Where is Southern California’s hardest spot to find an apartment?

Orange County remains the toughest market in Southern California to find rental housing.

My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the local slice of RentCafe’s mid-year study of the most competitive places to find an apartment at larger complexes. The report tracking second-quarter data for 66 big U.S. apartment markets included six in Southern California.

Orange County had the region’s highest competitiveness score, as calculated by RentCafe. It was also No. 1 at mid-year 2024. Among those 66 U.S. markets, Orange County was the 25th most competitive in the second quarter of 2025.

Orange County renters are loyal, meaning 62% of them renewed their leases in the second quarter – the region’s highest rate. Nationally, 63% renewed.

That low turnover helped keep vacancies tight, at 5% of supply.