Here’s what I discovered looking for rental for my brother on Craigslist.

$5,000+ will rent you the best million-dollar houses in San Diego, RSF, La Jolla, Del Mar, etc… Notice that $5,000/month barely buys you a typical tract house at $700k in suburbia.

As you move down on rental price to about $2000-$3500 you get the typical tract houses around San Diego. Some are reasonable at $2,100 like the example I posted above, many others are abolutely ridiculous meaning that the owners want the tenants to succor them. Some people want $4000 for a plain tract house. I don’t know what they are smoking but they should smoke more of it because the wait will be long.

Anything below $2,000 is not great but I’m sure that with patience you can find a nice place. The key is not to need a place right away.

My feeling is that, with patience, you can get a nice house for $2100-$2500. A great bargain when compared to buying.

I think that my brother will be fine since, as much as I hate it, he and his girlfriend could live with me for a while until they find a good place. Bro recently separated and wifey got the house. He’s pretty cute so he found a hot young thing to ease his pain really quick, ha.ha… There’s a price to be paid for that also 😉

Also, I think that Downtown will become Rental Central once the owners realize there’s little chance of selling and recouping their investments. That might actually bring more people into Downtown and improve its liveliness and habitability.

BTW, it’s kinda fun to cross-reference Craigslist with ZipRealty and SDlookup. Many rentals are also listed for sale. Some rentals are clearly underwater.