California rent guide

The Cheapest 1-Bedroom Apartments in California (June 2026)

Data as of Jun 5, 2026 · 1,845 one-bedrooms tracked statewide

The one-bedroom is the default California rental, what you go for once you’re done with roommates but not ready to pay for space you won’t use. We track 1,845 of them across the state, and the cheapest start at $830 a month. The statewide median sits at $2,195. The real story, though, is geography: a one-bed that rents around $1,150 in Fresno would run about $4,452 in San Francisco, roughly $39,624 more over a year for the same floor plan.

Cheapest 1-bedroom cities, ranked

Ranked by the cheapest one-bed currently listed in each city. The median column matters just as much: it tells you what’s normal there once that single bargain is gone.

#	City	From	Median 1-bed	Listed
1	Hemet	$830	$1,510	6
2	Fresno	$850	$1,150	49
3	Downey	$1,000	$1,838	18
4	Bellflower	$1,100	$1,895	13
5	Sacramento	$1,110	$1,600	51
6	Santa Rosa	$1,125	$1,999	18
7	San Bruno	$1,150	$2,695	3
8	Lake Elsinore	$1,150	$1,795	3
9	Palmdale	$1,159	$1,473	8
10	Alameda	$1,175	$2,025	18
11	Victorville	$1,190	$1,632	6
12	Fullerton	$1,200	$2,000	9
13	Rohnert Park	$1,200	$1,995	13
14	San Bernardino	$1,200	$1,600	12
15	Ontario	$1,200	$2,040	15
16	Menifee	$1,200	$2,233	4
17	Redlands	$1,216	$2,037	13
18	Los Angeles	$1,250	$2,295	173
19	San Jose	$1,250	$2,525	77
20	Vallejo	$1,250	$1,761	9
21	Citrus Heights	$1,250	$1,652	8
22	San Diego	$1,275	$2,474	95
23	Woodland	$1,295	$1,523	4
24	Santa Ana	$1,300	$2,250	18
25	Rancho Cordova	$1,335	$1,558	6
26	Long Beach	$1,342	$1,875	47
27	Irvine	$1,350	$2,666	8
28	Orange	$1,350	$2,277	10
29	Oakland	$1,350	$2,333	34
30	Hesperia	$1,360	$1,425	3
31	Lancaster	$1,370	$1,625	12
32	Clovis	$1,387	$1,478	4
33	Roseville	$1,391	$2,047	13
34	Corona	$1,400	$2,024	7
35	Hanford	$1,458	$1,519	3
36	Fair Oaks	$1,480	$1,595	6
37	Compton	$1,495	$1,600	3
38	Sunnyvale	$1,500	$2,723	24
39	Vacaville	$1,500	$2,194	14
40	Riverside	$1,500	$1,955	30
41	Moreno Valley	$1,500	$1,895	13
42	Davis	$1,525	$1,820	9
43	Pomona	$1,545	$1,713	4
44	Burbank	$1,550	$2,150	26
45	South Pasadena	$1,550	$2,025	5
46	El Cajon	$1,569	$1,880	21
47	Escondido	$1,575	$1,964	13
48	Carlsbad	$1,575	$2,777	10
49	Fairfield	$1,590	$1,800	12
50	Glendale	$1,600	$2,028	24
51	Inglewood	$1,600	$1,948	16
52	Rialto	$1,600	$1,800	3
53	Highland	$1,600	$1,738	4
54	Concord	$1,630	$1,943	13
55	Berkeley	$1,642	$2,438	12
56	Gardena	$1,650	$1,798	8
57	National City	$1,650	$1,797	6
58	Rocklin	$1,670	$1,980	10
59	Encinitas	$1,675	$2,880	4
60	Fremont	$1,687	$2,373	24
61	Buena Park	$1,695	$1,760	8
62	Covina	$1,695	$1,845	5
63	Newark	$1,695	$2,296	4
64	Garden Grove	$1,700	$1,895	5
65	Upland	$1,700	$2,108	10
66	Dixon	$1,703	$1,825	3
67	Pleasant Hill	$1,712	$2,272	5
68	Colton	$1,720	$1,795	5
69	El Monte	$1,750	$1,880	5
70	Azusa	$1,750	$1,981	10
71	Hawthorne	$1,750	$1,850	15
72	Fontana	$1,750	$2,208	6
73	San Leandro	$1,764	$2,149	9
74	Hayward	$1,769	$2,133	12
75	Anaheim	$1,795	$2,000	37
76	Chula Vista	$1,795	$2,424	21
77	Folsom	$1,799	$1,995	13
78	Petaluma	$1,800	$2,467	4
79	Gilroy	$1,806	$2,250	5
80	San Ramon	$1,816	$2,345	4
81	Pittsburg	$1,822	$2,116	6
82	Torrance	$1,825	$2,273	16
83	Suisun City	$1,845	$1,916	3
84	Cypress	$1,850	$2,440	5
85	Norwalk	$1,875	$2,030	9
86	Napa	$1,888	$2,200	7
87	La Habra	$1,895	$2,496	4
88	Pasadena	$1,900	$2,348	14
89	Walnut Creek	$1,900	$2,484	14
90	Santa Clarita	$1,948	$2,225	9
91	West Hollywood	$1,950	$2,413	22
92	Vista	$1,950	$2,320	14
93	San Rafael	$1,950	$2,450	6
94	El Dorado Hills	$1,963	$1,986	3
95	West Covina	$1,965	$2,049	7
96	Elk Grove	$1,965	$2,099	5
97	Novato	$1,975	$2,198	4
98	South San Francisco	$1,995	$3,421	3
99	Murrieta	$1,999	$2,167	10
100	Temecula	$2,005	$2,134	5
101	Martinez	$2,048	$2,102	8
102	Union City	$2,050	$2,580	3
103	Huntington Beach	$2,095	$2,350	19
104	Monrovia	$2,099	$2,226	3
105	Westminster	$2,115	$2,234	6
106	Rancho Cucamonga	$2,147	$2,402	7
107	Costa Mesa	$2,150	$2,303	10
108	Placentia	$2,150	$2,263	3
109	Culver City	$2,150	$2,450	7
110	Campbell	$2,150	$2,398	6
111	Livermore	$2,175	$2,457	7
112	Chino Hills	$2,186	$2,355	5
113	Oceanside	$2,195	$2,569	14
114	Belmont	$2,195	$2,600	5
115	Mountain View	$2,195	$3,247	14
116	Santa Clara	$2,200	$2,848	14
117	Dublin	$2,247	$2,386	7
118	Santa Monica	$2,290	$2,923	26
119	Redondo Beach	$2,295	$2,675	5
120	Redwood City	$2,295	$2,545	6
121	Palo Alto	$2,295	$2,625	5
122	Fountain Valley	$2,299	$2,320	3
123	Laguna Hills	$2,315	$2,400	4
124	San Francisco	$2,348	$4,452	35
125	Pleasanton	$2,359	$2,495	7
126	Newport Beach	$2,385	$2,575	4
127	Beverly Hills	$2,429	$3,000	17
128	Lake Forest	$2,465	$2,554	3
129	San Mateo	$2,488	$3,332	8
130	Laguna Niguel	$2,500	$2,650	7
131	San Clemente	$2,500	$2,604	4
132	Aliso Viejo	$2,540	$2,692	6
133	Milpitas	$2,572	$3,207	6
134	Menlo Park	$2,595	$3,695	3
135	Burlingame	$2,695	$3,999	4
136	Dana Point	$2,825	$2,892	3
137	Morgan Hill	$2,937	$2,984	3
138	Cupertino	$3,295	$3,374	5

Landing one before it’s gone

Cheap one-beds don’t sit. The realistic play: pick two or three cities you’d genuinely live in, save a search for each, and be ready to tour and apply the same week something lands, with deposit and paperwork already in hand. If you’re flexible on location, aim at the cities near the top of this list; a fifteen-minute longer commute is often worth a few hundred dollars a month. And sort by price before you judge a city. One underpriced unit doesn’t make the whole place cheap, which is exactly why the median column is there.

Methodology

We took every one-bedroom apartment we currently track in California (1,845 of them) and grouped them by city. “From” is the cheapest one-bed listed there today; “median” is the midpoint, so half are cheaper and half pricier. A city needs at least three live one-bedrooms to appear, and rooms and senior housing are excluded. Figures update with our listing data (last updated Jun 5, 2026).

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Budget Leases is an independent rental tracker and isn’t affiliated with any listing provider. Rents and availability change constantly, so always confirm the current price on the original listing before you make a decision.