Local

Inland Empire housing costs erase much of the region’s affordability edge

A typical Riverside–San Bernardino one-bedroom now costs $1,959, up 50% from 2022, while surveys show housing stress widening across the region.

Image credit: Qwerty510 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0; archival 2007 Riverside skyline photograph

Housing affordability has become a major concern across the Inland Empire as rents and home values outpace Los Angeles-area growth, the Los Angeles Times reported September 25. A new Public Policy Institute of California report found that more than 60% of respondents in San Bernardino, Riverside and Kern counties consider housing affordability a major problem.

What it means locally

The typical one-bedroom rent in the Riverside–San Bernardino metro reached $1,959 in 2026, up from $1,306 in 2022—a 50% increase, according to regional data cited by the Times. Since early 2020, Zillow figures show median home values rising 48% in San Bernardino County and 50% in Riverside County, compared with 35% in Los Angeles County. Researchers linked some of the pressure to pandemic-era migration from coastal counties, which brought higher-income buyers into markets that had long served as Southern California’s lower-cost alternative.

Full report and further details: Read original report →