Rents Rise As Housing Market Cools

"The average asking rent for a Bay Area apartment(of all sizes from studios to three bedrooms) jumped 8.2 percent to $1,415 in the third quarter compared with $1,378 for the same period a year earlier...while the occupancy rate rose 1.2 percent, to 96.2 percent."

This compares to a much less dramatic dip of 0.8 percent in Bay Area home prices last month, the first time in more than four years, from $616,000 a year earlier to $611,000. These figures include single-family houses and condominiums, existing and new.

"As the promise of big gains from the purchase of a home has waned, more people are being driven to the rental market, said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy."

"Renting is still cheap relative to home owning," Levy said.

"Now that people are realizing that there is going to be no appreciation in the near future, they're renting. There is not a lot of apartment building going on, so they're competing for a restricted supply."

The average price of a one-bedroom apartment in the area that includes San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara jumped 11.4 percent to $1,296, while the rent for the same-size unit in the region that includes San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont climbed 7.3 percent to $1,268.