San Diego Gen Z-ers spend 17% more than millennials did on rent

In San Diego, Gen Z-ers, those born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, are better off renting. But they aren't exactly well off renting, either.

"Felt like I was living in a vacation place and never on vacation," reads a post on a San Diego housing forum, where tempers soared over things like houses sitting empty from Carmel Valley to Golden Hill.

"The one in Golden Hill was purchased by a guy who lives in Hong Kong, but parks his Audi R8 there full time."

The fallout of a housing shortage is clear in a new study from RentCafe that analyzes housing costs in nearly 200 metro areas in the U.S., comparing what Gen Z-ers and their Millennial predecessors, born between 1981-1996, spend on rent or home ownership costs by age 30. 

San Diego Gen Z-ers will have paid $220,770 on rent — 17 percent more than millennials did. And there's no relief in buying. After factoring in mortgage, taxes, insurance and other costs besides the down payment, the study finds they will have spent $94,093 more to buy than rent.

Here, according to a Zillow study, families need to earn nearly $275,000 a year to afford a mortgage.

The bad news is offset some by predictions that the youngest generation of San Diego renters will earn around $670,000 by age 30, or $10,000 more than their predecessors did.

But the local economy doesn't rely solely on workers with specialized skills; there are also service industry workers who are being squeezed out of the county altogether.

A recent USA Today survey ranked two cities previously considered among the more affordable in the county — El Cajon and Oceanside — at the bottom. El Cajon's median rent was $2,523, with more than 67 percent of residents rent-burdened, and Oceanside wasn't far behind.

Half of San Diego households can't stick to the rule of thumb on housing costs of not paying more than 30 percent of their monthly income on either rent or mortgage. 

For Gen Z-ers, owning costs are 47 percent of their income, while renting takes 32.8 percent. 

San Diego and Los Angeles failed to be part of the study's "surprising trend," which found rental costs for Gen Z are below the 30 percent threshold in all of the study's other top 10 metros.