are moving there because it is a more feasible option; however, it doesn’t really offer exactly what they are looking for. As a result, I think that you get a lot of renters there that are unhappy because they moved somewhere that they preferred for lower prices,” Sydney Bennet, senior research associate at Apartment List, tells GlobeSt.com. “When people make that trade-off, sometimes they don’t like the place that they move. However, the market is still not doing well in its affordability score, and that is likely due to long-term residents that are living in the area.”

State and local taxes, public transit and commute time also scored poorly in the survey for Orange County, and Bennet said that local government’s should get involved to ease some of these burdens. “State and local taxes don’t do well across the board in California. However, commute times and public transit are areas that are worthwhile for the local government to invest in,” she explains. “We see this mega Southern California region growing and moving far from the places that they work because of the housing options available, and that becomes a big piece of satisfaction.”

Apartment List has conducted this survey for three years, and so far, there has been little change or improvement during that time. “Places like Anaheim and Irvine have been pretty consistent for the last three years, and we see similar low scores in areas that are on the outskirts, like this,” says Bennet, adding that this is the first year the company has surveyed Santa Ana renters.

The survey wasn’t all bad news. Weather overwhelmingly performed well across the city surveys; however, Bennet says that weather alone might be enough to drive housing activity. “Weather and job opportunities are the biggest drivers for multifamily activity,” she explains. “You are seeing on a macro level that the sunbelt places are growing, but I don’t think the weather is the only factor. I think, though, that the job market plays a bigger role than the weather does.”