Comparing Rent in San Rafael

Rent costs in San Rafael vary wildly between neighborhoods.

Now you can see just how pricey renting is, and how those costs compare neighborhood-by-neighborhood.

A new data-based website, Rich Blocks, Poor Blocks uses U.S. census information compiled from the 2007-2011 American Community Survey to show median household income and monthly rents by census tract.

The median rent along Canal Street is $1,343 a month (in 2011 dollars), according to Census data.

The north end of town, near the Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center, is cheaper. There rents average $1,155 a month.

Rent averages $1,708 a month near Lagoon Park.

See more on the map above. The lighter the color, the cheaper the rent.

Are you surprised by any of the local data? Tell us in the comments section.

Don't expect it to get any cheaper to live here. An MSN Real Estate article published this spring named the 10 cities where rents will rise most this year. Nearby San Jose and San Francisco were the only California cities to make the list.

In San Francisco, the effective rent at end of 2012 was $1,970, a 5.7 percent increase from the year prior, and the forecasted effective rent growth in 2013 is 5.2 percent.

The average rent in California is $1,185 a month according to the 2007-2011 American Community Survey. Statewide middle rental-range is $996.00 to $1,193.00.

To see the data mapped out census tract by census tract, visit the Rich Block, Poor Blocks website.

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