San Diego rents are down but a renter’s fortune depends heavily on where they are living in the county.

The median monthly rent was $2,370 for a one-bedroom in the city of San Diego in May, said real estate website Zumper, down 1.3 percent in a year. That put America’s Finest City as the eighth most expensive metro in the U.S., down from seventh the previous month.

New York remained the most expensive rental market in the nation with a $4,200 monthly median for a one-bedroom. It was followed by Jersey City at $3,330 and San Francisco at $2,950.

Some of San Diego’s costliest markets saw the biggest drops: Coronado’s one-bedroom median was down 14.7 percent, and Encinitas down 13.8 percent. However, lower cost areas are not seeing the same change. Rents were up 9.7 percent annually in National City and 4 percent in El Cajon.

Alan Nevin, a San Diego real estate analyst with Xpera Group, said lower cost rental prices aren’t dropping because there is too much demand and not enough of them. He said the region has done a good job of pumping out moderate and luxury rooms, just not much below that.

“We have a sufficient number of units to satisfy the needs of the market in all rent categories, except for the low rents,” Nevin said.

San Diego County has seen a focus on multifamily building in the past decade instead of single-family. The result is enough apartments to cut down competition and slow rent growth.

Nevin said rents are likely to be affected by more apartments being built, including roughly 3,000 units under construction downtown that he said are due to open in the next 12 months.

National rents have been sluggish, with explosive apartment construction seen as part of the reason. Zumper said U.S. rents were up 1.2 percent annually in May, its first increase of more than 1 percent in 20 months.

California saw some of the biggest rent declines year-over-year, Zumper said. Oakland was down 9.1 percent, Sacramento down 8.1 percent, Los Angeles down 5 percent and San Jose down 2.3 percent.

Of the 100 metro areas that Zumper studies, it said Wichita, Kan., had the lowest monthly rent in the U.S. at $700 for a one-bedroom.

Zillow lumps data together San Diego County data by cities, but does not separate by neighborhood. In the case of San Diego, that includes everything from San Ysidro to La Jolla. Here’s how the county’s different cities vary in monthly rent prices:

Coronado
One-bedroom median: $3,820 (down 4 percent in a month, down 14.7 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $5,090 (up 1.8 percent in a month, down 4.9 percent in a year)

Carlsbad
One-bedroom median: $2,500 (up 3.3 percent in a month, down 2.7 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $3,300 (flat month-over-month, up 1.2 percent in a year)

Encinitas
One-bedroom median: $2,500 (flat month-over-month, down 13.8 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $3,730 (down 4.6 percent in a month, down 1.8 percent in a year)

San Diego
One-bedroom median: $2,370 (up .4 percent in a month, down 1.3 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $3,200 (flat month-over-month, down .9 percent in a year)

Oceanside
One-bedroom median: $2,210 (up .5 percent in a month, down .9 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $2,800 (up 2.6 percent in a month, up 3.7 percent in a year)

Vista
One-bedroom median: $2,180 (down .9 percent in a month, up 7.4 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $2,650 (flat month-over-month, up 3.5 percent in a year)

Chula Vista
One-bedroom median: $2,010 (up .5 percent in a month, down 12.2 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $2,880 (up 1.1 percent in a month, flat year-over year)

Escondido
One-bedroom median: $2,000 (up 2.6 percent in a month, up 1.5 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $2,510 (up .4 percent in a month, up 4.6 percent in a year)

La Mesa
One-bedroom median: $2,000 (flat month-over-month, down 4.8 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $2,500 (up 2 percent in a month, up 2.5 percent in a year)

National City
One-bedroom median: $1,920 (down .5 percent in a month, up 9.7 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $2,650 (down 1.9 percent in a month, up 2.3 percent in a year)

El Cajon
One-bedroom median: $1,800 (up 1.7 percent in a month, up 4 percent in a year)
Two-bedroom median: $2,250 (flat month-over-month, up 5.6 percent in a year)

Source: SDuniontribune by Phillip Molnar