by Jay Parsons

A smaller coastal market just north of San Francisco, Santa Rosa/Petaluma quietly emerged as the top-performing apartment market of 2013. Santa Rosa/Petaluma led the nation’s core 100 metros with rent growth north of 10%, while ranking #2 for overall occupancy.

Santa Rosa/Petaluma Performance Highlights Q4 2013

The Big Three Bay Area apartment markets get plenty of attention from multifamily and real estate circles, and rightfully so. But don’t forget about outlying metros like Santa Rosa/Petaluma, where apartment market fundamentals are among the best in the nation.

Santa Rosa/Petaluma has been flying below the radar and quietly outperforming the combined performance of the Bay Area apartment markets over the past year. On top of that, Santa Rosa led the top 100 apartment markets in year over year rent growth for 2013 with 10.6%.

The impressive rent growth comes at occupancy rates remain sky high. Occupancy as of Q4 measured 97.8%, second best for 2013 among the top 100 apartment markets.

While maintaining double digit rent growth seems unlikely, the Santa Rosa/Petaluma apartment should continue to do very well thanks to solid economic growth and minimal apartment construction. And as long as the larger, more expensive Bay Area apartment markets continue to do well, Santa Rosa/Petaluma should be well positioned to capture the overflow effect on the outskirts.