Ryder Apartments opened in 2021
Key points:
- Davis sees unusual sight of apartment signs advertising availability.
- Davis had under 1% vacancy rates for decades, now 7-10% rentals are vacant.
- UC Davis plans to house nearly half of Davis-based students in future.
This summer, if you drive through Davis, you see an unusual sight: signs on apartment buildings advertising the availability of units.
It wasn’t long ago that such signs were rare, if not non-existent. For decades, Davis routinely had vacancy rates of under 1 percent. Students would line up in January and February, some even sleeping overnight to get their names on a list.
I am not ready to say that the housing crisis in Davis is over. But data is beginning to show that these anecdotal observations are not wrong.
On Bill Buchanan’s Davisville show this week, Davis real estate broker and manager Kit Boschken said that between 7 and 10 percent of rentals in Davis are currently vacant, an unusually high number, especially in August. A few years ago, that number was under 1 percent.
Why is the rate this high now? Boschken pointed to several factors: the increase in student housing in recent years, changes in enrollment demand, rising inventory in the for-sale market, the Trump administration’s cuts in research funding that reduced local demand for rentals and commercial space, and even the draw of Midtown Sacramento for upper-division UC Davis students who only need to be on campus a couple of days per week.
Boschken predicted that rents will come down next year, though not drastically. “I think it’ll be a slow progression downward to a point,” she said. “I don’t think we’re going to go from $1,000 a bedroom to $700 a bedroom. It’s not going to be that big of a drop. But owners are going to have to be more realistic on what they want for rent, and are going to have to put some money into the properties.”
The Davisville discussion aligns with a recent UC Davis survey. About 4 percent of market-rate apartments in Davis were vacant in fall 2024, the highest since the university began publishing a blended vacancy rate in 2017. Rents increased only slightly, by a combined average of 1.6 percent.
The UC Davis Office of Student Housing and Dining Services noted that the increase follows a seven-year period in which the university added more than 6,260 new apartment and residence hall beds. The city of Davis also approved numerous student housing projects during that period.
Michael Sheehan, associate vice chancellor for housing, dining and divisional operations in Student Affairs, said the improvement “is a direct result of the planning, hard work and partnership with the city.”
The campus has met its 2023 target of 15,000 student beds under a 2018 memorandum of understanding with the city and county. This fall, UC Davis housed more than 15,000 students and their family members on campus, representing about 41 percent of Davis-based students. That’s up from 29 percent in 2016-17.
The university is not stopping there. UC Davis will break ground on the Segundo Infill Project this spring, adding 500 more beds by 2027, and it has begun planning for a new West Village apartment complex. The campus’ long-range development plan anticipates housing nearly half of Davis-based students in the coming years.
The turnaround is striking. Just two years ago, students were still forced to camp overnight in front of apartments in the cold, hoping to secure a lease for the following academic year. Lines stretched for hours, and many left empty-handed. Students testified before the city council in early 2023 about the stress and inequity of a market that required them to sign contracts nine months before moving in.
Now, property managers are offering incentives and move-in specials to fill units. Nearly 30 percent of survey respondents reported decreasing rents in 2024, compared with just 10 percent the year before. Forty-three complexes offered incentives — more than double the year prior.
How did Davis accomplish this? The answer is simple: UC Davis added thousands of student housing beds, and the city approved multiple large apartment projects.
That doesn’t mean the overall housing crisis is solved. Davis has barely touched the issue of family and workforce housing. The overall market remains tight, and the city is still obligated to meet its housing requirements under state law.
But for now, at least, the student housing crisis in Davis — long a defining feature of the community — has been substantially alleviated. And that is a milestone worth recognizing.
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Breaking News City of Davis Land Use/Open Space Opinion