What Is Currently on the Market? San Diego 5+ Unit Multifamily Active Inventory Update (5/28/2026)

San Diego’s 5+ unit apartment market is still active, but current inventory shows a clear divide between properties that are priced to today’s underwriting environment and properties that are sitting.

The biggest takeaway: active inventory is concentrated in smaller 5–25 unit assets, while buyers continue to underwrite cautiously around in-place income, cap rate, GRM, vacancy, parking, debt costs, and realistic rent growth.

**The current CoStar export shows 225 total 5+ unit listings, including 212 active listings, 8 under contract, and 5 in escrow. For this active inventory analysis, we focused on the 212 listings still available to the market.**

Current 5+ Unit Active Inventory Snapshot

Investor insight: The active market is asking around a 4.75% median cap rate and 13.87 GRM, but market time shows buyers are not accepting pricing blindly. Nearly half of active 5+ listings have already been on the market for 90+ days.

Active Inventory by Building Size

Investor insight: 5–19 unit properties make up more than 80% of active listing count. This means private-client apartment owners are competing in the most crowded segment of the 5+ unit market.

Days on Market: How Much Inventory Is Sitting?

Investor insight: Almost one in three active 5+ listings has been on the market for 120+ days. This is not a lack of buyer interest. It is a pricing and underwriting issue.

Active 5+ Inventory by ZIP Code

Investor insight: North Park, University Heights, Hillcrest, Golden Hill, Downtown, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, and Imperial Beach all have meaningful active inventory. These are not weak locations, but buyers are clearly disciplined when pricing stretches beyond current financing reality.

ZIP Codes with the Most Stale 5+ Inventory

Investor insight: The most important number here is not just cap rate or GRM. It is time. If a property has strong fundamentals but is sitting for 90–120+ days, the issue is usually the relationship between pricing, income, financing, and buyer perception.

Active Inventory by Submarket

Investor insight: Coastal and urban-core submarkets continue to command premium pricing, but that premium is not unlimited. Pacific Beach and Golden Hill both show elevated median DOM, which suggests some sellers are testing pricing beyond where buyers are currently willing to underwrite.

Unit Mix of Current 5+ Active Inventory

Based on listings with reported bedroom mix data:

Investor insight: The active 5+ unit market is heavily weighted toward studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms. That makes rent growth, turnover, tenant profile, parking, and operating expenses especially important to underwriting.

Parking Snapshot

Median reported parking ratio: approximately 1.0 space per unit.

Investor insight: Parking remains a key differentiator. In walkable urban and coastal neighborhoods, limited parking may be acceptable when the location and rent profile support it. In less walkable markets, parking deficiencies can become a larger underwriting issue.

Vacancy Snapshot

Vacancy data is only reported for part of the active export, so it should be viewed as directional.

Investor insight: Vacancy can create upside, but buyers are no longer paying fully stabilized pricing for unstabilized income. If vacancy is elevated, the pricing needs to reflect the time, cost, and risk of achieving stabilization.

Bottom Line

San Diego’s 5+ unit market still has buyer demand, but the active inventory shows a more disciplined market than many owners expect.

The properties most likely to generate activity are the ones with clear income, realistic expense assumptions, clean operations, a defensible cap rate, and a price that can survive lender underwriting.

The properties most likely to sit are the ones relying on speculative upside, aggressive GRMs, thin cap rates, or pricing based on active listings rather than sold comps.